Sometimes, learning the hard way makes all the difference
Modern communication technology is wonderful. Until it isn’t. Then it’s maddening. It’s been that kind of week. In frustration, I turn to tools and pick up where I left off on my neglected remodeling project. Ah, the joys of homeownership.
Remodeling contractors are a special breed. The best homebuilders often start careers as remodelers. Most hope to leave remodeling behind. I know I did, but I learned a lot.
Most homes these days are built by cellphones, meaning contractors just call and schedule myriad subcontractors. If they are successful and get big contracts, they might have a job site superintendent with a tool belt (and cellphone) and maybe a handyman who handles customer service and punch lists at job’s end.
Once, when I was a superintendent for a publicly traded megabuilder in Tierra Contenta more than 20 years ago, the New Mexico division president issued an edict — any superintendents caught with a tool in hand would be fired on the spot.
He probably wasn’t kidding. His point was they had subcontractors for every single task imaginable in a home’s construction. It was up to us to make them toe the line. He also knew how frustrating that responsibility could be with subs beaten up by competitive bidding and taking every opportunity to cut a corner or shirk a task.
For someone trained in remodeling, the urge to just do it yourself was hard to resist. My schooling began as a helper for Paul Steiner, son of great Southwestern writer Stan Steiner. Paul learned his skills remodeling with intellectual San Francisco carpenters. He liked working alone, as many remodelers do, but had a few big jobs in a two- or threeyear stretch and needed a helper.
I learned how to frame walls and cut stairs and roof rafters for hips and valleys. We laid adobes with “speed leads” set at corners and leveled them with long, clear, skinny water-filled tubes. Digging, setting steel and pouring foundations was easy, but hard-troweling concrete slabs took practice. I even got good at stuccoing and plastering, hanging and finishing drywall, and setting and grouting tile.
With my first job as a licensed contractor, a big remodeling job, my crew and I tried to do everything. Most of the guys had been laborers with no particular skills or tools, but they learned eagerly. The first lesson was creative prob
lem-solving, which is the secret to all great remodelers.
I told the crew I was boss and made decisions, but if anyone had a better idea than mine on how to do something and didn’t speak up, they were screwing things up. We frequently stopped, pondered and problem-solved the quirky history of Santa Fe construction techniques. Our education in all aspects made them, and me, very effective future superintendents.
One of the most satisfying aspects of remodeling creativity is figuring out how to do stuff by yourself. These days, YouTube directions can solve just about anything, but some things still require head-scratching and tossing and turning in bed, contemplating solutions. Such is the case with the new roof overhang I’m slowly building. There’s no plan, but I’ll figure it out.
With internet and phone service, I would have been writing about other things.
That’s next week. Today, it’s figuring out how to get a pile of 1-by-8 boards up on the roof by myself.