quare id faciam?

Creating work for myself

At right is a sketch representing the spatial volume of a stairwell – residue of a thought process.

One of the things I've had to work on this week is an estimate for completing the trim carpentry and painting in a basement I recently drywalled. The last time I was at this job (which is inconveniently distant for a brief run by), I made a sketch of the basement floorplan – that is, the part of the basement I'm working on – and noted various dimensions thereon, so that I could figure materials &c. for doing trim & paint.

It happens, though, that I didn't get dimensions for the stairwell between the 1st floor and basement, for some reason. At home, working on my figures, this presented a problem, particularly for doing the paint estimate. I do a variety of kinds of work as a small remodeling/repair operation – in fact I emphasize versatility, with longer-term goals for my work in view – but my real depth of experience is in drywall finishing. I lack the experience to just look at a space and recognize, for instance, how much paint it'll take to cover it. I have to work out estimates for most things I'm concerned with from measurements & quantity rules of thumb. But here I was mostly without measurements.

So I made a little project of diagramming the stairwell volume on a 3 x 5 card to work out roughly what should be the dimensions, using dimensions I did know (ceiling heights for the 1st floor & basement, and what floorplan dimensions I had for spaces adjacent the stair) along with some knowledge of standard stair construction. But I'd managed to fail to write down sufficient relevant info to put myself to a good deal more guesswork than you'd think this little matter would come to; and though the sketch was quick & unprecise, the numbers took some trial and error. (I couldn't remember so much as the approx. height of the landing relative to eye-level. Really was drawing an unfortunate number of blanks.)

It is a shame I had to use up time for this thing, when other matters were (& are) pressing. But I can't say, on the other hand, I don't find a bit of thought project like this worthwhile. Having to connect scattered pieces of information like this, of course, is an integrative process – so it tends to structure memory, tends to provide framework for further thinking.

And, besides, it may leave behind it as residue an interesting little spatial sketch on a 3 x 5 card.

posted by paul bowman @ 10:01 PM