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Writer's pictureJane Wheeler

Our Building Project



Do you have those half finished projects littered all around your house and property? Or are you a "finisher", meaning that once you start a project, you work at it until it is completed?


People work differently and there is no right or wrong, it is simply different.


I had to take “test” called Kolbe at one of my former jobs, it was to find out if you were a “quick start, fact finder, follow through or implementer.” It measures the way you instinctively take action in "work" situations. A person working in their instinctive field finds work enjoyable and loves what they do, it is a great tool for businesses to plug their employees into the positions suited for them.


Turns out different people like different parts of the job and quite often you need more than one of these personalities to complete the job at hand.


Brian is a quick start, an ideas guy, he can think up an entire plan in his head. He does not have to follow a pattern or need directions. If he can think it, he can build it - it really is a remarkable gift. It's brilliant. He tends not to necessarily be a follow through kind of fellow. That means that while he loves to start projects with his brilliant ideas, he may not finish the projects totally, for a while.


Researcher people are the ones that need the who and why’s. They "have to know" how to do a project and must have a why we are doing it attached. They are the ones who think a project through from beginning to end and include the “what if’s” and alternative solutions. These are the projects building managers.


Follow through folks are very hands on type with a keen aptitude for devices or tools. They love to explore doing things in different ways and love to learn more.


Implemenators are the "worker bees", these are the folks who are content to do the manual labour, repetative or not. They show up day after day and work putting the plans into place. We would not get much done without them.


I was requested to do the Kolbe twice, by Kolbe - yes because I am "different" and they wanted to test that. It turns out the results were the same, I came out equal across the board for all 4 apptitudes. It simply means that I can slide into each of the roles and be at home doing any of the 4, not wrong, just different.


We are in the middle of a large building project. A very large barn-shaped type building with a hip style roof. Several people have come to help us with this building, framing, floor, roof trusses and last week we got to the shingling stage. We have had scaffolding set up for a month. Then we were able to use a "manlift" to help with the up high "stuff", what a blessing that was!


Problem was that the manlift had a timeline, it had to be back to it's owner Sunday night. What do you think Brian and I were doing any "spare" time we had.... shingling in the heat wave week. Sunday my poor husband spent almost all day up there in the 32 degree heat, well okay, I was up there too. Plus we were up there on Saturday, Friday and a few hours any days we were able. Sunday was the final push - I am so thrilled to announce that the building is shingled! Woohoo!


Brian seems to think the building at the highest is only like 20 feet in the air, but let me tell you, that when I am up there staring down at the ground, it seems more like 100 feet in the air! The view in the manlift is amazing, but so is looking down at the ground, with scaffolding hugging the building and lumber and all kinds of stuff on the ground.


On one side of the building we were walking on the top of the scaffolding, that means there was no railing at the top. I am not scared of heights, I am scared of falling! Its a real thing! Even standing in the basket is a bit unnerving as the floor of the basket is a grate. You can see the ground right through it, I tended to try not to look down to often.




I was not the one climbing out of the manlift or off of the scaffolding and walking on the roof. I would be the one hanging out of the basket of the manlift helping from in the basket. In this building project I was the implementor. I can pass and take apart shingles almost at record speed. I was on top of handing Brian the nailer, the stapler, holding the underlay and rolling it out. Okay, Brian did all the bull work, but I was there doing my best to support him and I was equally as hot and sweaty!



Last week Monday, I fell - thank the good Lord that is was not off of anything high. It was while moving some of the lumber on the ground. Brian was up in the manlift and happened to look over, he cannot hear me screaming at him since the generator was on. He saw me sprawled on my back with my legs in a elevated unlady like position and a look of pain all over my face as I was laying on top of the lumber in a rather akward position. The manlift is not a fast mover up and down but Brian got to me quickly. That was the end of my evening, and off I went to soak in a wonderful mustard bath for quite a while. mustard bath blog link: https://www.rayofsunshineministries.com/post/mice-and-mustard-baths


I cannot say I moved quickly or was painfree that week, my amazing daughter-in-law got me into her massage clinic very quickly and it sure helped. (Unity Massage in Gr. Prairie). She found quite a few painful "issues" and some very tender areas, I do not think I screamed too loudly to embarass myself.


One of the weirdest things we experienced up in the manlift was a swarm of small black flies descend on us. Thousands of the things just appeared. They covered us as we stood in the manlift basket with no where to go.They covered our heads, faces, bodies, Brian had no shirt on and his back was black. I tried to shoo them off of him, but there was too many so I simply squished them right on him because the hundreds walking about on your skin is one crawly sensation! They swarmed us for about 10 minutes.

I have a new appreciation for the Old Testament plague of the flies and knats! Up the nose, do not open your mouth and ears are not safe either! Talk about yucky! We were very thankful when these things flew on to other territories.


Now we will be onto the next stages of the building, but to know the building is weather tight is a huge relief, and folks, that was our week.





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