Renovations from Heart to Home

          The process of renovating a home, depending on the size of the project, can be an intimidating project.  Even small repairs sometimes can lead to big stress if we're not comfortable having strangers in our home.  It's important to ensure a comfort level with your builder that reduces the worry and stress during your renovations so that not only is the completed project beautiful, but the actual process of construction is a pleasure as well.

            Likewise, for the small business owner taking on increasingly larger budget projects, there are easily as many areas of stress and pitfalls that can overwhelm and damage projects.  The homeowner can relax once the dust has settled, but the owner of a construction business can face a few more projects knowing the profits will go to repair the mistakes of that last disaster.

            The result of this cocktail mix of potentialities is that renovations are often approached with dread and uncertainty on the one side and bravado and a thin veil of strength on the other.  Having heard all the stories of great projects gone terribly wrong, the fear that things can go bad will invite the reality that they just might again.

The solution is communication

            Talking to each other is absolutely the best way to avoid problems in any situation.  A renovation is no different.  In some ways it resembles a marriage (albeit short) and a blending of families and requires all the skills, patience, finesse and forgiveness.

            For a renovation project to be successful, all tools must be laid on the table. The builder presents a portfolio and the homeowners must open the doors to their intimate closets.  Fears and insecurities must be made as evident as the dreams and desires.   Beyond the fancy pick-up and the big front door, the people should meet as partners, joined together to create something wonderful.

            Being open and honest from the beginning, having a realistic conception of amount of dust that is generated goes a long way to easing through difficulties when the roof is torn off or the owner runs late on a decision.  In any good relationship, talking through the problems, ensures that problems can be removed and not grown to inoperable tumors.

Money is the root of all good

            People are often uncomfortable talking about money, but in a large renovation, a lot of the green stuff must change hands and it is not always easy.  The grease to get the project complete must be applied efficiently or the engine comes to a grinding stop.

            Ego and power must be left at the door as much as it is possible to leave the muddy boots.  Certainly if "X" is not accomplished, "Y" dollars should not be paid, but often in the shadows lurks an insidious creature exerting control or undermining a sense of worthiness that can easily foul things up.

            Money should be treated with the same care, respect and ultimate neutrality as the lumber for which it is exchanged.  It is the commodity that builds the structure, no more or less than the nails that hold it together.  One cannot be done without the other and so it is best considered with emotional neutrality as any other item negotiated and executed in the contract.

Playing in the Sandbox

            Staying relaxed and focused on the end result keeps homeowners and builders on the same team.  The project is the uniting factor and it should always be remembered that it is in the best interests of each party to get it done in the best way possible. 

            No one really wants a problem, but some are inclined by nature or experience to look for them and in projects of this size and complication, there is no shortage of possibility.  A better understanding of what it takes from both sides will more often create a meeting in the middle that results in an addition or renovation in which all can take pride.

            This is a blog about finding and nurturing that sweet spot for both the homeowner and the small business owner.  Like marriage counseling, it shines a light on various aspects of each individual, sometimes in celebration and sometimes with discomfort.  The purpose is to make the union stronger.

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Nailed Down

For most projects, the most important and over-looked tool is the contract. Large or small, a clear agreement in writing and with signatures can avoid more damage ultimately than the shoddiest roof.

During the courting period and initial stages of projects, everyone is on their best behavior and words, far more than actions, are setting the tone. Purposes are aligned and the satisfactory completion of the project is beautifully envisioned.

When problems arise, however, the true strength of the relationship is tested, bending and relaxing under the stress or suddenly snapped by the weight of unforeseen pressure. A well-written contract can provide the support and recourse to keep negotiations and ultimately the project itself on track.

Like a pre-nuptial agreement, many people--especially hearing that it will only be a day or two, in and out, for sure--waive the formality. The implication of distrust may create animosity and feel like an insult to integrity, but a professional with experience understands the legal binder protects the contractor as much as the homeowner. There are as many nightmarish clients as bad builders.

The size of the job can determine the complication of the document, but for any project, the basic agreements should always be in place and well-stated. Similar to the journalistic rules of a first paragraph, the who, what, where, when and often the how should be clear in every contract. Most importantly are the clauses relating to "how much and when".

Smaller jobs can be a one page proposal with space for signatures to accept the terms. The vitals are still necessary, even if stated as casually as "replace the kitchen sink" at an hourly rate of "X" plus the cost of materials (with a mark-up). The proof can be in the process as long as the outcome threatens not to break either bank or back.

In my own business, the division came at about $1,500, more than a week's worth of work, or involving several distinctive components. A mid-size contract with more detailed specifications naming the type of door, quantity of siding and allowances for choices that could be open-ended ensures the two-headed purpose of protection and flexibility.

The larger projects invite multi-page, multi-tiered documents covering the basics, coloring the details, connecting the schedule of payments with performance, and carefully delineating ways to separate should that become necessary. Room for change is still important, even as details are crossed and contingencies dotted.

Architects and lawyers often advocate a standard contract which is easily available through the AIA. While it provides valuable clarity in commercial situations without a lot of expensive negotiations, home owners can be overwhelmed by inappropriate clauses and the builder too constrained by the stringent definitions. Simple is better and a contractor with enough experience to do the job should be able to produce a tried and true document off his word processor.

With a contract so specific, the temptation is to name a hard, fast and intractable dollar amount, but all of my experience--given a strong sense of mutual trust combined with a good estimate and specifications--an agreement based on actual cost is the fairest to all concerned. With clear parameters, solid budgets and honest communication, time and material contracts work very well.

Regardless of the best made and laid plans, things change and room must be made for Mr. Murphy to show an ugly face. Allowances and change orders are important parts of any agreement and coverage must be in place in case disaster leaks through a roof, spills out of a can or is short-circuited by a wire that should have been there, or worse, should not have.

Once a wall is framed, the view might invite a window that was not originally figured into the job. While the temptation and urgency of the schedule might dictate a quick decision to proceed and figure out the cost later, postponement of the cost implications can have serious repercussions burning a deep hole in the pocket of the builder or a terrible sticker shock long after the fact.

Regardless of size, a written contract is the best tool to ensure a project goes smoothly with as few negative incidents as the law of averages guarantee will happen. The comfort and ease with which one is negotiated will often be an indication of how well the parties will work together throughout the adventure.

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Of Pounds and Ounces

Once the project has been designed and contracted, the final preparation is mostly physical. A plan to manage life in the midst of construction chaos can make all the difference in the success of the renovation.

Although it is possible to remain on the premises during construction, a whole-house makeover by its very name suggests it is best to find another place to stay. When the roof is removed for a second story addition, the risk is just too great that all relationships could be ruined with the furniture if a big storm blew in.

Besides the inordinate amount of dust, progress is hampered by the complications of co-ordination. Large projects can take four to six months to complete and like an earthquake, the stress level doubles in intensity with each increment.

Most budgets are unable to afford the luxury of a second home, so a good contractor knows how to minimize the impact and dissipate the tension that is as inevitable as the mess. Experience teaches anticipation and the law of Murphy should guide every decision.

The first question when assessing a bath remodel is if there is another sink, toilet and shower on the premises. A transformation of anything beyond paint should require the expectation of a week's disruption. When only one bathroom exists, the toilet must be reset at the end of every day and alternatives such as the workplace, a friend's home (never family) or the gym should be considered for showers.

Kitchen renovations also are complicated. In the best scenarios, for a week to a month, the main appliances if functioning at all are often around different corners and countertops are shared with dirty tools. I recommend lots of pizza and the husband can earn major points planning a surprise dinner out at a critical moment (not too fancy if the bathroom is out of commission as well).

Most often the area under construction can be isolated with care. Modern invention provides contractors with stretch poles to make plastic barriers easy. Large air filters demonstrate care and concern even if they fail to collect all the dust.  Make the door nearest the work easily accessible from the inside and out.

No matter where the work is performed, dust permeates every thing.  Furniture near the work area can be covered with light 1 myl poly and removed again for living at the end of the day.  To stay fresh, laundry should be done more frequently. Dishes often need to be washed before as well as after every meal.

If the work is upstairs or at the back end of the house, it helps to put drop cloths along the path to keep muddy boots from scratching or staining. Clear the hallways of clutter and flower pots and even take the family portraits off the wall because the workers will likely come through with plywood or sheetrock, a tile saw and open cans of paint.

The constant rattle and clatter of hammers and thumps of lumber sends a vibration through the house that creeps items on shelves precariously close to the edges. Work in one room can drop a painting off the wall on the other side. Even if the contractor knows, the worker might not realize the fragility of something, so precious items are best moved out of danger ahead of time.

Financially, it is vital to have clear specifications in the contract about amounts and stages of payments and be prepared with money available when those points are nearing. The builder may push a particular item forward to benefit his cash flow and expect an immediate check while owners may need advance notice to transfer large amounts of money. The more clarity between the parties ensures the work flows without rancor or interruption.

No one can think of everything, heading in to a project, and the simple replacement of an upstairs sink may unwittingly turn into replacement of the hardwood floors below, but looking around with an eye that expects the worst can avoid some simple and irritating problems. A full pound of prevention when preparing your home for a renovation may ensure the unexpected catastrophe weighs far less.

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Whole Life Make-over

No matter the degree of our comfort level, the world has become an unsettled place. Riots and revolutions, earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, tornados and economic collapses can be seen as the apocalyptic precursors predicted and parodied to culminate in 2012.

The housing market that has been blamed for much of the downturn of the last few years still struggles to come back and is forever radically changed. Sub-prime mortgages have resulted in a banking industry too focused on profits to take a risk on the common family just wanting to buy a home. Stuck with an inventory, developers are hesitant to bulldoze fields into suburbs, making renovations to existing homes the most viable option for bettering our quality of life.

In the good times, our culture tends to be mobile and impulsive. As an expression of success, the standard has been a bigger home in a better neighborhood easily accomplished by a quick move across town. Proceeds from the sale of one put the money down on another and payments remained largely the same. Assumptions that values would continue to rise made playing as easy as the game of checkers.

Sub-prime mortgages changed all that and it can no longer be the expectation that anyone who works hard enough can earn their own home. Real estate is accumulated by fewer and fewer people who rent it out to the many. Ownership is less a right than a pride and privilege.

Staying put and renovating to meet expanding needs for many reasons is a wonderful way to spend a lifetime. Deep roots, relationships with neighbors and the creation of traditions are just a few obvious reasons. Nothing better than a well-established home life can assuage the discomfort of global uncertainty.

On the local level, the decision to stay put and improve the home can be a terrifying prospect to those of us raised in a lifestyle that used houses as commodities so easily bought, sold and left behind. Often brand new, we have not stayed long enough to enjoy the shade of the trees we planted, nor shared the celebrations and sorrows from births to graduations to weddings of our neighbors' children who are friends with our own.

Renovations are dusty, inconvenient and hugely stressful, lasting one or many months. The contractor and workers invade the castle, often becoming part of the family in that time, sometimes the enemy. He might turn the corner and catch you in your underwear or arrive at three AM to tighten the tarp in a rainstorm. Homework still has to be done; holidays arrive; visitors want to tour and advise.

Marriages are seriously tested living through remodels, often stripping and re-painting the relationship in unexpected colors for better or worse. At the design stage, one man's recreation room bar is the woman's whirlpool spa. The screaming saws of construction might sound like the pitter-pattering little feet to the other. Constant decisions as small as round or lever door handles create relentless strain when all he really wants to think about is a round of golf.

Despite it all, the process of transformation, with proper planning, care and room for breaks, can be a time of great joy, anticipation and satisfaction. Lives are changed by taking the wall out that has separated the kitchen from family. The extra bedroom can save a marriage or unite sisters who could not share the same space. Staying in the same school system avoids the traumatic disruption of having to make all new friends all over again.

In thirty years as a contractor, my best of many moments is easily identified in the eighth month of a year long project that doubled the size of the house and touched every room existing, centered upon a massive restructuring of the kitchen. With a two year old, she had been washing dishes in the bathtub, the heat was off for the day in February in Vermont. The entire first floor of furniture was crammed into one room with a tiny path to the computer where she huddled in a down jacket.

"I love it!" she exclaimed, mist on her breath.

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How to Grow Your Own Home

Three and a half years ago, in a commitment to honor my passion for writing as well as run a construction business, I started this blog as a tool to market. Rumors surged on the internet that thousands of clicks could generate income as well as clients. It helped that some basic education about the working reality of the industry (kitchens are not renovated in a week!) could be useful. Simple logic, curiosity and desire justified the experiment.

Changes in my personal life, the passion for writing from my heart and the closure of my construction business all combined to cement my focus on my other site, leaving this one long dormant. The ads were not generating the revenue anyway and the terms "SEO" and "back-links" were not yet common, so the effort was easy to lay aside.

More importantly, the transition to a life with pen instead of hammer was developing at a rapid pace. Fortunate to still have all my fingers and with rotator cuffs strained but functioning, I felt lucky. Twenty years earlier I had promised myself to not be carrying plywood at this age, but when it looked like I might continue accepting contracts, one day my scaffold suddenly collapsed, the choice no longer mine, landing me on the sofa to sit still until I reached the inevitable conclusion that I should not be working with my hands any more.

Once again, the need of some quick dollars in exchange for so many hours charged enticed me. Intuition was strong that morning to finish the essay I was writing, but integrity compelled me to go to the site and finish the work. In a safety harness earlier on the roof, after lunch, work at gutter height off of ladders with a plank in between seemed another easy dance I had been stepping for thirty years.

I always imagined, were I to fall, there would be time to jump away and go limp, roll to cushion the blow, but this was all much too quick. As the ladder slipped out, I immediately blacked out, an unconscious act of protection so intense I remember actually thinking I had died before landing hard on the pavement, straddling the extended prong of the ladder jack.

The chipped bone in my wrist was the over-riding pain, but ultimately nothing in my life compared to the ruptured urethra that forced me to live nearly two years with a catheter (a tube out of my belly into a plastic bag strapped to my leg) before it could be properly repaired. Added to the insult was the injury that by divorce my health insurance had terminated just a few days earlier, compounding the problems.

The details are well-documented at "Zen & the Art of the Midlife Crisis" and a forth-coming book tentatively entitled "The Peequel", while the most important fact is that after surgery this past June, I am well-healed and emotionally fit to take up my pen again (as well as being once again insured and more careful about the scaffolds upon which I choose to dance). Determined to earn my keep with more words than nails, but loaded with knowledge and experience of the construction business, logic dictates again that the two worlds should blend.

Lately, my hands have gotten dirty with several projects for myself and others. In breaking out the tools and balanced gingerly on a ladder, pondering the low cost and high convenience of self-publishing, essays constructed here can easily be produced into ebooks. By a few simple key strokes, they can be readily available to the transformed demographics of this new generation of home owners who are comfortable with computers and less skilled with their own hands.

By economic necessity and less abundant resources, the expansive developments of new houses are dwindling and renovations of the huge inventory of existing homes become the attainable standard. Transformations of smaller capes into beautiful colonials are more easily financed than skipping about from neighborhood to neighborhood.


The need for education is profound and the internet has become the resource from which all else flows. People are more empowered than ever to make their own choices, but need impartial guidance to learn the way. In seeking a contractor or before taking a sledge hammer to their own walls, it will help to find information about the processes physical and emotional they may have to endure. With this site and ebooks to follow, I can weave some experience into a supply that can feed the demand.

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Heating Basics 104

Hot Water Heat

More often than not, my experience points to hot water base board being the choice of heat most commonly made in homes, compared to hot air, wood stoves, and fireplaces.


The warmth is delivered by moving the heated water through a network of pipes around the house, usually divided into separate zones on each floor. Radiating outwards from the water into the air in each room, the heat is accelerated and amplified by fins in the baseboard or reflectors in the floor. It is a passive, unobtrusive friend.

In older houses, this system is identified by the ornate bulky cast-iron boilers in every room. Homes less than 50 years old have sections of bulky baseboards along the wall, noticeable only as limiting for the placement of furniture.
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In the basement, the efficient system sits contained in a small box (size of a filing cabinet) with a well-organized mane of pipes and valves. Often now, the hot water tank for dishes and showers serves as auxiliary to hold water heated by the boiler, no longer a heater by itself.

This system is the most expensive to install and cheapest to maintain, quietly (well, older versions provide the comforting gurgle and knocks moving through) providing an even, warm heat without another thought. Anyone who just wants to go about their day should live with hot water heat.

Baseboards, like grilles of a forced air system, are usually set under windows to offer the strongest defense against the largest loss. A large room requires longer runs, limiting some locations for a sofa or bed. The pipes can remain effective built into a shelf or cabinet unit.

Although the most expensive installation, most people would prefer to run radiant in the floor, especially in a solid slab concrete floor. This requires a web of pipes weaving to cover every square foot of the floor for maximum warmth and effect. The mass becomes warm enough to live in bare feet while winter rages outside, heating from your toes upwards.

Beyond cost, there is no downside to hot water heat. Solid and persistent, this is a heat source that does all the work with little complaint beyond the creaking of expanding pipes. There are no pauses in the day to feel cold or hot; simply set the thermostat and live.

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Confessions of a Sub-Primer

I am a contributor to the sub-prime fiasco.

So much blame for the current economic crisis is placed on the shoulders of the mortgages made to people with less than stellar credit desperate to buy homes they could not afford. The rising rate of defaults on these so-called predator loans, it is explained, has shaken confidence around the world, and the entire economic system is on the verge of collapse.

This bail-out package has been rushed so quickly—desperately—to vote, one wonders if taking just a little more time might uncover better solutions. If, in fact, failed mortgages are at the root, why are we not looking at supporting those mortgages instead of bailing out the “evil” men who made them? This answer seems just as poor a decision as the one that made me sign that mortgage in the first place.

In the super-charged economy of pre 911, when contractors had all the work they wanted and not enough labor to get it done, I rushed along, putting unqualified people in place, making mistakes that tumbled my company into serious debt. Unwilling to face bankruptcy, over-confident that money alone would cure the shortfall, equity in my home seemed the best way to rescue my company, the men, and our families we were feeding.

My own credit had been destroyed in the effort to pay bills late instead of borrowing. Taking advantage of “No doc” loans available, we used my wife’s name, supported by my unproven income.

The interest rate was an affordable 6.5% for 3 years. The processor agreed enthusiastically that I could rebuild my credit and refinance by then, and rates were holding steady anyway, unlikely to rise. I even checked the index rate that would trigger an adjustment and was again re-assured.

So with hope and optimism in ourselves and our commitment to work hard, and in desperation to bail out a business that could turn profitable on the very next project, we met with the courier, and my wife signed the papers. What I did not see in the pages of fine, fine print--rushed through and signed in under 20 minutes—was that the link had enough points over the index to guarantee adjustment upwards.

It angers me to hear commentators speak with scorn of the people who made such decisions. We, The People, who are leading desperate lives to pay these mortgages of 12% are just as much “Main Street” as the citizen asked to pay for the bailout. In fact, we have to pay the mortgage and our taxes.

I chose this option when it was a rate I could afford, but as payments have risen more than $1,000 a month—money that goes entirely to the profits of the lender--my back has been slowly, painfully broken.

The demise of my business, the dissolution of my marriage, the search for a new career cannot be blamed on the sub-prime mortgage fiasco. The desperation to solve financial problems was an imposing factor. I am fortunate to be able to sell my house and get out from under this pain. I know there are others in neighborhoods who have lost all value and are forced to just walk away.

Perhaps there could be a solution that simply adjusts these mortgages back to the original affordable rates, and supports those unable to pay even that. People remain in their homes (perhaps other marriages can be saved), lenders see fair and modest returns, and confidence is restored.

Very simple, yes. But like a frightened child, I am listening carefully to the arguments and reassurances of our President and Congressionals sitting around the kitchen table late into the night. They want to leverage the perceived equity in our government’s home and it sounds eerily familiar.

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Heating Basics 103

Air Ducts & furnaces

If you know the feeling of damp shivering chilled to the bone cold, and you want to come into a house and be embraced like a mother wrapping a sick child in a blanket, then forced –air heat is the one to choose. Turn up the thermostat, stand on the grate and the warmth surrounds your chill and smothers it.

Forced air systems are easily recognized in a basement as the network of silvery trunks and pipes converging on a large metal box. The older the unit, the larger the box and the more places to duck underneath. In the rooms upstairs, the system is identified by the simple or decorative grilles in the floor, usually under windows. Typically the grills do not interfere with furniture placement and are a great delight for kids to stand over in bathrobes.

This system, aptly named, makes the cold air hot and pushes it through a duct system, entering each room through the grilles in the floor. Another set of grates, usually in central common areas, returns the cooled air back to the furnace to be heated again. This is an on-demand system: a call for heat delivers immediate satisfaction with a rush of warm air no one could deny. The heat is a comforting embrace, a luxury of warmth.

But in any house, especially a drafty one, the heat soon dissipates. The cold slowly creeps back in. A whirr of motor and a fluff or breeze soon delivers more heat. The body constantly readjusts.

All that movement of air also stirs up and redistributes the dust we wish was not actually there. This could certainly be a problem for allergy sufferers, but additional filters installed within the system provide a strong argument that this system actually cleans the house while heating. As long as they are maintained regularly, a series of filters in the ductwork may actually catch and control a healthy portion of the dust naturally floating around.

Air movement also accentuates the amount of moisture drawn out naturally in the process of heating air. Felt mostly in our dried out nostrils, this is often experienced by an increase of bloody noses. Here too, a humidifier can be added to the system to replace moisture lost in the changes of temperature blown through the house. Humidifiers in various strengths being necessary to balance any form of winter heat, this system may actually hold the advantage, being directly applied internally and requiring no oversight.

While these drawbacks make people avoid furnaces, each problem has a solution that actually improves it overall. Forced air is less expensive to install (about $6,000) and costs about the same to run relative to natural gas, LP, or oil. No system satisfies our need for heat more quickly and the fluctuations may be controlled by well-placed thermostats. The vicious claws of winter are well-tamed with a forced-air system.

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Heating Basics 101

3 Ways to Heat Your Home

The high cost of heat and the number of calls for help with weatherization invites a few basic lessons on the subject of creating efficient comfort in colder climates.


This week, a friend called complaining of cold feet. With rolls of fiberglass insulation laying in the basement since purchasing the house, it was only logical for her to finally take the time to hang it between the hand-hewn (this means really old and imperfect) joists under the floors separating the living spaces from the cold basement.

In actuality, the warmth generated by finally taking this action would have only made her feet colder come winter. Like our bodies, a house is a complicated system, and a chill is not always cured by putting on a sweater.

Comfort in the home is all about the condition of the air and surfaces. In hot climates, the solution is named air-conditioning for a reason. Against the cold, heaters are the appropriate solution.

How best to heat and move the air has been under discussion since people first shivered. The invention of fire has not only led to filet mignon, but created sophisticated ways to ensure comfort in the home.

The fire itself has remained a choice for those who love the psychological warmth of hands close to the heat. From the primitive lodges with a hole at the top to Rumford fireplaces channeling hot air through the chimney, an open flame within the house has provided warmth throughout the ages.

But also danger.


Unfortunately, with the benefits has come the pain of too many lives destroyed from fire burning out of control. A multitude of heaters have been designed to contain the fire safely and distribute the warmth efficiently. In my experience, there are three basic methods: the woodstove containing the raging fire; the furnace heating and distributing the air; and the boiler heating and distributing water which radiates heat outward to condition the air in each room.

How each of these works and how to hold their heat in your home can be the topics for many entries to come as the leaves change and temperatures drop, heading towards a long, cold winter.

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Just Another Season

The New Year really begins in the Fall.

With the start of school is also the approach of winter. Settled back into a home after a summer of outdoor play and travel, the approach of winter looms. Like squirrels gathering nuts, people prepare for the long, cold days ahead.

Conventional wisdom may say that Spring is a carpenter’s busiest season, but my experience has consistently logged the longest hours in the Fall. Projects conceived when the snow melted, were designed, priced and redesigned in June, then put on hold. Now settling back into cramped quarters, jobs are rushed into production to be finished before family arrives at Thanksgiving.

This year, uncertainty about the Election and fears for the economy have changed the landscape. After years of flourishing under the lights of low interest rates and high confidence, the ripe additions are not so abundant for the picking. Instead, people are taking stock and just making the necessary repairs to protect their investment.

In truth, the majority of builders have seen a lot of good years where the biggest problem has been finding the labor needed to construct the wealth of projects contracted. One had the luxury to pick and choose, be too busy to answer new calls, and enjoy profits that only seem appropriate for such hard work.

For some, it is the only season they have known.

Now, it is easy—like breathing the crisp air that turns leaves to brilliant colors before falling off—to smell the panic. Men swaggering in big new pick-ups two years ago are sweating their payment due next week. Others, who have enjoyed the paycheck every Friday working for someone else, are suddenly on their own, with little ability or experience to know how to take off their nail belt to turn over stones. The signs that advertised hiring have been taken down and stored away.

I hate to admit I have been doing this long enough to have survived several such downturns. The good news is that I have learned that it is a cycle and will eventually turn upwards again. Those signs to hire will eventually be brought back out.

In the meantime, we have to tighten our nail belts and work harder to distinguish ourselves from the next guy. Tough choices must be made to retain the best of your crew, laying off the less productive, no matter how many mouths they might have at home to feed. Spend more time in the field and save office work for the evenings, side-by-side with your kids doing schoolwork. Relentless attention to detail will trim wasteful habits and secure a profitable job against competition. Creative financing may ease troublesome debt.

Having been through it before makes it no easier. Ideally, in the good times, one has stashed some money aside, and diversified the kind of work in the portfolio as well as the kind of client for whom it is done. Ultimately, the ones who have maintained marketing strategies, even though the Good Times felt too busy to have the time to spare, are the ones with phones that will continue to ring.

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For the Sake of Fun

So focused on my other blog, I recognize and acknowledge my lack of attention here.

In actuality, while absorbed in the lofty thoughts of heart by night, my days have been methodically constructed around carpentry projects, hour by hour, just doing the work. In completing projects with my own dirty and recalloused hands, I better understand my problems when at the lead of a much larger business.


To really be effective in any endeavor, there must be an element of fun. Responsible for the livelihood of 6 to 10 others, the overwhelming pressure to find work and produce it efficiently under mounting debt smothered rare moments of satisfaction and enjoyment. There was no time for pride or celebration.

In these past months, I have been working alone, or alongside friends who need the help and guidance to improve their homes. In addition to earnings without liability beyond my own two hands, I am able to rediscover the pleasure, sweeping up at the end of the day, of a job well done, day by day, hour by hour. There is an exquisite moment, just before driving off into the homelife, of accomplishment, of plans working out, of measurable progress.

Usually distracted in my life by larger concerns of family, our own home and mortgage, dreams of vacations, and even bigger dreams of someday being the Writer I always wanted to be, the actual tasks of carpentry have been, for me, but means to an end. Not really in stride with the tools in hand, I could recite the adage “measure twice, cut once”, even go through the motions of measuring a third time (having been interrupted by a question), and still get the cut wrong.

Better to leave the carpentry to the ones who really want to do it, I thought, and focused on design and sales. I drew great plans, supported by charts and spreadsheets that no one else actually understood as clearly, and in a booming economy, hired any guy with tools who answered the desperate ads to fill crews to finish all the jobs I could get started.

No matter the impressive portfolio that was built, so very little of it turned out to be any fun.


I miss the big projects, the large and beautiful additions, the buzz of activity on job sites, the line of pick-ups parked in the yard. Honestly, I really enjoyed driving up to answer questions, point fingers, and run off to attend to another site. I tried to be clear that I did not have all the answers, that I was just a facilitator, part of a team, but the truth is that the job needs a leader, someone in touch with every detail, someone who can prevent mistakes, and fixes them quickly with authority, demanding accountability when they happen anyway.

Today, I finish a kitchen. I have installed every cabinet, set every screw, laid every piece of flooring. The job is not perfect if one looks closely enough. I know where the scratches are and the excessive caulk that filled a gap. Even so, my friends will enjoy years of meals here, watch their grandchildren grow. Many, many more scratches will appear.


More importantly, although I would love to redo a couple of measurements and cuts, I will remember this kitchen fondly, the feeling each day of contentment and the tools in hand.

And wouldn’t you know, last night in a casual conversation about something else, I was asked to design an addition.

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First Visit

Considering that a simple bath renovation can be $20,000 and a whole-house make-over ten times that amount, it is amazing how little time and money people have to make such a large decision. In actuality, the first visit can decide everything for the builder, including not being invited to return.

Amazingly also, often the most basic courtesies can be overlooked, or worse, ignored completely. I have a notorious reputation among my co-workers for being late (always trying to squeeze something else in), but for a client, I am usually complimented for being on time. Since cell phones have become a tool (and we really did manage to live without them), a call acknowledging 15 minutes of tardiness is actually impressive.

In the last ten years, it has become common that houses are “shoeless”, so removing them immediately, waiting to be asked, or tromping right off the last job site and splattering mud all over the carpet of this one gives the owner a lot of information. I know a contractor who whipped out medical booties upon arrival and immediately established his expensive-but-worth-it reputation.



Again, this is the time to get to know each other. The builder needs to get oriented to the house, learn a little about the client’s needs and their expectations. Owners also have a lot at stake when inviting a stranger into their home to make months’ worth of mess and (hopefully) clean it all up again better than ever before. Feel out how you might get along. Are you each understanding the other? Are the ideas translated accurately? Finding a common ground beyond the project creates a connection and the trust begins to grow.

Standing in the space to be renovated while chatting through introductions gives the builder a chance to eye the surrounding trim, measure up the style and characteristics to be matched. As the owners explain their thoguhts, reassurances and expressions of confidence draws out their enthusiasm. Perhaps a brain-storming suggestion leads them to simple solutions they had not envisioned on their own. In the best of circumstances, it is an open dialogue of questions and ideas to shape the scope of the project.


Only after the full tour and careful, focused listening is the tape measure produced. With a CAD program that requires accuracy, I take my time, sketching the floor plan and writing every pertinent measurement on my intake sheet. The owners feel useful holding the “dumb” end of the tape; others rush off to tend to children, leaving me to calculate alternatives and ponder scheduling issues.




This modern age has given us digital abilities to take all the pictures, angles and details we need to recall accurately the existing conditions a week and three other sites later. Being thorough, even if the work is limited to one room upstairs, it matters to see the electric panel to know if there are additiional circuts and no ancient wires. The heat system could have bearing on the plans, or a critical post directly below the renovation might be necessary.

How much to discuss the budget is a topic all on its own. Some people tend to hold their number closely, fearful that revealing it will raise the price to just over that amount. Others admit they have no clue what such ideas might cost (they usually balk and postpone). In actuality, I believe—being honest and forthright—that a discussion of the budget on the first visit is healthy. The builder gets a sense of how serious is the prospect. The client may get a reality check to temper their expectations.

Usually, the owner cannot resist asking for a “ballpark” estimate. This is extremely dangerous because no matter how informal their request may appear to be, an inaccurate number offered at this early stage can haunt the negotiations a year later. I have learned to quote in very ridiculously broad strokes ($50 to $100 thousand), gracefully exiting with a follow-up date and an agenda to narrow that number to within 10% on the next visit. Then, they're looking forward to my return.

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Dollars & Sense

My first few jobs in Oregon 30 years ago, I attacked with all the fervor of today’s recyclers.

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We drove 100 miles to retrieve truckloads of used boards for a weathered look on the interior. I always checked the scrap pile for short pieces before cutting a long one. I pulled nails out of old lumber, bent them straight, and drove them into new homes again. There was no name for it then; just common sense and low-budget aesthetics, but some of us were paying attention.


As labor rates rose, the Energy Crisis dissipated, and developments devoured the landscapes, many habits were discarded. At $20 and $30 an hour, a lot of nails can be bought in the time it takes to straighten one. We learned it consumes more energy to drive the 100 miles than to stay put, rough up some planks, and “distress” them with stain and paint.


Now, it swings back the other way, and the carbon footprint has become larger than a site full of steel-toed boots.

Garbage dumps have turned into recycling centers, sponsoring workshops and green celebrations, building a community culture and social network in a small town. Salvage yards are sources for stunning architectural pieces which can be incorporated into new construction. More importantly, the client is onboard, and “green building” is now a requirement on the resume.



Sadly, it does cost more to rehang an old door carefully retrieved from salvage than to install a pre-hung split jamb primed unit—a lot more. Used lumber is cracked and twisted and uneven, making humps in the sheetrock. Better to tear it all out for a fresh, clean line. Engineered studs save trees in the forest, but doubles the price of framing, wiping out the gain and probably quite a bit more painful. We can separate the debris, but does it justify the added truckloads to different disposal sites?

While the focus on Green Building is an important discussion, as builders in relentless competition to hold prices down, we have a long way to go. The truth is that we are taking a lot of the Earth’s resources—whether new construction or renovation—to produce shelter for our neighbors. We are learning that each decision has a consequence and should at least be considered.

And there are success stories.



By chance, I was dropping off a sink at our recycling depot and spotted 600 SF of oak flooring, the perfect amount for my current project. Whoever took it apart knew how to put it together because every single nail was pulled, every piece was reusable. It was stacked and bound together, tongues and grooves aligned, just like out of the box. The cut ends (without tongue or groove) were clearly marked. Although it was stained very dark and worn inconsistently, sanding an oak floor new or used would make no difference. The key was in how it was packaged.


Everyone wins. The wood was salvaged and given a new life. Oak trees were spared. The other guy was paid labor and saved a dump fee. I added a gorgeous floor to my portfolio and my client saved money.

If you are paying attention, some days recycling truly makes sense.

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A Bath Remodeled (part one)

I have a theory that a bathroom can be torn apart and rebuilt gloriously new in a week—start on Monday, finish on Friday. Not often physically working jobs in many years, however, I have yet to prove it true.



To a client, I predict a bathroom remodel will inconvenience them for about a month. I like to say we will put a guy in there, close the door, and let him out when it is finished. Realistically, it works best with one multi-talented carpenter. Accommodating all the schedules of all the trades can stretch it into months.

The market for a bathroom renovator is wide open. Consider all the homes built in the 70’s and 80’s. The fixtures are worn out, the fan broken (if there was one), the window inefficient, and the tile cruddy. A smart carpenter, selling a package deal, could stay busy endlessly.

In thirty years, I have contracted, designed and completed more bathrooms than I want to count. Depending on their choices of products, a standard 5x8 renovation , including floors , walls, new fixtures, vanity, fan, and a window, typically costs between ten and twenty thousand dollars. It can be done if it is their only bath, but it really helps the job if they have somewhere else to go.



I actually don’t close the door, but take it right off the hinges to provide better access. I would love to salvage, recycle and minimize the tear-out, but it seldom pays to save or work around anything. Gut the place right down to the frame and you can put it back straight and new.

This week, I have actually gotten my hands scratched and dirty. Since it was so cramped and there were square inches to steal from the kitchen, I took a rounded wall out completely, sacrificing character on the outside for practicality on the inside. Dead spaces no longer needed for ductwork also came out of the floor plan. Now there is plenty of room to flap elbows.

An inefficient cobweb of plumbing, I tore it all out and rerouted to add a second shower head. The floor will be level, the walls square and sporting a tall cabinet for linens. An exhaust fan vented through the basement to the outside will make a big difference. Better lighting and a GFI complete the circuit.



The fourth day into the project, I won’t be making my dream deadline, but taping the sheetrock has begun, and it only gets easier from here. It takes more time than I would like, but the satisfaction of falling asleep as I write this—muscle sore and finger cut—is sweet reminder that it is good work, so much well accomplished.

Beyond the dollars earned, one has the right to feel proud.

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Shouts and Whispers

The movie “Multiplicity” has a great opening scene where Michael Keaton, a contractor, shows up and cheerfully praises his crew for installing a beautiful driveway. They’re all happy until he screams that it’s the wrong house.

Communication with the crew is no less important than with your client. The assumption that a well-drawn plan or verbal directions will get the job done right is not at all safe. No matter how skilled the job leader, without clear communication, the profit can disintegrate as quickly as a saw can scratch marble in a room that was supposed to remain untouched.

As a kid, we played “Whisper Down the Lane”, delighted with the deviations in phrase from the first to the last in line. It is not funny, however, when the understanding of the last guy, the one actually doing the work, differs from the client who has to live with mistakes.

There are so many people involved in a project, making twice that many opportunities for misunderstanding. The client sits in their over-crowded or out-moded space month after month, feeding on ideas of what they would like to have. To a complete stranger, an architect or designer, they attempt to explain their dream and he’ll draw his version of their vision. The contractor (perhaps the same person) will pull numbers out of experience, presuming details that may be polish where the client saw gold.

If the project involves a kitchen, often another designer is included with bells, whistles, and recycle drawers on rollers. The plumber and electrician each have their exact spots where wires and pipes can and cannot go to make the finished wall look like what they think the client wants.

And finally, there is the crew, those loyal guys on the job every day, cutting out and putting back new. In actuality, living with the client, they get more details than anyone. They develop their own rapport and loyalty such that if the contractor becomes overly budget driven, the crew ensures the quality of each cut, placement and finish.

The spokes on a wheel works as a beautiful metaphor with the contractor at the center. As Michael Keaton's character learned, it only adds complications when throwing in more wheels, not speed. Communication is what makes it roll smoothly and efficiently, brings the vision to reality.

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Roof

These chapters are best viewed in order:

Design

Foundation

First Story

Second Story

Second Story Addition

Roof




This new world of technology is so full of uncharted territories. The click of a button opens the world so immediately—and so irreversibly—to portions of a web better left ignored. In my enthusiasm to announce my nascent blogging efforts, I indulged in sending an EMAIL which strikes too closely to my own form of SPAM.

But larger than the issue of sharing private addresses in too public a way is the response it invited from someone representative of many I have hurt in this business. This issue is forefront in most moments of my every day and seriously affects the comfort of my immediate family. I am not shirking from responsibility for causing financial pain as a businessman, but it was something I was planning to address in “Chapter 2” of my blog.

In no way do I intend to represent myself as an expert in all corners of remodeling. In fact, this blog is a direct result of shutting down my own business, having been clearly unable to balance a masterbuilt product with a satisfied client, a profitable business, and a sustainable lifestyle.

If anything, my purpose is to caution any and all other eager carpenters from leaping into a similar venture with only a truck full of tools, confidence, and the best of intentions. From the other side, I’d like to help prospective clients to understand that a remodel is much more complicated than simply tearing a kitchen apart and putting it back together again.

Any expertise I prefess to put before the reader concerns the knowledge that no matter how thorough the plans and quality of experience at the start, the actual execution of the project is what really matters. While risks can be minimized, no one is immune from the problems. A carpenter with no formal training can, with a single-contract, become a multi-million dollar business. Conversely, an established company may hire a crew chief who fails to reveal he (or she) is an alcoholic going through divorce, and places a foundation wrong, bringing down the whole house.

Shelter is one of the original three needs. In the big picture, we’re all just trying to keep a roof over our heads. Some of us can help the process. Others definitely cause harm and expensive penalties. For most, we fall in that nebulous middle ground: a swampy, tenuous, slippery place where we attempt to maintain a foothold the best we can, and keep each other company along the way.

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Second Story Addition: Fire on the Mountain

These chapters are best viewed in order:

Design

Foundation

First Story

Second Story

Second Story Addition

Roof




The flames could be seen from anywhere in the Valley, giant rolling, towering columns dancing in the dawn light. Racing around the side of the mountain to get there by truck, I could see them almost all the way, all the time trying to make them arise from another spot, an empty place.

But there was nothing else it could be.

On February 4, 1978, Tom and Lane's house burned and life became marked as "before the fire" or "after". The linseed rags smoldered in the dark empty entry all through the wet night, only taking hold and turning to flame to waken us to the horror at dawn. Leaping from the truck, I could hear the sirens so far away beginning the long climb up the mountain. At the window I'd just built so carefully, I strained to see inside, but all was black and amazingly still and silent compared to the roar around me (little did I know how close my escape from death just then, how stupid to be so close to the inferno hidden by soot on the hot, ready-to-explode glass).

Desperate to make a difference, I grabbed the hose and tried to spray the back wall, but it only was a drip, drip of useless drops (of course, the lines were broken inside). I threw the hose on the fire and with a shovel beat out sparks falling in the grass all around me.

In truth, it was all useless, way beyond my control and ability. What had been so lovingly brought to life was dying before me. Nothing to do but stand out of the way and weep, four of us huddled, comforting each other where no hope could be found. When the windows finally did blow, great balls of fire as big as Volkswagens lept out, and 25 years later talking to me on the phone as she weeds the garden, Lane still found glass.


Finally, the trucks (hundreds of them it seemed--fire trucks followed pick-ups) arrived onto that tiny lot, men pouring out and running everywhere. I saw three from the lumber company, one who had delivered the concrete and helped us so patiently when our forms blew out. Two more had hooked the pipes in our trench to the water system below. They all came to help and soon it was out.

The house (too young to be a home yet) was still standing, but freshly oiled, it was scorched all the way through. We would have to tear it down, and the worst call--telling Tom and Lane the sad news--was still ahead of me.

Roof

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Second Story

Thesechapters are best viewed in order:

Design

Foundation

First Story

Second Story

Second Story Addition

Roof




Spanking fresh out of college with a writer's degree and no idea how to use it, the invitation to help my sister build a house on the Oregon Coast was a perfect distraction. "On the edge of the Earth", Lane and Tom had purchased a chunk of cliffside 400 feet straight up out of the ocean, on the side of a mountain sacred to the Northwest Indians for its spiritual energy.

The Nehalem Valley had three little communities of a few hundred people each, and was otherwise home to eagles, elk, sea lions, and a cove for whales. You can enter on Highway 101 from the north or south, or one bumpy curvy road over the mountains, but regularly after a storm, there is no way in or out.



The lot was cleared and leveled enough to fit a small house, a pile of lumber and a few cars. I set up my tent in the bushes just a little below and off the path that circled the property. We cooked on an open fire in the rocky pit left from an ancient tree. My wages were $25 a week and all the beans I could eat. The view strethed 45 miles down the coastline and forever out to sea.

This was paradise.

An architect building his dream, Tom had designed this sweet little cottage--very green 30 years before the concept became popular. The toilet was considered a composting toilet, but was really a well-vented 50 gallon drum and a hole in the floor, which was later abandoned once kids were around. The "refrigerator" is still working fine: just a cupboard with holes to let the warm air out and the cool air in. The countertop came from a tree on the property. The walls were oiled wood salvaged from other buildings.

Tom was working largely in theory and the carpentry experience of a few summers. I had last worked for Krutsky several years earlier and was very clouded by my studies and dreams in between. But together, and with the passing help of a few friends, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. Determination was our most valuable tool.

Being our first poured foundation, the forms broke and spilled 2 yards of concrete down the slope. With electricity unavailable until the utility trench--hand dug 300 feet down the mountainside--was fiinished, every board, every piece of plywood was sawn by hand. Utilizing rickety step-ladders and crafty supports, just the two of us were able to raise the massive 18' header that was the keystone, the arch that framed the ocean view.

Each night, tired, we ate our beans, and in the darkness, huddled by the fire, I played guitar in tune with the Ocean's murmurous roar. We formed deep friendships with neighbors who invited us to shelter when it rained too long, hard and miserably. Weekly, we drove the two hours inland to their home in Portland where Tom and Lane had business, and I walked the city streets. And we could shower.

Each step of the way, like a significant moment in a lifetime, was ackowledged and ccelebrated. Reaching the highest point, an evergreen was nailed to the ridge honoring all of the trees that go into the building of a home. The first and last shingles on the walls were important events in completing the shell, especially to us living in tents. Insulation installed meant at last we could move inside, out of the deepening cold of November, to a mat on the floor. Gradually, Tom and Lane moved in their most precious possessions: the persian carpet, Great Granny's jewelry, their 6 favorite records.



When the floors were sanded--a long exhausting week of noise, grit and strain--they finished all the wood surfaces with Linseed oil, threw the rags in the back corner, and went to Portland for the rest of their belongings. Readying to move on to explore opportunities for a writer in San Francisco, I remained behind, staying at one of the neighbor's who needed help on an addition of their own.

Second Story Addition

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