My entry level construction skills remind me of entry level coding.
I recently had a ductless air conditioning system replaced in my house. Someone stole the 300 lb compressor from the last unit to get a few bucks at the scrap metal shop, and the unit that they stole has been deprecated for a new version, with more efficient backward incompatible blowers and gas lines. Many walls were opened up, in a haphazard way. The company opening the walls and installing the new version doesn't close and patch walls, which is where my story begins.
Instead of reading the documentation on how to patch walls, I thought, "this can't be too hard, I'll just start typing".
The documentation would have told me that if you are patching an irregularly shaped hole, it's worth refactoring that hole into something that will take a piece of sheetrock with straight edges.
Once I figured that out for myself, I though, "Surely enough adhesive sheetrock tape and joint compound will cover my initial mistakes".
Instead of refactoring the base I plowed ahead, adding layers and layers of tape and patch to cover my work.
Lots of sanding and skim coating later, I have new, inefficiently implemented, mediocre, unmaintainably patched walls.
-- Douglas Hunter
When I recently remodelled my kitchen, the biggest problem I had was with drywall (painting, plumbing, tiling, cabinet installation, etc weren't a problem). It just didn't look too hard. I also believed in the power of compound and sanding. Boy do I wish I had gone down to Home Depot and taken the free class they offered on it. It's a lot trickier than it looks.
Re:Me too
dug on 2008-07-23T04:02:07
But I've seen your code, and I trust that you did a better job patching holes in a wall than I did [grin]
