Get it done! is a phrase I often hear..which is fine, but often “getting it done” often entails “getting it fixed” later.
now before I go offending some youz guys….who may use that expression and still do the job right. I’ve seen a lot of guys use that exact expression with the resulting effects of a fast job and “getting er done” with which many HO are oh so impressed at the speed at which it was accomplished.
how bout “get it done – right”
what other expressions can some of you guys employ.
Replies
I think it was GM had a saying I liked: "Work smart" (as opposed to"work fast" or "work hard").
Quality verses quantity.
One of the tile setters on my job has a running joke goin -----" we do it nice cause we do it twice"When asked why is there four engines on a 747------ "cause we couldn't fit six" a Boeing engineer
Right. Another saying I liked was, "How come we don't have time to do it right the first time, but always have time to do it over?"
"How come we don't have time to do it right the first time, but always have time to do it over?"
that's a beaut
"were not building a tevern here, lets go!"
that is bosses fav expression.
we all say, "we work fast so we have time to do it again."
he has let up alot since we pointed this out.
he now leans towards, right the first timeShe said, "Tell me, are you a christion child?"
I Said, "Ma'am I am tonight" from, Walking in Memphis
November 18th, be the walker
plum
I've heard it, "we know its right cause we did it twice"
another one that I've heard here is, "good enough for this barn" maybe thats an Iowa thing!
The one I really like and practice is, "if we dont have time to do it right how are we going to find the time to do it twice"
Doug
Perfect'll be close enough for this job.
A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
"Get it done right with quality"
I kinda' like my clients to hear, "he!!, I don't have to live here" once or twice.
Kinda' breaks the ice.
Forrest
"Can't see it from my house."
OK that one drives me nuts. I have guys that will say "it looks good enough from my house"
I have done it & I will do it again. I will tell them to go to their house & "tell me how it looks"When asked why is there four engines on a 747------ "cause we couldn't fit six" a Boeing engineer
I used to wrk for a guy who's favorite saying was, "this aint the f*#@ing Taj Mahal!".
J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
I hate the all to used expression, "bang it out".
Living in this 326 year old house...I keep in the forefront of my head the great work all the carps before me did...then look at the messes I've been cleaning up from the past 50 or so years before I got here from the butchers!! May not be an expression but its something I keep telling the guy that works for me and my neighbors.
Appreciation for true craftsmanship.
I even wrote an article that FHB paid me for already called something like "The Zen of The Conscious Builder". thats not the exact title but close. Wonder if they'll ever print it...hmmmm
Creation arises, is sustained for awhile, and then things change. That’s the dance.
http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
http://www.ramdass.com
You still have that article around? I'd like to see it.
I like "Perfect is good enough", though I don't believe it- working to perfection is a good way to not get anything done.
"We're slow, but we're expensive" is a good one to go with that first one.
"Good enough for government work" is one that always pissed me off when I worked for the Forest Service.
Can't think of any that I often say and actually believe and like.zak
"When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone." --John Ruskin
"so it goes"
You still have that article around? I'd like to see it.<<<Sorry, but they paid me for it and I signed it away to them. they have the rights to it now and I'm not allowed to show it.
Ask them to print it : ))
I don't think I've ever seen anything like it in FHB which is one of the reasons I wrote it. I felt it was important and to this day I wonder why it rarely ever gets written about.
One of the few carps that actually wrote an entire book about it was...James Kranov in one of my fav...if not THE favorite of mine...books on building/cabinet making called "A Cabinet Makers Notebook".
I love that book!
Namaste'
andy...Creation arises, is sustained for awhile, and then things change. That’s the dance.
http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
http://www.ramdass.com
Hmm, I haven't seen "A Cabinetmaker's Notebook", but I was just flipping through "The Fine Art of Cabinetmaking," by krenov yesterday. I made a couple wood planes, in his style, yesterday.
I often think of writing stuff like that- I wrote about that sort of thing relating to trail building, when that's what I did, but I haven't yet sat down to write about the metaphysics of carpentry yet.
But I'm a novice- maybe I will someday.zak
"When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone." --John Ruskin
"so it goes"
But I'm a novice- maybe I will someday.<<
sometimes a novice writes the best stuff...we haven't learned how to bullshid yet....lol....comes out authentic!Creation arises, is sustained for awhile, and then things change. That’s the dance.
http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
http://www.ramdass.com
I wouldnt mind seeing that article either. Maybe we can find a way to do a mass e-mailing to FHB to try and get them to print it.
Here's another great saying from the jack-legs.....
"good enough for who it's for". For some reason that one strikes a nerve with me. Live by the sword, die by the sword....choose your sword wisely.
I wouldnt mind seeing that article either. Maybe we can find a way to do a mass e-mailing to FHB to try and get them to print it.<<<I think it may be a bit unconventional for them...but hey...they did buy it from me....ya never know!Creation arises, is sustained for awhile, and then things change. That’s the dance.
http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
http://www.ramdass.com
>>>>>>>>>>>>>I hate the all to used expression, "bang it out". Living in this 326 year old house...If they'd "banged it out", it'd be a 327 y.o. house...........
"Let's go to Memphis in the meantime, baby" - John Hiatt.
http://grantlogan.net/
>>>>>>>>>>>>>I hate the all to used expression, "bang it out". Living in this 326 year old house...If they'd "banged it out", it'd be a 327 y.o. house...........<<<<<<<I'd love to hear the answers to this thread if it were asked back then...Two months go by and ya hear them arguing that Andrus is taking too long making the stinkin' hammers....and wish Isabel would carry those damn buckets of clay from around back faster so they can get the bricks made for the fireplace before 1690 (in 1680).Creation arises, is sustained for awhile, and then things change. That’s the dance.
http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
http://www.ramdass.com
You know, there were probably just as many corners cut back then. I've seen some of the awfulest looking roof sheathing imaginable and lots of orange bricks that should have been tossed. But, you gotta admire the carpenter that morticed and pegged all those rafters. I've seen some frames that didn't have any nails in them (or very few). They did have cordless tools, though.BTW, years ago I worked on the restoration of Henry Clay's home where my buddy Miles had to make his own bricks to match. But, he brought in a semi trailer and a bunch of kilns...........
"Let's go to Memphis in the meantime, baby" - John Hiatt.
http://grantlogan.net/
But, you gotta admire the carpenter that morticed and pegged all those rafters. <<<Thats whats really holding all this together. And some of the spikes (not nails). I guess they figured once the frame was up the rest was almost cosmetic but in this house everything they did back then from what I can tell from all the walls I uncovered was top notch work.
took the windows in the back out when I removed the wall to put my kitchen in (I reused those windows in the very rear) and some duche bag that put those windows in somewhere down the line as a retrofit took all the studs out and didnt replace ANY of them which is why the house was falling over in that direction and scared all the potential buyers away (lucky for me).
HAd I not opened that wall to remove the windows for the kitchen the house probably WOULD have evently fallen over. I installed 3 18" lam beams bolted together. No one would have ever suspected anyone could be so lame!! Duche bag butchers...20th Century Scitzoid man
Creation arises, is sustained for awhile, and then things change. That’s the dance.
http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
http://www.ramdass.com
>>>>>>>>>>>>>I hate the all to used expression, "bang it out". Living in this 326 year old house...
If they'd banged it out, it have fell down 276 years ago.
Ï sometimes say:
"GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE GIRLS I GO OUT WITH"
Alrightythen,
Lately my saying has been" Don't spend to much time on it. Just make sure it's perfect." I think I picked that line up here somewhere..;}
Northeastvt
" Don't spend to much time on it. Just make sure it's perfect."
I like that one...I think I use that one on the young guys and watch em sweat.
I was woking with my BIL who thought it was "funny" to say, "He!!, it's good enough for (insert owners name here)." while they were in earshot. It embarased me and I'm sure it pi$$ed off more than one owner.
Garett
Worked with a guy once who like to say " You may find better, but you will never pay more!" Fortunately, the guy did great work so people didn't seem to mind.
Faster cheaper.
Joe H
One quality-minded contractor I worked for was tired one day and made a tongue-in-cheek comment about cutting a small corner by saying, "It's not my f*cking house." For years that was our automatic response when complaining about having to cut a corner, which absolutely drove the big guy nuts. He eventually forbid anyone from using that phrase. *chuckle*
In the same town our local voc ed class built good quality houses with tight tolerances, so when something needed to be brought up in quality we'd say, "We better fix that or the high school kids will make fun of us," or, "hope the high school kids don't see that." In a degrading tone toward a sloppy carp we might say, "That's ok just leave it. We'll have the high school kids fix it."
I'll sometimes state the condition of work in terms of how long it will last. I'd like most work to last 100 years, with structural work lasting indefinitely, so for something not quite up to speed it may be called a 10, 20, or 50 year project to indicate how far short it fell from expectations. I may also say something like, "Well, at least it will last 20 years before rotting out," when suggesting a carp needs to fix a flaw that will be a long-term problem.
A quality minded finish carp I worked with used to say, "A thing of beauty will last for ever." He litterally ment that it can't just look good, but also has to be well built.
I just try to keep my nose out of trouble so the high school kids don't make fun of us.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
Another favorite if something is a tad out of square, is the smart*ss comment, "Well, at least it's square to world."
And of course, when you're rifling through 20 2x4s just to find a single straight one, the weekend warrior next to you is grabbing everything and excuses the bow in the lumber by saying, "These must have been cut on a windy day, har, har." Kinda makes your feel sorry for his wife.
Cheers,
Ken
"They don't build 'em like they used to" And as my Dad always added... "Thank God!"
goodwork aint cheep ....cheep work aint good
goodwork aint cheep ....cheep work aint good
I saw it first ! That one is mine. =) Love it, I think ill put it on my business card.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specializtion is for insects. - robert heinlen
I used to Work with a kid that I nicknamed "Half a**ed, twice as fast", I had to go back and fix alot of his screw-ups, but the boss loved him because he "looked" like he was getting more done. Boss's motto was "whatever it takes".
"The sooner we get behind, the more time we have to catch up."
Never underestimate your ability to overestimate your ability
My first job as a carpenter 33 years ago (my last job as a carpenter was 32 years ago) the boss used to say:
"We ain't building no church."
This was from a guy who was astonished when I showed him how to cut a stair stringer. He acted like it was quantum mechanics. I don't know what he did before I came along or after I left, but he only framed one story houses.
He didn't build no churches.
I don't know what he did before I came along or after I left...
I worked for that guy!
I joined on with a crew about a week before the lead guy was getting married. We finished up one job that they had been working on and started a new addition the day they all.....every one of them....took off for the wedding. I was left alone to putz around and "look busy" in front of the HO, as we were about three weeks behind in starting the project. Little was expected from "the new guy" working alone.
They showed up the next day and I had the first floor deck framed and plywooded. They were quite impressed with my progress.
But the boss was even more impressed with the two sets of saw horses I had built. Said "I always wanted to slap a pair of those together". (20 years in business and he hadn't yet "slapped a pair together"?)
J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
On framing days it's we're not building a piano, this is the box it comes in.
On trim days, it's okay this is the piano.
I often tell my guys "Done is better than perfect", also phrased as "Better is the enemy of good enough" Only works with people experienced enough to know what good enough means, of course.
Of course "there's never enough time to do it right, but ALWAYS enough to do it over"
Rich.
Any dumb#ss can work hard.
Unless you're the lead dog, the view just never changes.