----- Original Message -----
From: 
To: 
Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2000 3:12 PM
Subject: Re: confessions of a lurker (bio)


> At 08:34 PM 2/7/00 -0800, Rick Kessler wrote:
>
> Most of bio snipped...
> First, welcome! Here take my chair (they don't let me have a rocker yet)

No, No,  that's ok, I'll just stand here and suffer. But not silently.
>
> >The current project I'm working on is a modest 5700 s.f. home with
exposed
> >clear redwood beams throughout. You ought to see the looks on the
> >apprentices' faces when my working partner Bubba (his real name) and I
roll
> >out the chisels and planes to mill these beams to fit their brackets.
>
> Are you really telling us you do it this way on-the-job, not-on-TV,
> real-life, day-to-day?

Cowtown Eric asked the same question, word-for-word, (Hmmm? Do I have
something to learn here?) So with kind permission of the author (me,) I'll
answer word-for-word.

Well---- yeah, actually. I've been very fortunate in my career to work at
the highest end of the market, with the average residential project cost in
the mid seven figures (the highest was the mid eight figures, 2-1/2 years on
that one.) When your clients are willing to spend that kind of money, the
time is budgeted in to do things right.
Now, please don't let me give the impression that I don't use power tools, I
have a sizable chunk of change invested in new-fangled labor saving devices
and they do see use on the job site, but when you get down to the
nitty-gritty and want joints you can't slip a piece of tissue paper into, or
you need to remove planer marks, nothing beats a hand held tool with an edge
so sharp that when you breathe on it you can hear the microbes scream as
they fall either side of the blade .

> If so, here, take PL's vacant rocker.  Maybe the two of us and Bubba could
> get him to agree.  or not.
>
Oooh, a rocker. Cool. But wait a minute, who's PL? Is he gonna get pi**ed if
I take his seat? I mean Bubba's big enough to prob'ly convince him alone,
but what do I do when Bubba takes off for his weekly Rust Hunt? Maybe I'll
just sit on this railing for a while......

> Back to chisels and planes...
> It really is quicker and easier for that kind of situation, isn't it?
>
Well, not necessarily quicker or easier, but you can't argue with the
results.

There's an old saying in the construction industry that "There's never
enough time to do it right the first time, but there's always enough time to
do it a second time." (Also known as the "We do it right because we do it
twice" construction paradigm.)

Whenever I start a new project the first questions I *always* ask are,
"what's the criteria here? What's our timeframe?" The answer is usually
along the lines of "Take your time and do it right the first time." Joy to
my ears. That's when the hand tools come out.

There's another old saying, (which I made up a few years ago, and which is
*never* spoken around clients) which goes, " We may not be cheap, but we're
not fast." It probably sounds callous and flippant, but it is really just a
statement of reality when your goal (and the clients) is giving the client a
work of art to live in.

(Any remarks at this point about elephant dung on canvas being a work of art
and I'm doing a half-gainer off the railing into the rosebushes.)

Thanks for the welcome, I think I'm going to like this place. Is PL's room
for rent?
Rick