The idea for this thread came from a discussion elsewhere.
I just spent a week replacing a five year old wood gutter because the caretaker was too lazy to clean it or oil it every year. the downspouts werer plugged plumb full of debis so the water sat and evaporated out of the gutters. That is, except for where it soaked in and caused rot.
I thought it would be worthwhile to discuss your experiences where you give your heart and soul to a job and build it really well, only to have the homeowner ignore all your advice about how to care for their treasure. Sometimes you feel like a surrogate mother giving birth to a child for unworthy parents.
Maybe some homeowners can take notice…
Excellence is its own reward!
Replies
Several years ago, a dairy farmer snagged an old growth Port-Orford-Cedar log (your favorite, as I remember) out of the river along his pasture and asked me to saw it up on my mill. It was about 60" in diameter and as round as a pipe and clear, straight grain to within 8 or 10 inches of the pith. We had to quarter it with a chainsaw to get it chambered on the mill. I sawed it carefully to get the best out of it.
When I stopped by a few days later to pick up my check, he was hard at work building calf pens out of it.
Little off track of your experience but, had I known, I'd have traded him out of it for a bunch of fence wood.
Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with a piece of chalk and cut it with an axe.
Anymore a job is just a job. I never thought I'd be saying something like that but too many times a heart and soul project with expectations gets muted by whatever means. Now if I accept a job I just perform it to my own satisfaction of a job done well and let it end at that. Sure positive feedback and thank yous are great but not expected. I figure when unknown people see your work and ask you for your business card that is compliment enough. Bottom line is I did the job to my point of satisfaction and I expect no more. I work two months renovating an old Victorian, extra time and personal involvement and the next year the neighborhood gets bought out for a supermarket and the house gets torn down. My work got a real lasting value.
I poured my heart and soul into the maintenance of Old-Growth sawmills for 18 years, up and into and beyond the 70's and 80's recessions. Of 5 mills I worked in, 4 are parking lots and one is a casino. I just moved on. Now in the building trade, I only hope I achieve work that stands the test of time and is appreciated. But I, too, have become a little cynical.
Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with a piece of chalk and cut it with an axe.
Well surely the thread could go two directions, one of them being how we builders should just change our attitude and just shrug it off when our workmanship is insulted. The other would be how to educate owners and help them change their attitudes. Othewrwise we will continue to stand in front of the canon when they want to know, "Why...."
One owner had just purchased a nice coastal shingle style with lots of interior Victorian details. While I was working on a different part of the house, I noticed that he was building the front grade up to within a few inches of the sill. I asked him if he knew that the reason most older homes had 18" of clearance from the ground to the wood was to stop beetles and carpenter ants from finding their way in, bringing rot along for the ride.
His reply? "My wife wants a flower bed right there and she's going to have a flower bed right there. If it does rot (Notice that from the IF he didn't believe me) I'll just have to fix it"
Ten years later now and the plaster and paint are all that are holding the walls of his library together. He knows but is afraid to admit to his wife that he screwed it up. I'm waiting....
:>)
Excellence is its own reward!
I did the job right so I don't care what happens! yeah right. One might say that or try to make it operational in his life to get by but we all know you can't help but drive by a job you did last year to see how its held up or wonder if you'd done this or that different if it would have changed that for the better. It's in your blood and you can't deny it. That's why you're riding with friends and they're talking about something but you're up there riding roof lines and gables and trim and paint schemes and 'why'd they do that' or 'holy cow I can't believe that'. It's the joy of building that'll push you on thru obstacles and hardships. If your in it solely for the money and can still do a decent job I'd say that you're probably an unhappy tradesman.
I can hardly wait for the plumbers and furnace guys to show up on this thread....
LOLExcellence is its own reward!
I would hate to see the magazine change it's name to Apathetic Code Minimum Homebuiding. There's enough of that going on around me....that's not a mistake, it's rustic
Already a plumber in the thread.Soooooooooooooo
is pandora opening..........
Soooooooo is there anything you tell owners not to flush down the toilet? and how do you feel about pigs? Ever had an owner hang a picture with a three inch screw and find the copper supply line? How often do you get called out at midnite or so to fix a furnace that won't fire up for an owner who has ignored your advice to get the burner cleaned for the last five or six years?
That reminds me about chimney fires....
Some folks shouldn't ever become homeowners. Others just need a little education.Excellence is its own reward!
How long was it?
be an oldyThe bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.
piffin
It's always amazed me the amount of people that invest hundreds of thousands of hard earned after tax dollars in a home, move into it and do nothing but keep it clean from that day on. But they will by a new pontiac for $12,000 and take it into the shop for routine maintenance every 5,000 clicks. After rereading the last few sentences I have to ad and some can't even keep that new home clean!
kevin
But Kevin, if you think you have it rough watching your artistry being abused, imagine how most heart surgeons must feel watching their former patients..
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
And what about dentists?
Excellence is its own reward!
>>And what about dentists?
Care to explain? Two years ago a priest from Africa was giving a homily in our church, and he said God was a dentist. That really hit home.
Tom
What about dentists ? I don't see your point..
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
One of the sayings I always remember seeing on the dentist's wall was: "I'm not here to supervise your neglect."
Ken Hill
As afollowup on your comment of heart surgeons who repair for people who will not exercise or eat right.
Excellence is its own reward!
I had one owner who never gave a thought to filling the oil tank. Maybe she had been on nat gas at her last home. Anyway, the house was so well insulated, it was probably three days out before she called me about no more hot water and gee it seems like the house is chilly this morning too. This was a Sunday morning and I hustled right up there. Checked the breakers and hit the reset on the boiler. When it wouldn't fire up I went to check the filter on the oil line and noticed a hollow sound on the tank. Glance at the gauge and I asked, "How long since..."
OOps was the precious expression on her face.Excellence is its own reward!
I think God made two kinds of people, those who do and those who don't. This is not only a problem in the housing industry or health industry but every industry.
Computer support, is it plugged in? Cars, did you check the oil? Banks, well I thought I had money in there? Or how about cell phones and people who can't drive? Simple, easy to use appliances like an iron, coffee maker, heater, etc, etc and yet they manage to burn the house down. Or gulping coffee and wondering why they burned their tongue.
And you expect people to clean their gutters? LOL
I've managed to scavenge numerous tools and appliances that the owners threw out thinking they were toast. Usually just fixed the AC connection and good to go. Lots of people are ignorant of these things and don't care, just go out and buy new stuff all the time when something simple happens, good little consumers as they've been trained to be.
Ken Hill
I built a vanity for a friend about three years ago, minimum cost ttype thing. Two coats of satin polyurethane because it set rirht next to the toilet and they had three boys. Homeowner maintenance was normal cleaning and a coat of paste wax every four mouths or so as needed.
To make long story short, the friendship went down the toilet when I told them I would not replace the vanity because the finish had failed from excessive urin and lack of proper care.
I know better than to work at cost for friends. Now my name is s### because I did someone a favor and they literally peed it away.
Gee whiz, I'll bet you are pissed off!
LOLExcellence is its own reward!
A few years back I worked in the Chicago area for a truss plant that was owned by a construction company. The owner of the construction company came in one day and told us about a phone call he'd just gotten.
Seems a guy called and said his gutters had rusted through, and he wanted the company to come out and replace them for free. The owner grabbed a scratch pad, and started taking notes as the guy ranted about how he thought they would've used better materials, etc. When they got the the guy's address, the owner paused - They hadn't built anything in that subdivision for a long time. So the owner asked: "how old is the house?" And the guy said:
"30 years"
Redneck Extraordinaire
I once trimmed a house with big, traditional casings, baseboards and crown. All clear oak, we did our best to match grains and texture, five coats of varnish, even mixed the nailhole fillers. First offer on the house, the woman loves everything, but she'd only buy it if we painted, white, all the trim. The relator fortunately kept me from strangling her...and I got over it. On another, we put in a beautiful lawn, and I mean those guys did a meticulous job. Not a bump on it....looked like 2 acres of a putting green. A week after it's sold, the owner calls me and tells me that there's all these lumps and holes in his yard. I'd explained at our closing meeting he'd probably want to roll the lawn, treat it, etc. When I show up, I find out that all those bumps and holes he's running over with his new mower were caused by his new, xtra large ATV. And of course that's nothing compared to what his new 4x4 truck parked on the septic tank did. Oh well...I can only tell them what and how and when....can't regulate common sense.
Reminds me of a job that we built on a generator until the power company could get to it in that rural area. We were burning trash cuts etc out away from the house a piece until they installed power and then started hauling to the dump because sevice drop was right over the burn pile.
When the owner came along and took over the house I specifically told them they were not allowed fires anymore and especially not there. Next spring day, I ws driving by and saw flames twenty feet tall guess where. I figured, well chimpanzee attention span...
A year later I happened to be talking with the power guy and he siad they had a call up there complaining about lights flickering etc, especially on a windy day. He found the insulation charred off the lines feeding them. guess where it was charred? He asked me if I had any idea how that might have happed...I had a good laugh with him over it - all the while agreeing that it wasn't funny.
Excellence is its own reward!