Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Wordy Wednesday?

I am going to start by saying that I went to engineering school. I learned efficient design and force loading etc. I came up with a plan to be able to hang more baskets of tomatoes from my deck as the structural integrity of the overhang is seriously questionable. Mine was going to use 3 inch pvc pipes and various fittings to create a base which would be about 16 or 18 inches wide which the floor pots would sit on (acting also as ballast) and roughly 6 1/2 feet high and have a tie in to the deck rail which is sound. I was going to spray it either the same color as the deck or green. That way I could have my pots of (ok mostly peppers) plants and herbs on the deck and my hanging baskets with upside down tomatoes and basil, and maybe 2 cucumbers.
My dear, darling husband- who went to the same college as me, but majored in EE apparently that stands for excessively engineered- said that since I had a lot going on right now he would build it for me. Dumbass that I am , I said yes. What exactly was I thinking??? The man was off on Friday. He went to Home Depot by himself. NOT the Home Depot that I work at. So he was unsupervised. I came home to a pile ( yes an actual pile of maybe 12 2x4x8's) in the dining room. 2x4's like what you actually frame a HOUSE with. Seriously. He ( thank goodness) had trouble with the top sill idea, so ended up with pipe hangers and closet rods to hang the baskets from. He was originally going to have eye lag bolts attached to a top sill plate, until I told him that the plants would be different sizes so that the spacing wasn't going to be even. Then since it was hideous, he had to get stain. And the thing is almost 4 feet wide. I don't know why he just didn't run it the entire width and put floor planks on it. Now there is a weird gap between IT and the wall.

And he is so proud of this monstrosity. But it would take serious work to dismantle it at this point. So I'm going for some serious leafy foliage for camoflage. SIGH. I then realized the problem with why his projects come out so bizarre. It is the same problem that repair techs complain about.

He has never in his life actually built anything except for his little projects. I worked through high school and college installing floors,that spread to working on additions and redoing gutted out brownstones before they were ready for the floors because I needed money after I got kicked out of my parents house. I can and have done almost everything except roofing. Actually I shingled a few garages, but my severe dislike of heights have kept me off regular house roofs. He never even helped his dad around the house, cause he wasn't interested and his dad didn't want a surly helper. So he has no idea of any kind of practicality!!!


Pictures by the weekend!

2 comments:

  1. I am having a hard time visualizing but I sympathize with you. I bet once he has a chance to really look at it objectively he will admit there are some issues with the design. It may take a little while to get to that point but I bet he will come around based on my experience with my husband and similar situations. :-)

    Or all it will take is one of his buddies to point out how wonky it is.....

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  2. must have a visual will check back for pictures!!

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