Popsicle sticks? Popsicle sticks?? So basically, you’re a timber framer! 
On a more serious note, if you personally have an interest in construction, particularly roofs, you really want to check out stereotomy. It is so freakin’ amazing!
Do you know the roof of Notre Dame was planned and built entirely without the use of math?! Absolutely no math. And it’s being rebuilt the same way, without math! They’re using stereotomy. Roofs are generally the most serious challenge for the residential carpenter, especially a roof with hips and valleys, dormers, intersecting planes, etc. Even the simplest roof can be built using this method.
https://www.marcadams.com/workshop/stereotomy-curved-joinery-moore/
Stereotomy, also known as descriptive geometry, “is concerned with two-dimensional representations of three dimensional objects. Plane projections and perspective drawings of solid figures are used to describe and analyze their properties for engineering and manufacturing purposes. Attention is paid to the properties of surfaces, including normal lines and tangent planes.”
In the video lecture below, Patrick Moore creates a three dimensional paper model of a pyramid where each side of the pyramid is a different angle. That makes the point where all four planes meet off center relative to the pyramid’s square base. Oh, and he only knows three of the angles before construction of the model, and it comes out it is perfect. He uses only a pencil, a straight edge, a draftsman’s 90degree triangle, and an x-acto knife to cut the paper (which remains in one piece and is simply folded!). He uses NO MATH!!, and it is amazing!
Have you ever seen roof framing that was done before about 1910? I have, and every fucking time it is amazing. Every cut is always perfect using only hand saws. Every cut, no matter how many faces. Perfect! If you’re a carpenter and have been in the attic of an old stick or timber framed building, you know what I mean. It’s so frustrating to see every cut be perfect. Honestly, I have never known a single carpenter (and I’ve known a lot of carpenters, including my son) who can frame a roof that accurately.
It’s beyond amazing!
In this lecture you will see Patrick Moore do just what I described. He will turn a piece of paper into an irregular three dimensional pyramid using no math. The lecture is an hour and a half, and it is fairly dense since this is not the way any of us has ever looked at a roof. It’s so mind blowing!
I have. I reno’d such a house.
The roof was built way beyond current code. The thing was a fortress.
Definitely. Today’s codes are set to minimum standards. I believe the “code” system we use today began in 1915. Every old house I’ve ever been in was like that. Serious construction, often balloon framed using machine cut square nails. And every fucking cut was perfect!
When my walls were open I had a plumber friend have a look and he went “holy shit these drain lines are all copper. Cut them out replace them with pvc and move to Bermuda.”
I ended up exposing them as a design feature in the kitchen along with exposed brick and floating shelves. Super urban hip. I was quite proud of myself.
Translation: I didn’t know how to replace walls.
The brick had been plastered over so I chiseled the shit off and sealed it after lots of sweat.
The kitchen also had a fireplace in it that I also kept as a design feature.
It was a really cool house.
Sounds nice, the kitchen kind of steampunkish? Are the floating shelves torsion boxes?
Yes steampunkish is a pretty good way to describe it. Hipster chic would be another. It suited the neighbourhood and potential buyers perfectly. The kitchen window was stained glass. A little drafty but too cool to remove. I tried to combine modern/ancient.
I don’t know about torsion box’s but a brief google shows me they are similar 
Shit I need to find the pics. Like I said, pretty proud of myself.
