September 19, 2017

Hammering A Nail

Today is going to be a hot day, so I was up nice and early to get in and do some laundry and cleaning up around the house before the heat of the day started up.

I was up at 7am and pulled the sheets off the bed, stuffed them into the overloaded laundry basket and took it downstairs and put on the first load of laundry... then was back upstairs to open up the house, pull back the curtains and brush my hair. 

Then, I unlocked the doors out to the garden, watered the Frangipani cuttings in the yard and looked at my side gate - it really needed to be worked on, as it's got a broken piece on one of the palings. So, I searched through the long garden stakes I have sitting around and found a spare paling from the old fence the tradies didn't take with them, sized it up and knew it would fit! It wouldn't be a permanent fix, but it would do for now.

I hung out the sheets and put on the next load of laundry, organised myself to fix the gate and ate my first part of breakfast - porridge and pushed down my toast. Then I was outside hammering the paling onto the first paling already there. 

Sounds easy enough, right? Well, for those who haven't done this kind of thing before, it's not as easy as you may think. I have seen so many people stuff it up - and when I first did this, I realised that my Dad had had years of practice before I did this.

You see, I own galvanised fencing nails... bought them at Bunnings, as it's always good to have them on hand just in case you need them at some point in time. This is something I've learned over the time I've lived on my own and in my decluttering here. You're always learning how to do something - even if you stuff it up the first few times.

With the paling, this isn't my first rodeo in replacing a paling... so I know how to get it right the first time. I didn't have to take off the old paling, as it was just the bottom of the paling which was broken, I only had to have a paling long enough to cover it over. 

This is a temporary fix until I get a new gate.

So, seeing it had nails already through it - short ones - I hammered the ends back into the wood, turned it over and grabbed about 5 nails, stuck my foot under the bottom (which gives around 1cm space under the gate and enough room for it swing open and shut without grating the ground), then I put then nail about 1cm above the old nail and started hammering it through until it was attached to the old paling.

After this, I didn't need to have my foot under it anymore, and just had to hold both old and new palings in place with my hand with the other nail. This is noisy work. But once you get used to using a hammer - and knowing how far to swing back and how hard to hit a nail, you'll be okay. 

Tapping a nail 500 times gently bends it and you'll be there all day. Hitting hard - with your hand around halfway down the handle of the hammer and your swinging back to just behind your shoulder - will do the trick. Keep your eye on the nail, not your hand, and you'll be good, hard and concise. But if it does bend, tap it up or down depending where you need it go and keep hammering as before. DON'T TRY TO REMOVE IT!

This took me all of 10 minutes and just the two nails, to get done. But the first time I did this it took me around 25 minutes and 5 nails, because I had no idea what I was doing. With practice, it gets easier... but no less noisier. 

After this, I picked up any spare nails, put away my hammer and other nails into my tool chest and had other things that needed doing around the house. I had the mattress to clean (which has another 45 minutes to go with the bi-carb soda before I vacuum it all off) and then, I've washed 2 mason jars for a project I'm going to start this week too for Christmas. Well, that's all for now. What projects and things have you gotten into this week? 

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