4
RIGHT INSIDE THE shell of the second-floor room,
a second shell was taking shape. It was being built from brand-new
softwood two-by-fours, nailed together in the conventional way,
looking like a new room growing right there inside the old room.
But the new room was going to be about a foot smaller in every
dimension than the old room had been. A foot shorter in length, a
foot narrower in width, and a foot shorter in height.
The new floor joists were going to be raised a foot
off the old joists with twelve-inch lengths of the new softwood.
The new lengths looked like a forest of short stilts, ready to hold
the new floor up. More short lengths were ready to hold the new
framing a foot away from the old framing all the way around the
sides and the ends. The new framing had the bright yellowness of
new wood. It gleamed against the smoky honey color of the old
framing. The old framing looked like an ancient skeleton which was
suddenly growing a new skeleton inside itself.
Three men were building the new shell. They were
stepping from joist to joist with practiced skill. They looked like
men who had built things before. And they were working fast. Their
contract demanded they finish on time. The employer had been
explicit about it. Some kind of a rush job. The three carpenters
were not complaining about that. The employer had accepted their
first bid. It had been an inflated bid, with a large horse-trading
margin built in. But the guy had not eaten into that margin. He had
not negotiated at all. He had just nodded and told them to start
work as soon as the wrecking crew had finished. Work was hard to
find, and employers who accepted your first price were even harder
to find. So the three men were happy to work hard, and work fast,
and work late. They were anxious to make a good first impression.
Looking around, they could see the potential for plenty more
employment.
So they were giving it their best shot. They ran up
and down the stairs with tools and fresh lumber. They worked by
eye, marking cut-lines in the wood with their thumb-nails, using
their nail guns and their saws until they ran hot. But they paused
frequently to measure the gap between the old framing and the new.
The employer had made it clear that dimension was critical. The old
framing was six inches deep. The new framing was four. The gap was
twelve inches.
“Six and four and twelve,” one guy said.
“Twenty-two inches total.”
“OK?” the second guy asked the crew chief.
“Ideal,” the crew chief said. “Exactly what he told
us.”