![\"Nails_TrimNailsLeft_StructuralNailsRight-SMALL_041916\"](\"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/ClaireWolfe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Nails_TrimNailsLeft_StructuralNailsRight-SMALL_041916-450x338.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe nails on the left — some of them nearly 5″ long — were holding up those useless trim strips. Dozens of the things, pairs every couple of feet. This is only a sampling.<\/p>\n
For contrast I give you nails of the size the geniuses who built my house used for crucial structual functions<\/i>. On the right are 6d and 8d nails like those they used to attach both the enclosed porch and the entire back wing to the original one-room house. These are not the actual nails, which were all rusted and bent from the stresses of the house pulling apart around them. They’re just nails I keep on hand for light duty applications — like nailing up trim.<\/p>\n
I don’t know when the cancerous not-a-garage was built. It was clearly a boozy afterthought. But the useless 2x4s the monk removed yesterday were true dimensional lumber, from back in the day when 2×4 really meant 2×4. That puts them solidly in the time when the original builder was still living there.<\/p>\n
Somebody really had some amazingly whacky priorities.<\/p>\n
Anyhow, now that the 2x4s are gone, the only remaining trace of the not-a-garage is 1\/4″ fiberboard that covers the original tongue-and-groove siding. And those my prybar and I are more than capable of doing away with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday The Wandering Monk came by to pry some lengths of 2×4 off the exterior walls of Ye Olde Wreck. They are among the last traces of the monstrous not-a-garage. I’ve never had any idea of their purpose. They had zero structural function. They were as far from decorative as could possibly be. The only use I could imagine for them was for hanging tools, but there was no sign they’d ever borne hooks or any other hanging devices. They were just … 2x4s. Extremely long ones. Nailed high up on the walls. It baffled me that I’d been unable…<\/p>\n