Thank you to my high school French teacher, Paul Tuzeneu, aka Tuz, for letting me join his “Tool Time” class this morning. A popular staple of Harpeth Hall School’s Winterim program since the Eighties, Tuz’s class was originally called Auto Mechanics for Dummies and focused on the basics of car repair. These days, with so … Continue reading Tool Time, Old Home Week

Dear Polly, I missed you on the first day of the new trimester, but, girl, you are so lucky you weren’t there. We couldn't play on the tools until everyone got officially registered, so instead, we watched a series of videos about power tool safety, which was one chainsaw short of a massacre. As if … Continue reading Back to School: A New Trimester

Happy New Year! Thank you so much to everyone who takes time to read and follow BuildMeUpButtercupBlog, diary of a middle-aged mom in construction school. I really appreciate the comments and encouragement, and I'm so grateful when people share the blog with friends who might enjoy it. Looking back at the first trimester and ahead … Continue reading You Say You Want a Resolution?

If you've been within earshot of me in the last three months, you no doubt know that this fall I enrolled in construction school at my local college of applied technology. My half-sister Polly and I are both in the class, which meets four days a week from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and is filled … Continue reading Construction School Year-End Wrap-Up

And to think, all this time I've been referring to wood and lumber synonymously, when they are not the same thing at all. Wood refers to the raw material that comes from a tree. Lumber refers to boards, timbers and other building products produced from wood. A stick is wood, but a 2 x 4 … Continue reading Wood You Have Guessed?

I wish this were a before-and-after shot, but it is only the after shot. I did not take a before shot, because, as with so many milestones in life, I did not realize that removing the dingy cultured marble panel from the bathtub would be the first step in a longer spiritual journey. But it … Continue reading A Tub of My Own

Good news and bad news. Good news is that a trimester of construction school has given me a real Rosie the Riveter can-do spirit, and I'm roaming the house in search of deferred maintenance. Bad news is that I lack the hardware to match my enthusiasm. Unlike school, where we have a cordless arsenal of impacts and sawzalls, my … Continue reading I’m Dreaming of a Yellow Christmas

Roofing. Man, there is nothing so humbling as the roof over my head, and I don't mean that in a metaphorical sort of way. Next time you're in a garage without a finished ceiling, look up and see how the rafters meet the center ridge and wall plates at precise cuts, some 90° angles some … Continue reading Angles We Have Heard on High

Possibly the thing I like most about construction school is the rigid certainty of geometry. The math is pure; the numbers add up. After years of writing, noodling with subjective words and fickle fiction, it's nice to tangle with right angles and right answers. But that was not the case today. Today, Polly and I had to … Continue reading No Right Answers

This week, we built a practice roof system. First step was to build a wall 18 inches high that would function as the top walls of a house. Then we learned how to measure and cut rafters, which is fascinating and requires uncomfortable geometry and old-school tools. Pythagoras is involved. It makes my brain hurt. Pablo … Continue reading The Week in Pics, Vol. IX