Today really took the cake-Doing a Laundry room rewire, I was looking to get rid of the knob and tube feeding the light and replace with romex. First I was drilling through a floor in fron of the wall I wanted to locate below with a 1/18 inch bit, and the bit broke… Then I hit the line for the washing machine and arc ed my spade bit in the process. (thankfully I did not hit the nearby supply and drain pipes)
This laudry room was actually the old porch, so cutting in an outlet box for the new washing machine line that I actually put inside the wall, unlike the previous line that was romex feed up the wall into a wall mounted box I had to go through two layers of wood…(with an arc ed out spade bit and a sawzal with a rebent blade)
Fishing this new line up into the wall proved very challenging as the wall was sitting on top of some very old and very thick floor joists! Of course, I did not have my long spade bits with me today, so I used a standard length with an extension, drilling up from the basement on an angle, praying I wouldn’t see dayight when I removed the bit!
The gear for high speed on my Makita cordless drill went out-Well, at least I still have the other two gears…All the batteries seemed to drain exceedingly fast today…
Drop the old light fixture and of course there is no box- Wood ceiling, with many layers of paint-Smelled great as my 4″ holesaw burned more than cut a hole for the old work box(I was wondering if I had sharpened it, I guess I didn’t)
God it seemed like a long day today!
Any similar war stories? Thanks for letting me vent!
Replies
last month i thought i was so cleaver doing demo to use my sawsall to cut all the nails behind the studs, Very proud of myself till i cut all the wires too, A rookie mistake but it just demoralized me for being dumb
Nah, nothing like that ever happens to me.
Unless you count the three times I shot myself in the hand with a nail gun, (always the left hand, what's up with that?) or the time I shot myself through the foot and it took two guys to get the nail out of my bone at the ER. Or the time I came off a roof when the subfascia I was bracing myself on gave way and i did a perfect Aikido-roll landing 14 feet down but my hammer holster got me in the chest and broke a rib. Or the time I worked for a year of mostly 50 hour weeks and netted $4,000 for the whole year and had to go to dispute settlement to get that.
But other than that kind of stuff every once in a while nothing bad ever happens to me.
It's all equanimity training.
M
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"You cannot work hard enough to make up for a sloppy estimate."
have you ever thought about learning to pull the trigger with your left hand? that way you could get a even amount of piercings in each hand. put studs in all of them and the kids will think your the coolest,then show them your foot,you will be there hero.
of cousre if it were me i would learn how to use a hammer and put that air driver away,pretty hard to blow a nail in your foot with a 22oz'er larry
hand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.
Edited 9/9/2007 12:43 am by alwaysoverbudget
wasn't my greatest day either,must be the moon. won't go into great details,they are in the bussiness section in the thread "need season landlord advice". anyway had to go in and help the family get their stuff and haul the rest out.i don't know if it is the worst day but ranks right up there in the top 10.
monday is only 2 days away,so i figure it's going to get better! larry
hand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.
I've had so many "worst days" that they can be lumped into one whole "worst month".
The best thing is to stay calm, breathe deep, and try not to take it out on the help.
While I was in the post office today...
Someone crashed their truck into the back end of my Jimmy.
Crunched the tailgate and smashed the window.
Didn't stick around.
My insurance won't cover it.
Luckily I have an old red blazer. The tailgate and window will swap.
Already did the glass.
Tomorrow I'll lose another day, swapping the tailgate. (A lot of hardware and wiring, so both have to be stripped, and rebuilt, before I can swap the good one in.)
It'll look funky, but it'll work...
good question.
there have been many times I've felt like curling up in a ball and crying in a corner!
one time that comes to mind ...
worked roofing over a finished space and deck.
sometime that Wed ... did what ever and pulled a neck muscle and pinched a nerve in my neck. Worked thru that afternoon ... finished up ...
told the customers not to expect to see me for a week and a half ...
as I was in severe pain.
That Fri night ... bad storms tore thru the area. Power off and roads closed everywhere. And around 11pm I got a call from the customer ...
water pouring into their new kitchen ... running out of the can light directly into the sink!
So ... I drove thru hell and high water ... got yelled at by cops ... and made it.
with a pinched nerve in my left shoulder ... lifted the ladder up to the roof.
between lightening ... climbed up ... luckily only one story ... onto the new roof deck.
Found one freaking piece of flashing missing ...
wasn't sure if I should be happy or pissed!
had coil stock in the truck ... just hand bent a temp piece ... and in the pouring rain and hail reflashed it ....
confirmed that stopped the leak ...
took down the ladder ... and the wind blowed one good blast ... and I grabbed the ladder so it didn't smash a window ... and that completely tore the rest of that shoulder!
was gonna just let the ladder lay there ... but that lady was so concerned about her bushes that I limped the ladder back to the van ....
and drove home thru the same storm and got yelled at by the same cops.
spent a week in bed in severe pain for my hard work.
job turned out great ... and still had to fight for the last payment!
guy actually had the nerve to bring up "the missing flashing" ...
had to remind him about the 70 mph winds that night . .. and how I drove out immediately. Closest I ever came to actually hitting a customer.
woulda have to of been with my good arm!
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
This thread reminds me of the quote in the movie "Office Space" where the guy says something like each new day becomes the worst day of my life. I can't remember it verbatim but its a great "how much to hate work" movie. Funny too!
Mike