So... What are YOU doing? - Part 8

[tango]

Crash course in learning the German language. Over 40 days so far spending at least 2 hours a day learning not only German words, but it's unique sentence structure, pronunciation, spelling and grammar. It's been fun and eye-opening. Sometimes I assumed when reading English translations that stuff may have been mistranslated because words I recognized followed/preceded words I also recognized but didn't match the translation, then found out that German word order can differ significantly from English.

Composing.

Many years ago I at school some German learnt. Or something like that

 

[Stravinsk]

Many years ago I at school some German learnt. Or something like that

Yes. "Mochtest du schwimmen mit mir heute gehen" (umlaut over o in Mochtest my keyboard refuses to do at the moment) = Would you like swimming with me today to go - which is the proper way in German to say it.

This is one of the hardest parts I am finding with the language, where the word order differs. In time perhaps it will get easier for me.

 

[tango]

Yes. "Mochtest du schwimmen mit mir heute gehen" (umlaut over o in Mochtest my keyboard refuses to do at the moment) = Would you like swimming with me today to go - which is the proper way in German to say it.

This is one of the hardest parts I am finding with the language, where the word order differs. In time perhaps it will get easier for me.

It's been a long time since I used German in any meaningful sense. If I recall correctly the verb shifts to the end when it's a secondary verb - in your example the swimming is the primary verb - "going" is almost redundant because "would you like to swim with me today" and "would you like to go swimming with me today" are more or less the same as far as meaning goes.

 

[Stravinsk]

It's been a long time since I used German in any meaningful sense. If I recall correctly the verb shifts to the end when it's a secondary verb - in your example the swimming is the primary verb - "going" is almost redundant because "would you like to swim with me today" and "would you like to go swimming with me today" are more or less the same as far as meaning goes.

Hmm...I haven't found any easy way to know exactly yet. For example:

Wenn Sie eine Katze haben, haben Sie auch eine Maus. "If you have a cat, you'll also have a mouse."

Here the word "haben" (to have) is not exactly a verb, and it still follows the first subject "Katze" (cat) and precedes the second subject "Maus" (Mouse).

 

[tango]

Hmm...I haven't found any easy way to know exactly yet. For example:

Wenn Sie eine Katze haben, haben Sie auch eine Maus. "If you have a cat, you'll also have a mouse."

Here the word "haben" (to have) is not exactly a verb, and it still follows the first subject "Katze" (cat) and precedes the second subject "Maus" (Mouse).

Hm. So much for my good idea

I shouldn't be surprised that it's more complicated than that....

 

[charming primrose]

I just woke up from a brief nap and decided to join the forum while having Disney+ on as background noise. Not much to do close to 3 am.

 

[tango]

Running, then wrecking.

So far today I've pulled down a wall with a nasty undersized door in it, preserving most of the wood that made up the structure of the frame. The trim around the frame is nasty wood covered with more coats of paint than I can be bothered to strip away for what's unlikely to be worth salvaging. The door is small enough it's no use as a door - it's only about 6' tall - so it's something that might end up as an unrelated project but is more likely to end up in the fire.

 

[Lamb]

My family is coming to visit for a week, so I'm busy cleaning bathrooms and doing laundry today.

 

[tango]

Hoping I can finish a run before the forecast rain. Then more wrecking. I've got a couple of sheets of drywall to pull down and then some more lath and plaster. I'll be putting some more building trash out with my weekly garbage for a few weeks to come now...

 

[tango]

I got a load of drywall pulled down, smashed up and bagged up ready to put out with the garbage. So far I didn't tackle the lath and plaster but did remove a bunch of manky wood trim that will most likely end up in the fire. Tomorrow maybe I can start pulling down the lath and plaster.

 

[Lamb]

We're going to the Amish market this morning.

 

[tango]

Some rebuilding is going on.

I've got a few of the new floorboards cut and put into place, and also screwed some extra support to the floor joists to give me more flexibility with the lengths of the floorboards and to keep everything more or less level. My six foot long spirit level has really come into its own just lately.

I also got some more of the wall studded, and mounted what will be the first electrical back box in the room I'm working in. The cable I ran some months ago was just about long enough - I was glad I didn't need to run a 60-foot length of cable because the existing cable was 12" too short. Now I can run cables to the rest of the back boxes and get everything in place, then get busy fitting the thicker insulation panels.

I still need to figure out how to secure the top beam for the final wall - I've got some ideas but just need to see how well they will pan out - but once that's in I can get the wall framed nice and fast. The next day we have that's dry will probably see me off to the lumber store to get another load of 2x4s. I think I have six or seven left, and I'm going to need two to finish the top and bottom beams of the wall, and I don't know how many to put all the studs in place. I want to keep a small closet in the room, so I'll need some extras to frame around that and provide a door frame. But this time the door frame will be something that normal people can walk through, unlike the previous one that was apparently built for dwarves and gnomes.

 

[Lamb]

Relaxing at the computer this morning while laundry is running. My allergies are starting to get bad so I don't know how I'll feel to hike today.

 

[Stravinsk]

Circa 70 straight days of learning German. Phew! I watch movies now with German subtitles. It is so very interesting, this language, with all it's rules and guess what....Google translate isn't even a master at it.

For instance, type in: Den Hund beißt der Mann Google will translate this into English as "The Dog bites the man" when in actuality it is "The man bites the dog"!!!! the "den" and "der" placement is critical, as "Der Hunt beißt den Mann" is "The Dog bites the Man".

I have to give it to chat-gpt as a great tool for learning language. It is excellent. (I am not using it to learn primarily, just to check stuff). As much as I dislike it for it's inbuilt lies on certain subjects (Jew stuff, mostly), it is excellent in other areas.

 

[tango]

Since the last update I hauled another 19 2x4s home (19 is an odd number but if I go to 20 it's sometimes hard to get them all into my method for transporting them. The top beam is now in place, which was a tricky process. With one hand you hold the square in place to make sure the beam is perpendicular to the adjacent beam. With another hand you hold the end of the beam in place, making sure it's positioned correctly and perpendicular. With another hand you support the weight of the beam, and with another you drive a screw through the beam into the ceiling joists.

Naturally these requirements sit awkwardly against regular anatomical limitations, although thankfully my wife was on hand to provide two of the required hands. Now the top beam is in place and much of the studding is done. I need to figure out how best to frame a closet I want to put in the room, exactly where to position door frames, light switches and the like. I also need to figure out how best to transition between new floor and old floor in a way that looks like it's supposed to be rather than the nasty botch that has been there for the last 90-odd years.

 

[Lamb]

I just finished breakfast and it's a nice cool morning so I might either go hiking or go to a local attraction to look at some flowers and do my walking around. I haven't decided yet.

 

[tango]

After lots of time looking at my space and scratching my head (literally and metaphorically, although not at the same time) I think I've figured out the layout I want for what will become a bedroom, bathroom and a small closet off the bedroom. Limitations include what space is available, wall studs that are rotated the wrong way but sandwiched between ceiling joists so not trivial to remove, and a natural desire to be as compliant with modern codes as is practical.

The biggest driver is going to be to create a single wall that is straight, rather than a wall that is awkwardly stepped and will inevitably look like the whole thing is a bit of a botch. That will also help determine exactly where the bedroom door goes, and if needs be I can make the door slightly narrower than I would otherwise choose.

Somewhere along the line I think I'm going to have to make some custom doors. Nothing in the house is quite standard in size and shape, and I have existing 100+ year old doors I'd like to match as closely as possible. To an extent I can take doors from one location and use them in another but that only goes so far, so building new ones is probably in my future. I think I have everything I need to do it except for a couple of router bits.

 

[tango]

I got a bit of enabling work done today. I wanted to lay the base beam for what will become a closet, but there was a bit of floor missing. I can't just replace it because the bits of floor that were there were unsupported - a section had been cut away so the old bath could be connected to the pipework under the floor.

So the first thing I needed to do was cut everything back as flush to the joists as I could manage, which was tricky because the base beam for the new wall was already there. But I managed to botch something with my jigsaw that just about had enough reach, as long as I moved very slowly. The last bits fell prey to my oscillating tool. Then I could screw some wood to the joists to support the ends of the new floor, fix a nasty cut someone had made in a floor joist somewhere along the lines, and get a small piece of floorboard cut to length and put in place.

It seemed like a lot of work to achieve nothing more than being able to fit about 30" of base beam but it beats leaving things inadequately supported. Some of it might have been overkill but given how cheap a lot of stuff is I'd rather spend a dollar on structural grade screws than save a few cents and find something sags way down the line.

So tomorrow's job is going to be to frame a bit more of the closet. The final part of the closet will overhang where a piece of the new flooring needs to go, and I need to decide what color I want that to be stained, so that probably won't get finished off tomorrow. But maybe I can fit a floorboard, frame the wall over the top of it, and stain the bit that's visible. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to stain the floorboards and wipe off the surplus without staining too much of myself in the process. It could be tricky. Maybe I need to find a really ancient pair of socks that are disposable, so I can just wear those and throw them straight in the trash when I'm done with it.

 

[Lamb]

Running out to do some errands this morning before I go hiking.

 

[Stravinsk]

Ich lerne Deutsch jetzt seit drei Monate. Es gibt viele worte dass ich kenne nicht. Zum Beispeile, meine katze ist orange und schwartz und wieß, aber ich kenne nicht die andere farben