Build Experience

Photo by Thayran Melo on Unsplash

I would like to build my own house and in preparation I have been taking on a few small building projects. First I built a deck around our pool area which went smoothly but took longer than planned. Then I started building a 50 square meter workshop which is going well, but also taking longer than planned. What I have learnt through this experience so far is that a helping hand makes all the difference.

Well actually, there are three things that would make the process a lot easier: Experience, Help, and Advice.

1. Experience
   One thing that I have found along the way is that it can take you forever to work out how to do something the first time, but once you know it is much faster to do it the second time. An example of this would be timber framing. I started to frame the walls for my workshop and it took a whole day to frame the first wall. The next two wall sections took half a day each, and then on the third day I framed 4 wall sections with time to spare. I was not working any harder, in fact the work was easier as I did not waste any effort doing things wrong.
2. Help
   It is so much faster and also more enjoyable to work with someone rather than by yourself. There are simple things like having two people to pick up a piece of timber or hold a tape measure. There is also the morale boost of having someone to share the work with. But perhaps the biggest win is that…