I can’t do C until B is complete, but B is stalled because I’m having trouble with A… And I really need C.
I need to install the upper door before I can do the siding up there. But first I have to put up the balcony railing, because I’m afraid of heights. But first I have to put some facing lumber across the vigas, so I have something to which to bolt the railings. But I forgot that the two end vigas are three inches shorter than the others, because those are actually 8′ timbers holding up the sleeping loft. So I needed to make caps for the two end vigas. Then I cut the first 2X8 to size to cap the vigas…
… only to find (duh) that I can hold it up with both hands or I can screw it into place, but I definitely can’t do both at the top of a high ladder.
So I can’t install the door, because I can’t put up the railing, because I can’t put up the facing, because I can’t hover in mid-air. Which, if I could do that last thing I wouldn’t want the railing.
Can you nail a 2×4 on both of the end vigas vertically, then hang a rope across the tops and hang a tarp or other visual screen over the rope. Because as a fellow person who is scared of heights, that visual screen is all you need to feel secure. Brains are funny things.
Joel, as a solo handyman that actually made a living at it, you learn little tricks.
On one of the end points that the 2×8 will be hammered in, first nail in a cleat to support it on the lower edge. Scrap wood works fine for this. Lift the end of the 2×8 up and let the cleat support it, then walk the other end up the ladder and nail it in. Then go to the cleat end and nail that in. Remove cleat.
Go on to other problems.
Or go to Joe’s Rent-All and bring home a Mark IV, Mod 2a articulated hydraulic sky-hook . . .
😉
I second czechsix use your new toy and screwthe cleat in place. Easy removal.
Of course, the OTHER option, since your cowboy buddies have an excess of water, is to rent one of these:
http://www.jetpackamerica.com/
and hover in mid-air…
}:-]
That is one of the most delightfully, spectacularly useless things I have ever seen! I salute the inventors.
But the hose required to make it work around here…maybe not such a great idea…
Oh come on now! Just think of all the entertainment you could provide for the dogs, the cows, and the cowboys…
}:-]
czechsix – that’s pretty much the way I hang level cabinets: mark the level line, screw in a nice scrap of wood right below it, use that to rest the cabinets while I get them screwed in, and then take it out & patch & paint the wall. Never thought of it for balconies! You, sir, are awesome.