Last week I made a decision to extend the back end of my house to make room for a new pool table, bar and general chill out room for my friends and I. For years now my friends have been coming over to watch live sport matches in my living room due to the fact I have 52inch plasma TV. This has finally worn thin on my wife, so I thought it about time to have my own room for these kinds of events. I decided to go for an old rustic look with the use of sandstone and some French glass doors.

Now, as I am no builder I decided to employ the services of Austin Texas Masonry Contractors to handle this delicate task. I’ve heard from numerous friends and other sources that these guys are the best when it comes to all things masonry. As my house gets quite hot in the summer time, I thought it only fitting that I make use of masonry to increase thermal mass, allowing it to bring a much cooler feel to the room. Added to that, the use of the French doors will bring in a nice breeze of fresh air.

I’ve heard that masonry work is one of the most durable forms of constructing walls of building and other retaining walls. As I plan to live in this house for many more years to come this seems like the best option. The guys at Austin Texas Masonry have advised it should only take about two weeks to complete the construction of the additional room making it available for use by the end of May. I can’t wait as I’m sure my friends can’t too. I imagine I will probably never leave what with my pool table, plasma TV and let’s not forget the refrigerator loaded with Budweiser and Heineken.

Any of you contractors out there looking for some work should consider moving to Seattle. I’ve heard that Seattle New Homes is a new development project happening right now in the beautiful city of Seattle right next to Lake Washington. This new project consists of two hundred new homes and apartments all in a 30 mile radius and needs to be completed and all homes sold by the end of 2008.

Through a few contacts, I’ve heard the developers are still looking for contractors to join in on this project. They are asking for submissions of costs and ability to finish the project within the timeframe required. Unfortunately, I am currently working on a big project here in LA so I can’t do it.

I think this new style of development is a great way to get different companies working together in order to complete a project as one. This is an excellent opportunity for networking. I know I have had to turn down many jobs in the past because I have been to busy on other jobs. This way I could recommend other companies to these clients and hope the same might happen in return.

Understatement- a lot of problems crop up on a building site. Fact- it isn’t always the new guy’s fault. Caveat- it usually is the new guy’s fault. The older hands come equipped with something you just can’t trump: experience. Of course experience comes in varied forms. It can come through hand-me-down father to son training, distance learning, or onsite experimentation.

My crew encountered a regular hornet’s nest of fresh disasters working on a job downtown last month. The city had scheduled us to restore the original herringbone flooring in the old Bassett Wax Museum. Herringbone is a massive pain as I’m sure many of you out there know. But the herringbone we encountered during our stay at the wax museum was from way out of left field: it was made from real bone.

It seems that the original owner of Basset’s, Dr. Harvey Mainlun, came from a long line of whalers, and somehow, through a curious blend of artistry and, for lack of a better term, recycling, incorporated real whalebone into the wood flooring of the Bassett Wax Museum.

Our problem was now that the original herringbone floor (avec whalebone, thanks to Dr.Mailun), had worn through, how were we to go about replacing it while staying faithful to the original design and feel of the museum. This wasn’t just our own desire to be artistic and preservationist – we had received a visit and a few threatening letters from the local 101 Society.

The 101ers are a group of perhaps well-meaning grey-haired librarians who steadfastly oppose any change to local buildings constructed over 100 years ago. Normally they were harmless, and a few cakes and crackers could get them out of your hair. But recently, their leader, “Sprout” McCoy had spoken at a sidewalk sale about arming members.

It all ended up well enough though (or should I say “whale enough”?), when my son Donny came to the rescue. Donny had recently held a part time job sweeping the Marine Center nights. When he was sweeping he stumbled upon a trapdoor. Upon opening the door he discovered a whole treasure trove of random whale parts! It sounds unbelievable, so we didn’t believe him. For quite a while. But the way it broke down was that about 10 years ago the Center had had a huge exhibition of whale skeletons. But the catch was the guys who put “em together got drunk and left out the femurs. Of course they were too embarrassed to tell anybody about it, so they chucked them all down into the cellar. After a few powwows with the Center honcho we wrangled the bones in exchange for doing a tub surround in his office. Sweet!

I should have listened to my stepbrother when he told me not to move into this building. But here I am. No lights, no fridge, not even cold running water to take a shower. Even worse, I’ve locked myself in. Thank God I’ve got my trustworthy laptop. But the battery is getting low…

I was so close to living the good life and yet I let it all slip through my fingers – what a dummy! Sarasota is where all the cool kids live – a lot of them are also down in Tampa, partying in their southwest Florida new homes, driving their hotrods around on the pristine, gulf coast beaches… But did I choose to move there? Noooo! I chose the hard road.

My doctor had told me the air in Sarasota would soother my gout. But I didn’t believe her – she’s lied before. Many, many times. And so, when a cheap apartment came up in the artsy district, I took that instead. My plan was to go back to my doctor’s and tell her I’d been shot. If I lived in a questionable area I thought the chances of her believing me were 50-50. The thing with telling her I’d been shot is that that way she’d have to give me a full physical. After 5 long years of begging she has steadfastly refused to see me without my overalls. I was dying to get out of them.

Well my priorities were totally off. I wasn’t shot, and I locked myself in. Now I keep falling asleep and dreaming of the beach near Cape Coral. I bet my doctor’s there now. Hunting jellyfish with that speargun I gave her.

In the past month I had a few jobs doing work for these photography schools which provided me with the opportunity to something a little new and learn from it. Although what I learned isn’t necessarily related to my work. I got the first job and it was for a full fledged remodeling of the entire school, including the photo labs and darkrooms. After that we were recommended to do three other school’s labs. Now, making this labs wasn’t particularly difficult, no super special installations were required, but it was an interesting challenge.

I have always been interested in photography but never actually took the time, not that I have any to spare, to read about it or even try it out or take some courses. Working on these projects afforded me the opportunity to learn more about what is involved in the photography process.

Working on somewhat unusual projects like this has always been one of my favorite things to do. The variety of projects that I do work on is large but day in and day out you begin to repeat yourself, especially if it happens like it did with the schools and you find yourself taking on a lot of work from clients in the same industry. Sure I think working on this labs is fresh now, let’s see what happens next month though… I’m not complaining, work is good.

Okay, maybe saying ‘the extra mile’ is saying what them literate, English types would call a hyperbole, after all it is just part of the everyday job.  I’m talking about requests from clients that require me to do a bit of interior design.  With their busy schedules sometimes they have no time to even look up an professional interior designer for some of the most basic or essential ‘I-need-to-furnish-this-today’ types of jobs.  Other times its a combination of convenience and a consciously self-known lack of style sense that prompts some of my clients to ask me if I could recommend where they can by an entertainment center for their TV or if I can actually recommend a specific model, for example.  It is usually single guys asking that question and I always like to recommend solid wood entertainment centers as they are the most durable and often the nicest looking.

It isn’t always living room furniture however, depending on the job I may be asked for suggestions on industrial and office furnishings and/or equipment, so, I need to have knowledge of this type of information even if it isn’t exactly what you would think is a primary element in my line of work.  That’s why in a sense it could be considered the extra mile, although I’d like to think of it as it being a very small mile.  Like I said, it’s the job to fulfill client’s request, and if they fall under my category then I’m gonna do it. 

As a conscious business man I am always looking for ways in which I can increase my revenue, whether it is looking for ways in which I can maximize my productivity or augment my public presence so that I can reach a much broader clientele.  What I’ve decided to try this time is trade shows, as both an attendee and a presenter.  I’ve been to this type of conventions before and usually I always find something that, to me at least, seems new and innovative.  I figure I may find something that may give me a new angle or idea that would help my business increase its productivity.  Also, I may do the same for someone else there.  The idea is barely new and I’ll I’ve done really is look at when some of this shows will take place and at catalogs for trade show displays.  Still no much thought into the actual content of what’ll go on them, just a bit excited with the idea of setting up a cool looking booth I guess.

If I go through with the idea it will be the first time I present myself and company in this manner so I must admit, I am a bit unsure as to how I can best do it.  Perhaps it would be useful to attend one or two shows as an audience member before participating as a exhibitor.  It really isn’t that hard: I know my business, I can talk about it, but I’d like to try and do something that seems new.  I want to present my business in such a way that is new for people to see it as, if only just slightly.

In this day an age of growing concern for the well being of our planet Earth and conserving its resources for generations to come a new type of homes are beginning to emerge from the musty interiors of hippie’s and environmetalist’s basements and the word is self sustainability.  From homes that recycle their own water (no physical prototypes that I know of at the moment) to entire self-sustaining communities that harness wind energy to powertheir town.  From such radical elements as bio-diesel producers to compost barrels and salt lamps.  The market here has possibilities for lucrative results but is it something the general population would want to take part in.

Such ‘eco-friendly’ projects are mostly unknown to the general public at the moment and in most cases, making an effort and giving up luxuries and conveniences for the sake of environmental consideration just isn’t that cool.  Plus, let’s face it, most of these beatnicks who actively seek projects like this don’t generally have a well groomed appearance, and that has not much to do with environmental responsibility, so they don’t really give that good an image to their own cause.  Okay, maybe I’m being a bit unfair.  The cause for sustainable communities has grown out of the living room and into the outside world, somewhere, I don’t exactly know where but I think I hear it jumping and yelling for some attention.

Last week my company decided to hire a few extra bodies to help with some construction work we were doing. We found these two students from Collins College. Never in my time as a construction worker have I met two of the laziest people around. These guys would have been in their twenties, both studying arts and living on campus. Firstly, I think they were both stoned when they arrived at 6am. Then after giving them instructions to move some bricks, I get a huff and a puff and a roll of the eyes. I thought well it is early in the morning; I will give them a chance to wake up a little. I went off to pick up some supplies from the local hardware store and when I returned these guys were already sitting down for a cigarette.

I asked these guys if they had ever done any hard labor before and both of them said no. It came around to lunch time and I decided I was better off letting these two bong heads go home. I paid them for the minimal work they did and sent them on their way. As I get older I wonder what the youth of today are thinking. Have they lost all motivating to earn a living and do a hard days work? I know that when my son reaches the age of 13 I will be sending him out to get a part time job. I want my son to know the importance of actually working hard and saving money for the future.

Do any of you building contractors out there ever get envious of your customers? I know I do. About two months ago I was working on a mansion up in Beverley Hills. The owner was some young high flying IT guru. I think he worked for IBM or Microsoft. Anyway, his crib was fucking awesome. In each room he had these whopping plasma screens all linked as videoconferencing systems. I was chatting with him and apparently he has at least 4 videoconferencing meetings a day that he decided rather than going into the office at different hours of the day or night he’s just setup a system at home.

Apparently, because of the time difference between cities where his clients or counterparts live this setup was much more financially viable for his company. He told me that all of it was a tax deduction so actually he has come out on top being able to keep all the products at a fraction of the price. I love being a building contractor but sometimes I wish I worked in another industry that could afford me the great luxuries that some of my clients enjoy.