You might be a Fine Homebuilding reader if ...

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 19:54:36 GMT

Larry Haun knows I’ve got a stressful job -- that I worry about people and about the magazine -- so he checks up on me from time to time. He sent an email the other day and asked how I was doing. I wrote back that I was fine and that I’d thought about him recently when I found myself using a block plane to fine-tune a 2x4 while framing some new walls at my house.

Having started in the trade over 50 years ago, framing tract houses in southern California, Larry is the most efficient carpenter I know. At age 76, he still sets and drives 16d sinkers with two licks. He crosscuts 2x4s without drawing a line to follow, and cuts more squarely by eye than I can with a line. I knew he would never use a block plane on a framing job. (In my defense, I live in a 200-year-old house where nothing is plumb, level, or square.)

Larry wrote back that he had once seen a man get down on his knees and use a hand brush to sweep away any dust that had accumulated on the bottom plate before installing insulation. “I was pretty impressed by that as you can imagine,” Larry wrote. (Did I mention that Larry is also very polite?). Then he said he had never seen anyone fine-tune a stud with a block plane, but was inclined to put that in the same category as sweeping out stud cavities before insulating.

The whole exchange got me to thinking about the fastidious (some would say anal-retentive) nature of Fine Homebuilding readers. We can’t hold a candle to readers of Fine Woodworking, of course, but in the more pragmatic world of home construction, we tend to stand out. So, with apologies to Jeff Foxworthy, I offer the following list and invite you to add to it.

You might be a Fine Homebuilding reader if…you’ve ever used a block plane while framing.

You might be a Fine Homebuilding reader if…you’ve ever swept out a stud cavity before insulating it.

You might be a Fine Homebuilding reader if…you cut drywall so carefully that it never fits on the first try.

You might be a Fine Homebuilding reader if…employees at Home Depot ask you where to find things.

You might be a Fine Homebuilding reader if…you’ve ever spent your vacation working on your house.

P.S.: Please don’t think I’m suggesting that Larry Haun, because he’s not overly fussy, is therefore not a true Fine Homebuilding reader. Not at all. For those of us who build because we love to, there are two goals (especially if you’re a professional, but even if you’re an amateur who doesn’t want to keep washing dishes in the bathtub): to do quality work and to do it quickly. Larry does both. He knows the most efficient way to perform any task and is fussy only when he needs to be. Larry is the Zen master of Fine Homebuilding readers.

Better Than Plumb

You might be a Fine Homebuilding reader if ...