Almost a Miracle

Thursday I was part of what almost seemed to be a miracle. I went to my Brother's house to help him sheet rock his kitchen ceiling. By helping I mean that I help him hold things up, I sweep the floor , and I pass things up to him. The miraculous part was watching my Brother adapt to the vagaries of installation.
Doing any work on the house usually involves sheet goods. Be it plywood or sheet rock or flooring, the basic unit of installation is something that is four feet by eight feet and all four corners are 90 degrees. This aligns everything with the previous piece and the studs which are sixteen inches on center and provide a nailing surface and support. The whole house is based on four by eight. One sixteenth of an inch off and things start to go awry slowly but continually as the one sixteenth multiplies with each additional piece. If four by eight is not adhered to, you may end up with the stove in the driveway.
Several days previous to this, we went to Home Depot and bought the sheet rock. It was on sale and this should have aroused suspicion but it was U.S. Gypsum sheet rock, the industry standard. The label said it was made in Canada (U.S.?) in 2003. Not to worry, sheet rock is sheet rock.
We started to install it on the ceiling using a rented piece of equipment. The first piece went well but when we put up the second piece small problems started to arise. The second piece would not align completely, there was a small gap of about 1/8 of an inch. I would have just kept on going but my Brother is a perfectionist and stopped right there. He couldn't believe that he had misaligned or mismeasured the installation. We scurried around, trying to figure out what was wrong. After much head scratching and remeasuring, we discovered something that is almost impossible. THE SHEET ROCK WASN'T SQUARE! This was impossible as everything produced for building is 4X8 and the corners are square. I think that that standard is written on the back of the Ten Commandments. We had a trapezoid instead of a rectangle.
Now comes the miraculous part. We already had the stock, the equipment was rented for one day, and the installation was impossible. I watched my Brother measuring and thinking and getting that far away look in his eyes that Swedes get when they are thinking. Then he started. Measuring and adjusting and cursing NAFTA, he worked his way across the ceiling. It wasn't an ordinary installation where you just lay one piece beside the other and everything lines up automatically. Every piece had to be adjusted and compensated for to insure that there were no gaps or overages. Gaps equal hours of sanding excess amounts of joint compound ( the worst job that you can imagine) and overages mean that eventually when you put a screw in there is no board behind it to accept the screw. It was an impossible job. It just couldn't be done!
By the end of the day the major installation was complete. The seams all lined up, the screws were all secured, and there were no gaps or bumps. What he had done was impossible. IMPOSSIBLE! I have seen him do the same thing many times. Paul refuses to accept defeat or shoddy work. Everything that he does is perfect. I have been on roofs with him when it would have been normal for a workman to just gloss over a problem and just continue with installation of an inferior job. Paul stops, thinks, and adapts to produce a superior job.
I don't think tht Paul's wife Leslie realizes the job that he is doing on the house. He takes longer than a contractor would because he is doing everything right. If a contractor says that he cannot take another job on for six months, it is because he is in demand. He is in demand because he does things right. If a contractor says he can start next week, it is because he has no work scheduled. He has no work scheduled because no one wants him. Once he does the inferior job and problems later arise, he will never come back to fix them. He will promise to but there will always be an excuse. "My dog is sick. I'm all tied up with work ( this work usually involves a juke box and a beer tap or a boat). I don't have the time ( this usually means that he needs a new cash producing job to pay his child support)". A craftsman never has to go back. He did the job the right way the first time or he has a workman that did. That craftsman is my Brother Paul. I have never heard him say "That's good enough." I have often seen him tear the whole thing down and start over.
Paul the Apostle talked of miracles. Paul the contractor produces them.