I forget that I try

My whole work life has been about overcoming obstacles and problems. I've been good at that and made a living creating new methods and battling status quo. Yet at home I seem to forget that. Things will mentally defeat me and hold me hostage until I finally drag my self to the battlefield and start to fashion an attack.

I have let our log home go until I have log rot that requires extensive repairs. I had to reface some of the logs myself and because I could not imagine how to do that or what was involved in the work I was held hostage for several years until I attempted the task and found that it wasn't as bad as I thought.

I have laid awake night thinking about the task of insulating the bottom of the trailer and how best to do that. Yesterday a major victory was won with the help of our daughter's live in boy friend. Zeb is his name and he is a hard worker, I mean a real hard worker. I was doing the work myself, but I am slow, I end up thinking too much about what I am doing and often over thinking the project. Zeb had installed insulation before and had an idea of what to do, little things that I would not have thought of. The insulation we were installing was what is called faced insulation meaning it has a plastic and paper facing that you can staple to the studs or floor joists. I was trying to be exact in the length of the batt and ended up cutting off about 18 inches on the other side of the trailer as I completed a course. Zeb just extended one batt about halfway and then rolled up what was left over, tucked it into the joist and outside rail and stapled it in place saving the time and effort of cutting the insulation.

Regardless, I did help him and can feel it this morning. But we did over half of the underside of the trailer and it was good workmanship. The trailer will be very snug in the upcoming winter and cooler in the summer for our efforts. I used to view the trailer as a temporary living situation, now I think I'll have it re-sided one of these years and a roof built over it and it will be our guest lodging, not that we often get many guests.

The mental pressure is easing on getting the trailer done. Zeb may work on it this week and hopefully we'll finish by next weekend. Then underpin the trailer which shouldn't be too bad and it is done with the exception of redoing the interior. But I can do that a little along. It is also the kind of work I am willing to undertake and isn't beyond my physical capability. The insulation on the bottom of the trailer was beyond my physical ability. I've encountered an annoying inner ear problem that is getting better but hasn't gone away. As a result when I lie on my back and tilt my head back, which is the position one has to get into installing insulation, I get dizzy. Yesterday I did install some insulation so at least I tried, but I did get dizzy and my stomach got upset. So I wasn't of much use other than helping load the insulation into the area between the joists and keeping the stapler loaded. Oh well, it is getting done and I am feeling so much better about our housing condition.