My granddaughter Isla - the building inspector

[Frank Pellow]

In the summer and autumn of 2004 when I was building my shop, my grandchildren Isla and Ethan were frequent visitors. They were both very interested in the activity and, when they appeared, I always stopped to explain what I was doing.

Well it appears that Isla (now 5 years old) learned well. Recently, I built stud walls in the basement of Kathleen's house (see photo). Isla came home after school the first day that I was on the site and, after learning I was in the basement, she came down and gave my work the once over. After about a minute, she located my level, placed it against a stud and declared "the bubble is in the middle". So, I passed Isla's test. I have no idea what I would have done had I failed.

[Corey Hallagan]

Heh heh.... someone has to keep us in check Frank! Might as well be grandkids! Cute story!

Corey

[Roger Myers]

Great story Frank! She is off to a great start!

[Jim Dannels]

Thats Great Frank!! My daughter was a bit smaller yet when my FIL was building his garage and remodelling the house. He was quite proud of being an inspector at Maytag and she checked out all his work.
He too called her the inspector.
Destiny my two yr old gradaughter heads for the shop when she comes to visit, to check my work. Keeps an old guy grinnin!

[Kelly C. Hanna]

I'll bet that's the best green tag you ever got Frank! :D

[Byron Trantham]

Frank, you should be very proud. You taught her well. Kids are such a kick, they don't miss anything!

[Jim Hager]

My kids were 9 and 11 when we built our first house back in 1990. My wife was in college then and I of course had to keep up with the kids on the construction site. They were a great help and did most of the scrap carry off and cleanup for me in the afternoons after school. I teach at the school where they went so it wasn't any problem for me to get them and head out to the house for some construction. Anyway my daughter was heard saying one afternoon to her little brother who talked constantly, "Be quite Brent you will make Daddy loose his numbers." He was bad to talk to me when I was figuring out cuts and would cause me to have to climb back on the ladder to measure again.

She still comes across that statement once in a while when the family is together. I sure miss my kiddos. Both of them now are on their own and away from home, way to far away.:(

[Frank Pellow]

... I sure miss my kiddos. Both of them now are on their own and away from home, way to far away.:(
Both our children were far away for a while too Jim. But now we are close together again and my kids have kids. Jim, I hope that happens to you as well (and, in the meantime, you have great memories).

[John A. Williams]

That's an awesome story Frank!

[Rob Bourgeois]

Similar story Frank..
I was sanding some chairs and my daughter( 3 year old) would walk pass them in teh garage on her way out to play and rub them. I finally asked what she was doing.

Her reply:"Making sure you have been getting on the roughies and itches off. You are doing a good job." Since that time I have let her hand test everything and she finds the "roughies adn itches" better than I can. YOu might have a good building inspector but I have my sanding inspector...

/For the safety nazi's .....just so I dont get yelled at for sanding around my kids...they are never in the shop when I am sanding.

[Andy Hoyt]

About 20 years ago I was building something (don't recall what) and while producing a bunch of plugs my three year old daughter came out and asked what I was doing and what they were for and why is the sky blue.

I told her that I would be using these plugs to hide the "ugly screwheads" in the thing I was making.

To this day, anything that's not visually appealing to her elicits a reference to ugly screwheads. Gotta love it.

And the sky is blue to match her eyes.

[Dan Bussiere]

Great story Frank, thanks for sharing. Looking forward to my grandkids getting a little older.

[Frank Pellow]

Similar story Frank..
I was sanding some chairs and my daughter( 3 year old) would walk pass them in teh garage on her way out to play and rub them. I finally asked what she was doing.

Her reply:"Making sure you have been getting on the roughies and itches off. You are doing a good job." Since that time I have let her hand test everything and she finds the "roughies and itches" better than I can. YOu might have a good building inspector but I have my sanding inspector...

/For the safety nazi's .....just so I dont get yelled at for sanding around my kids...they are never in the shop when I am sanding.
Rob, I love the term "roughies and itches" and will probably use it in the future.

Two of my granddaugters Leah (4) and Brooke (3) in Carleton Place (about a 4 hour drive away) moved into a new house a little over a year ago and that house has lots of roughies and itches. They call them (and other construction faults) "boo-boos" and keep a list (a remembered list, rather than a written one) of recently discovered boo-boos for granddad to fix on his next visit.

[John Cavanaugh]

Teach her to be sure and avoid all the boys that are "a half a bubble off". As she gets older in life, she will learn to appreciate avoiding the ones that arent on the level. :)

--
John Cavanaugh