Last Friday night I went out looking for 1/2″ crown staples to finish my ceiling framing project for the library. After going to Lowe’s and Home Depot with no success, I began to be doubtful that I would find the right staples. Saturday morning I went to Coeur d’Alene Power Tool and they said that the type of staple I’m looking for might be found at some shop in Spokane. Apparently the pneumatic stapler I have (on loan) is old and staples aren’t really made for it anymore. so I ended up buying a new stapler that uses 7/16″ staples instead (which are apparently half the price of 1/2″ staples despite their 1/16″ difference in width).
Moving on with the story, I started my construction off with an attempt to shove a nail through my left hand’s middle finger. I thought I had just hit it pretty hard with something, not realizing it was a nail, so as I was shaking it around trying to deal with the pain (and saying a few choice words—nobody else was around) I found that I was spraying blood all over everything, so I headed upstairs to bandage it. I washed it out, poured hydrogen peroxide in it, administered a dollop of neosporin and wrapped a band-aid around it. The band-aid wasn’t staying on very good, so I wrapped that in masking tape. Now I was in business and could really start working.
I nailed up the first 2×2 down the library wall the long way, leveled it up and kept going. I nailed up more along the ceiling, then cut up OSB and stapled another 2×2 to the bottom of it. I then stapled the OSB+2×2 to the 2×2 mounted on the ceiling, then stapled another piece of OSB to the bottom of the wall-mounted 2×2 and the hanging 2×2. Voila, box one complete. It’s about 8″ tall by 16″ wide by almost 19 feet. Then I had to do the other side.
After about 7 hours, the air compressor I had started working overtime just to keep up. I finally stopped working because I was afraid it would break or something. So I have the two short sides left to do, but they’ll go quickly, both sides are less than 8′ each, so I only have to nail up two pieces of 2×2 before I can build the boxes.
I expect MS will be collecting his tools today, so I won’t have them anymore, but I can borrow my dad’s compressor—it’s a lot bigger anyway.