First Job Search

[Guppy]

Originally Posted by Rmarsh

By the end of that summer we had worked all over the cape, framing houses in Brewster, Hyannis, and Harwich....weather was hot and the hours were long. Getting home tired and hungry every night and then up early again the next morning left very little time for anything else.
Come fall we were framing condominiums in Falmouth right by the water. I was getting very interested in learning everything I could about wood framed structures, beyond what I was learning on the job, so I started getting books on the subject and studied carefully on my own. I had always enjoyed building things.... first bicycle was built of scavenged parts from different bicycles I found at the dump.....a good frame from one...wheels and seat from another etc.
Roger the boss, noticed my enthusiasm, and that I had very little fear of heights...must have been all the tree climbing we did as kids. He assigned me to be the guy unhooking trusses from the crane as they were lifted into place, with just the last truss to stand on. Every payday I would go straight to the bank and deposit my whole check....except for a few dollars for gas. Next stop was a little hardware store where I set up an account and every week I would buy a new tool to add to my homemade toolbox, like the ones I had seen other guys with.
It felt good when I got a raise in pay.....like my efforts were being rewarded.

1 chisel a week..... LOL

[Rmarsh]

Originally Posted by Guppy

1 chisel a week..... LOL

Yes Ray...thats how it was. Nowadays I have so many tools, its mind boggling.
Those first few personal hand tools, that I bought, turned out to be an investment in my future. Wasnt long before my boss noticed my seriousness about becoming more than a helper and started giving me more responsibilities, and the pay raises just reinforced my resolve to advance.
That fall the weather was glorious, but eventually the the harsh reality of working outside in the cold and wind of winter, brought a new set of challenges to overcome. I suffered through it like most of the guys on the crew. Some days were tough, with frozen numb hands...unable to even hold a framing pencil.....and feet that didnt thaw out until getting back home at the end of the day. Other framing crews werent even showing up...or calling it quits after a few hours....but Roger, my boss wasn't the kind of guy to show any weakness, and we stayed working through the bitter cold.

[Slipknot]

Hard work builds character. I remember having to shovel the snow off the top plates of the walls first thing in the AM in order to get up there and set floor joists, or nailing of strapping inside when raining with just some plywood on the roof so still getting wet, trudging thru snow climbing ladders boots frozen. Then I went from one extreme to the other moved to Tempe Arizona, left here April 1st with an inch of snow that day, got a job framing, by June we started at 5 AM so we could be done at 1, talk about hot, burning hot. I felt bad for the roofers. Next month I got a job in a cabinet shop, been doing that since.

[Guppy]

Originally Posted by Slipknot

Hard work builds character. I remember having to shovel the snow off the top plates of the walls first thing in the AM in order to get up there and set floor joists, or nailing of strapping inside when raining with just some plywood on the roof so still getting wet, trudging thru snow climbing ladders boots frozen. Then I went from one extreme to the other moved to Tempe Arizona, left here April 1st with an inch of snow that day, got a job framing, by June we started at 5 AM so we could be done at 1, talk about hot, burning hot. I felt bad for the roofers. Next month I got a job in a cabinet shop, been doing that since.

Smart move! LOL

[Rmarsh]

Originally Posted by Slipknot

Hard work builds character. I remember having to shovel the snow off the top plates of the walls first thing in the AM in order to get up there and set floor joists, or nailing of strapping inside when raining with just some plywood on the roof so still getting wet, trudging thru snow climbing ladders boots frozen. Then I went from one extreme to the other moved to Tempe Arizona, left here April 1st with an inch of snow that day, got a job framing, by June we started at 5 AM so we could be done at 1, talk about hot, burning hot. I felt bad for the roofers. Next month I got a job in a cabinet shop, been doing that since.

Yeah Slip, dealing with the extremes in weather will separate the men from the boys for sure. One July my boss decided to take on a large roofing job on a commercial building. He put me in charge of four newly hired guys to help.
First day was mid 90's and the forecast for the week was more of the same.
After about an hour or so, I saw one guy go to his car and leave, never said a word. Then as we kept working, I noticed another one of the new guys had gone down to rest in the shade. When he hadn't returned after 30 minutes, I went down and told him that he needed to be up on the roof working like everyone else until we all came down for a break. When I went back up on the roof I saw his car leaving too. Out of the four, only one made it through the week. We found taking salt pills really does help when you sweat so much in one day.

[Rmarsh]

That first year of work, framing houses and condos on the cape, went by fast. I learned the basics, measuring, cutting, fastening and hauling lumber......alot of lumber. There were even informal lumber carrying challenges, like who could carry the most studs on there shoulder or multiple sheets of plywood or floor joists at a time. I was still a lightweight but tried to compete anyway.

But it was the more advanced stuff like layout and reading plans that interested me the most. When I saw Roger marking wall plates or figuring out rafter lengths and cuts, or stair stringers I wanted to know more. Whatever the job of the day was, I would go back home and study the chapter on that subject, in the carpentry textbooks I had bought.

On those long rides to cape cod to work, I would daydream about maybe building my own house some day.

[Rmarsh]

Getting up early to work, and back home late, tired and hungry was cutting into my social life. I was dating my future bride at the time and nearly falling asleep on my drive home from her house......it was because of the travel time mostly, I thought.
When I heard about a job opening with a local custom builder, I called and set up an interview. We met at his cabinet shop on a saturday morning, he asked some questions about my experience, then if I had any tools. We went out to my vehicle, and I opened the trunk.
There I had my home made carpenter tool box, with its separate slots for my handsaws, and other compartments, filled neatly with all the basic hand tools. He turned to me and asked, "Can you start work today?" Caught me off guard, wasn't expecting that, but I said "Yeah...Ok". I followed him a short distance from his shop to a new home he was building, and he put me to work in the attic nailing up collar ties.
It was another raise in pay and only twenty minute ride to Mattapoisett, a beautiful seaside community, with a lot of wealthy residents. Much different than the inner city life in New Bedford where I was born and raised.