Engineering at its simplest form!

Meet the simplest, most complex genius!

Tough,  rugged,  intelligent,  impatient, caring, angry, funny,  genius engineer!

When I was in my 20s, I wanted to remodel my bathroom, so I called up my dad and asked how to do it.  My dad lived in another state and hated driving since he used to do it for a living and for reasons I’ll explain later, and didn’t want to come to our state. My dad said, “Just take it all out and start there.”.

Of course, at the time, I asked more questions,  but where do I start, do I take out the sink first or the toilet or the tub?

My dad, “Yeah, start there.” Me, “where?”. My dad, “I can’t explain it to you, boy. You just have to do it and figure it out. Everything is different from house to house. Just tear it out.”.

Later in life, I was staying with my dad after running away from another state, and my dad didn’t have a room for me when I first moved in. He kept walking into the roughly 8×8 foot closet and looking up at the ceiling. He then yelled, “Boy, get me the chainsaw!”.

I went and grabbed the saw and gave it to him, wondering what in the hell was going to happen next.

He grabbed the saw and started it and started inside the upper left side of the closet door and cut up into the ceiling and cut to the corner and went around all the walls until he got to the wall closest to the door.

He backed out of the closet, and the ceiling started to sag baldy where he cut it already.

He reached up and with one arm cut what he could in the rest and it came crashing down into the closet onto the floor.

He turned to me and said, “Clean that up, boy. “

I cleaned it up with an angry heart like any 16 year old would. Then my dad walked over and stood in the middle of the ceilingless closet and said, “This is your spiral staircase that will take you up to the middle of the attic. We’ll close in the walls with sheetrock and put a closet on the back wall, but you are too tall so we’ll use an office chair and you can get to the top and roll to the bed or closet and roll back.”

My 16 year old brain didn’t realize all the mental engineering that went on and the reverse engineering to think out how the ceiling would need to be cut to get it to drop perfectly like it did without crushing him. He went into the attic beforehand and knew where the joists (support beams made of wood) were and how much insulation, and if there was plywood in it, etc. 

We finished the attic, and it came out just as he planned.

Planned in his head without even picking up a hammer.

A good friend I work with said his dad told him he basically needs to learn to build something with a hammer but without touching it.

I realized that is what an engineer does. Before you physically build, before you can rebuild something, you have to understand the inner workings of how it is all put together.

You can’t just build a house without considering everything in its totality. The weather, the materials to use, the nail material, and will it last for where you are using it, every tiny detail matters.

My dad had an old barn from the early 1900s on his property that he sat in a chair for months staring at. The barn was falling apart and just stared and stared sitting in a little metal chair at it.

Until one day, he took it apart board by board and separated the boards out. Then he dug out the ground and made it level, and had used some of the original supports and had concrete poured for a new foundation, and the supports were in the concrete on the corners and in the middle of the future walls. He designed 3 openings for garage doors that each had their purpose.

The wind blew in different directions depending on the time of year. They were near the bay, so he wanted the breeze to come from the right way but also didn’t want the sun inside during the summer months, etc. He considered that during the winter, he needed natural light, so he added translucent panels in the upper part of the walls.

He thought of every scenario before picking up the hammer.

He also bought his house that had no kitchen cabinets, and he sat and thought those out and built them by collecting boards while driving a truck for a living.

Interestingly, I didn’t grow up with my dad from about the age of about 6 forward until I lived with him for over a year at 16 and I didn’t realize that he gave me that gene until I was much older.  When I was young, my brother had a boom box radio that didn’t work and was going to throw it away. I said I’ll take it, and like a good brother, he charged me $10 for something he thought was trash.

So I took it apart and figured out that inside the cassette player, there was an issue where it just kind of fell apart from being banged around, I guess. So I put it back together and added a bunch of new batteries and hoisted it up on my shoulder, and went down the steps playing music. My brother shouted, “Give me my radio back.” After some debate and a nice yell to mom to let her judge,  me and my rebuilt radio were off to take the streets.

I didn’t realize that I was reverse engineering to see what the issue was.

A couple of years ago, I remodeled my bathroom from a thought that I had that I drew on the back of an envelope. I realize now that I engineered each step after seeing it in my head first before picking up the hammer.

My point is, before you take on something that seems overwhelming, before you say you can’t do it, before you think there is no way I will ever understand how something works, just break it down to the smallest detail first.  Draw it out, even if it is on the back of an envelope.

Before you pick up the proverbial hammer, think it out first.

Don’t let the thought of it stress you out.

Let the “thoughts” of it expand your mind!

Lean your head back in your chair, picture it in your mind, then yell, “Boy, get me the chainsaw!” Even if the boy is you.

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