Tiredness and age.

[artme]

Don't know about anyone else but I have suddenly become aware that i can no longer do more than one full hard days work.

I simply have to take a full day to recuperate the following day!!

Bloody annoying!!

[DavidG]

Week is reversed. 2 days work, 5 to recuperate.
Your mind says you can, the body says Ahhhhh.

[rob streeper]

Work smart, not hard.

[Gabriel]

Work smart, not hard.

All well and good for you smart people

[Sturdee]

All well and good for you smart people

Thank you.

Peter.

[rob streeper]

A few years back I started doing renovations full time. I worked mostly for two guys, one about 25 years younger than me and one who is my age. In watching both of them on the job I noticed that the younger guy worked much harder than the older but he really didn't accomplish anything more in a week.
The older and more experienced guy was better organized and planned his jobs such that the work went more smoothly. Little things like keeping the work area clean, putting tools back in their proper places and not forgetting to get all of the needed supplies in one run made all of the difference in the world.
Fortunately I've been able to step back from that line of work now but my time doing it taught me a lot.

[rrich]

I had a knee replaced August 2015. It became infected this year and it was removed and replaced with a temporary one in September. The permanent one will be installed (I don't know what other word to use.) in March 2018.

I have found that I have to plan just about anything I do. Little things like getting up from a chair, getting in and out of the pick up truck and the struggle with driving SWMBO's Explorer do not come naturally. It requires thought before action. I had to drive some screws into the studs behind the sheet rock. (Wall board) I sat on a small step stool to do the job. Standing up again required both hands pulling on the doorway. It is after a certain angle in the bend of the knee that there is nothing. It takes all of my strength to just straighten the knee. Invalid now, just a cripple after 12 March 2018. And yes, I proudly claim membership in the Old Pharts Club.

[Sturdee]

I have found that I have to plan just about anything I do.

I'm the same. With my health problems, mainly my lungs, I have had to work smarter or not at all.

Thus I use trolleys a lot, car jacks to raise shelves into position for nailing, making oversized handled spanners to remove chucks in woodturning, taking rest breaks when needed and no longer working to a quick timetable.

And most of all I had to learn to ask for help or admitting that some jobs I can't do anymore.

So I had to learn to work smarter, not faster, but I also retain my membership in the Old Pharts Club.

Peter.

[BobL]

I really noticed this in the last couple of week.
We just had the floors done in the back 3 rooms of the house and we had a week to unpack various bits of storage furniture and the shoehorn that furniture into other rooms. I carried some 40 boxes of "stuff" upstairs over a 3 day period which of itself was enough.

My son was tied up so I hinted that a neighbour that he might help move some of the larger pieces of furniture and he left a note under my door with the telephone number for a small furniture moving mob that supposedly did a good job. In the end I did it all myself with a sack trolley and as we have all wooden floors by placing rugs under furniture and sliding it around on the floors.

If that wasn't enough, while the furniture is out the temptation to repaint was high - last painted 23 years ago - so we started last Thursday and after one day of it I was knackered. The 12 ft high ceilings, so up and down a ladder, didn't help. Friday I was on light duties but got back into it on Saturday and completed the walls of 2.5 of the 3 rooms - by then totally stuffed. Sunday I decided to tackle skirting and trim in which while not be as efficient seemed to make things easier. By Monday we had all the furniture and gear back in the kitchen which was great because we could at least prepare meals etc. Yesterday we were baby sitting, which means I didn't really get a rest , but today there's the mens shed Xmas lunch which means I should be OK tomorrow to get back into it all.

[rob streeper]

Bob,

Painting pole: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PFBX614...a-311423306325
After you do a few rooms with one you'll realize they could get away with charging $500 and it'd still be a bargain. Use it with a painter screen (https://www.homedepot.com/p/5-gal-Bu...-416/100202982) and one man can paint an average size room in 30 min or so depending on the paint/texture. No bending over. The only thing you need a ladder for is cutting in the corners.

[DaveVman]

A full hard days work?
What's that?

My father is in his mid eighties and although he spreads the work out over weeks he's still doing little projects and some gardening. He's fine as long as he can work on these things with no deadline. He's recently taken up riding an Ebike as well.

It was still faster for him to fill in his kitchen cabinet himself than wait for a cabinet maker to have a free couple of hours.

Maybe how much you can do in a single day is not the point as long as its not your employment.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[BobL]

Bob,

Painting pole: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PFBX614...a-311423306325
After you do a few rooms with one you'll realize they could get away with charging $500 and it'd still be a bargain.

Yeah we have one of those but I was referring to the cutting in between the ceiling and the wall edges, walls and exposed roof beams, wall vents that are a different colour etc that just have to be done by hand.

We also used a paint roller and edger that you "put the paint into" rather than dipping into the paint.

Pros
These rollers make WAAAAAY less mess, and apply paint very efficiently and evenly than conventional rollers.
I used a ladle to fill the supplied container with the spout to fill teh roller - paint tin edge is kept clean - no drips on teh sides of the tine either.

The roller and edger come completely apart so the covers can be much more easily and quickly washed out than regular rollers.

Cons
We bought the cheap versions (not the TV promo version).
This had a couple of issues with the big roller, one being they have a seam which leaves a mark - however a few rolls back and forth obliterates the mark. The TV version does not have a seam.
The second issue is the roller is clearly not as precisely made as the TV version and at first when loaded up it would get stuck and only roll smoothly in one direction - ie down. not up or even sideways.
The way we got around that was to apply some Vaseline as a lube on the roller end - no problem after that.
The edger does not work so well on old rooms with wonky wall corners and around the various oddly shaped structures. It also cannot be used on the end of the 10 ft pole in a horizontal orientation at the junction between a wall and ceiling. There's no alternative for those spaces to get out a brush. SWMBO liked the edger - I thought is was not worth loading up with paint.
If the big roller is fully loaded it becomes quite heavy so is harder to use - we filled it about 2/3rds full and this made it easier. One such fill covers about 2 x 4m area of wall.

[rob streeper]

For cutting I use drywall stilts and a 3" Purdy Chinex or Clearcut sash brush. I have a pair of Marshaltown Skywalker 2's but, when I recently looked for a set to give to my son-in-law, I found that they've stopped making them . They're a bit lairy at first but once you get used to them you'll find that they cease to be a concern.

I'm not a fan of new-fangled painting gadgets. For occupied houses/rooms I use a pole, screen and roller/brush. For empty rooms that I can mask off I use an airless paint pump. I can, and have, painted the walls and ceilings (different finishes mind) of an entire ~1600 ft² house in under 2 hours solo. I know professionals who are faster.

[DaveVman]

Yeah we have one of those but I was referring to the cutting in between the ceiling and the wall edges, walls and exposed roof beams, wall vents that are a different colour etc that just have to be done by hand.
.

I hate painting so I bought an airless sprayer. There's a lot more work in preparation but the actual painting takes under 10 minutes for an entire room. I have an extension on the gun so ceilings are just point and walk. An entire ceiling would be 5 minutes at most.

All the time is spent preparing the room. The machine is pretty fiddly to set up and shutdown as well. I only painted one room at a time so the time savings are not so dramatic.
I did get pretty efficient at preparation and at machine setup by the time I got to the last 2 rooms.

The big advantage is that you end up with a professional finish.

Thank God I don't have to do any house painting this summer. Yay!

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[rob streeper]

Dave,

You forgot to mention that airless sprayers are great/superlative/unbeatable/lifesaving in the heat for outside painting as well, no messing about trying to paint rough surfaces. IMO the airless units at ~$800 or so pay for themselves after the first or second job.

Cheers,
Rob

P.S., I used to hate painting too. Since I've worked with guys who really know how to paint and have taken the bite and bought the right kit I don't mind painting at all now.