Until recently, I have felt like a lone matronly scold in the construction classroom, forever admonishing my young male classmates about forgetting to wear protective glasses. According to OSHA, our textbooks, and ubiquitous signage throughout school, safety glasses are de rigueur. But for some reason, my younger classmates take the matter pretty lightly, staring straight at the table saw and … Continue reading For Your Eyes Only

This week, the Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC) class across the hall invited us to join them for a couple days of wiring. The exercise of connecting lamps and switches taxed some very different mental muscles from those required to calculate angles of hip and valley rafters. It was challenging and mildly terrifying, but ultimately exhilarating, when the … Continue reading Week in Pictures vol. XV-ish

A governing mantra in my life comes from my grandmother and my mother: "You'll never notice it on a galloping horse." An adage intended to ward off obsessive behaviors of perfectionists, it was often employed in sewing. It's why I'm not afraid to duct-tape my hemlines in a pinch. Unfortunately, that good-enough approach does not work … Continue reading Step-by-Step: It Adds Up

The HVAC class hosted us for another day of electrical wiring, which taxed my brain more than a subscription to Lumosity. Ever-patient Benny tutored us, painstakingly sketching the path of power from lamp to three-way light switches. A lesser soul would have written me off as a lost cause, but Benny stuck with me until the … Continue reading Images from a Sketchy Day

Today, the Heating Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC) class let us join them to practice building electrical circuit boards. We spent the day connecting duplex sockets to single pole switches and lamp boxes, being careful not to electrocute ourselves and cheering when the light bulbs worked. It was enlightening, if not a little terrifying. According … Continue reading Gone to Ground: Intro to Electricity

Walls have long been a subject of contemplation. Jean Paul-Sartre had Le Mur. Pink Floyd had The Wall. Today, I'm ruminating on a bathroom wall, trying to explain why it's blue when all the other walls are beige. It started with a pair of shoddy towel racks. I'm not pointing fingers, but they were made by a plumbing … Continue reading Up Against the Wall

When I'm not tearing out drywall and learning to cut roof rafters in construction school, I'm often writing about food. Lately, I've been writing a fun series on slow-cooking at MasonDixonKnitting.com, the world's largest biregional knitting blog, which is basically just a front for the brilliant humor of founders Ann Shayne and Kay Gardiner. And you … Continue reading Postscript on Posole

As a middle-aged mom, I worry a lot. I worry about everything from boredom to Zika, with meningitis and kidnapping in between. It is often suggested that medication could help…but I worry about the side effects. Meanwhile, one convenient side effect of enrolling in full-time construction school is that I now have the wherewithal to address … Continue reading What’s Your (Fire) Exit Strategy?

Thank you to Jennifer Puryear for including BuildMeUpButtercup in her collection of essays about Carrie Fisher—The Princess Leia Diaries, if you will—at her literature blog, Bacon on the Bookshelf. I loved thinking about my childhood icon and can't wait to read how her character influenced so many other women. via Princess Leia On Her Way, Episode … Continue reading Buttercup meets Bacon

My friend who is a fabulous and gracious hostess says she only invites dinner guests whom she loves enough that she is willing to iron a linen napkin for them. My screen is slightly different: I only want to entertain friends who don't care if I iron their napkin. This doesn't sit well with everyone. My … Continue reading Hardware for the Softer Side