This article reminded me of my last couple of years in the Toronto area ("GTA," locally) and my experience there with the labor force. I was active in the trades, mostly as an interior painter, but was associated with a company that did disaster mitigation work for insurance companies. I was often surprised when going on to a job site that most of the tradesmen were my contemporaries. I was pushing 60 at that time, so you get the picture. There were a few younger people on site, but mostly they were people who couldn't find an "electronic" job or who were otherwise computer challenged.
I don't think it was mi imagination, because almost daily there were non-commercial pleading through the media for people to enter the trades. This was backed by many news reports that, despite the wages of blue collar workers approaching or equalling some college supported jobs, there was a dearth of tradesmen and women. This is anecdotally confirmed by friends I hear from now who live there and can't find a plumber or painter or whatever who can do a job satisfactory even to the unpracticed eye of a homeowner.
For my part, though I've done a few stints at the keyboard and screen, I have worked mostly with my hands in the construction trades. I owned and operated a landscape design/installation company specializing in xeriscapes and water features (there's a contradiction for you!) and did a great deal of household renovations as well. I was younger then, able to swing a pick for most of a day in 110F on hardpan surrounded by white walls, if called to. Not any more, lol!
But I always remember the satisfaction at the end of a day. Whether it was a coat of gloss paint on a wall that showed no roller marks in the glare, or the sound of three tones of water falling into a fishpond we just finished. That was, interestingly enough, a great contrast to the drudge I felt in office jobs where the chief satisfaction was usually social, in that I got along well with co workers and management or not.
The choice is easy for me. There is clarity, virtue, and reward in working as a team with competent craftsmen. There is fulfillment in seeing something that was not long ago "just" an idea take shape not only before your eyes, but under your hands. There is a connection between the imaginative, cognitive, and technical skill realms of experience that precipitates a feeling of wholeness.
I can't work now like I did then, I'm 62 years old and feel some of the symptoms of six decades of engagement with the world and its personal exigencies. But I still work with my hands, doing painting, some building trades, and most interestingly, work in ceramic art that is moving into a satisfying realm of recognition even in this economy. For me the case for working with your hands is moot. It's been my life. My hands, looking at them, is a history of my labor and my love of expression. The scars are there from tool cuts to surgery for removal of cactus spines. The texture is there from exposure to sun in the Sonoran desert for 23 years to thick spots where mortar burned my skin. The feeling is there from an iv that nearly wrecked a nerve to the occasional twinge from what I hope isn't incipient arthritis.
We all have ours stories. If it is true that Romans were allowed citizenship by the calluses on their hands, I would have made the cut. But mostly I feel the rewards of complicity to the demands of using skills best expressed with my hands. When I shake hands with another tradesman, farmer, craftsman, artist or musician, there is a feeling of respect and gratitude that flows through those fingers and palm that, like mine, have a treasured grip on reality.
Showing posts with label construction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label construction. Show all posts
Monday, May 25, 2009
Friday, April 27, 2007
Typical Daily Update
Hi Mom, Everyone,
The floors were finished today, with grout included. The floor tiles in both the bathroom and the kitchen are the same, but will have slightly different grout colors to tie in the other features in each room. The toilet is now also installed and working (YEAAAAA!!!!). the kitchen cabinets are also all in, as well as the microwave. That includes the little cabinet for pots and pans which will also be a work surface for the stove. The electrical is not tied in anywhere in the new construction, however, and the pulls all yet have to go on to the doors and drawers.
Yet another person stopped by today to ask "Who did the landscaping?" It is certainly an eyecatcher. Today I spent some time in the yard because the weather was just too lovely to pass up. I trimmed the bottlebrush tree so it can be walked under without fear of poking something. A rose bush also got trimmed, as well as the birch in front. I did some cleanup in the back yard, but a good deal of time was used to clean the multitude of weeds from the junipers in front of the house. The Wong's benefited a bit from that as well, because I did their half of the junipers between the two driveways and some of their planter near the birch to "spruce" that up, lol! A little bit was done along Schmidt, from the corner up through the first section of fence.
The lawn is to be mowed by Wednesday. It is growing like wildfire! It is one of the richest greens I've ever seen. Everyone compliments Joseph's design and work. The painter, Frank, stopped by to check how it was going with the windows, and I told him that Marcio expected the windows to be arriving this week some time. He also said how nice the place looks, and I thanked him for his good work. I have had a chance to look around the house and see how they did things, and I was pleased to see that even the roof vents were nicely done to complement the house. Gia the realtor was here as well and like what she saw and unlike Marcio estimated ten days to completion. I hope Marcio's estimate of seven is more accurate. Gia also encouraged me again in my artistic pursuits. (I found a gallery in Albany that will take what I have on the coming truck on consignment as soon as it gets here.)
The next major thing outside is the back yard and finishing at least a cursory cleanup of the curb plantings on Schmidt. The garage driveway is now clear of debris, which clears the way for more cleanup in the back, of which there is a lot. I've got the behind the garage area done, and have started piles of various catagories of trash for disposal, recycling, greenwaste, and hasmats. Right now, the inside of the garage is a hasmat and maybe that will be my priority tomorrow as the dumpster will be useful in that regard.
Love and blessings,
Anton
The floors were finished today, with grout included. The floor tiles in both the bathroom and the kitchen are the same, but will have slightly different grout colors to tie in the other features in each room. The toilet is now also installed and working (YEAAAAA!!!!). the kitchen cabinets are also all in, as well as the microwave. That includes the little cabinet for pots and pans which will also be a work surface for the stove. The electrical is not tied in anywhere in the new construction, however, and the pulls all yet have to go on to the doors and drawers.
Yet another person stopped by today to ask "Who did the landscaping?" It is certainly an eyecatcher. Today I spent some time in the yard because the weather was just too lovely to pass up. I trimmed the bottlebrush tree so it can be walked under without fear of poking something. A rose bush also got trimmed, as well as the birch in front. I did some cleanup in the back yard, but a good deal of time was used to clean the multitude of weeds from the junipers in front of the house. The Wong's benefited a bit from that as well, because I did their half of the junipers between the two driveways and some of their planter near the birch to "spruce" that up, lol! A little bit was done along Schmidt, from the corner up through the first section of fence.
The lawn is to be mowed by Wednesday. It is growing like wildfire! It is one of the richest greens I've ever seen. Everyone compliments Joseph's design and work. The painter, Frank, stopped by to check how it was going with the windows, and I told him that Marcio expected the windows to be arriving this week some time. He also said how nice the place looks, and I thanked him for his good work. I have had a chance to look around the house and see how they did things, and I was pleased to see that even the roof vents were nicely done to complement the house. Gia the realtor was here as well and like what she saw and unlike Marcio estimated ten days to completion. I hope Marcio's estimate of seven is more accurate. Gia also encouraged me again in my artistic pursuits. (I found a gallery in Albany that will take what I have on the coming truck on consignment as soon as it gets here.)
The next major thing outside is the back yard and finishing at least a cursory cleanup of the curb plantings on Schmidt. The garage driveway is now clear of debris, which clears the way for more cleanup in the back, of which there is a lot. I've got the behind the garage area done, and have started piles of various catagories of trash for disposal, recycling, greenwaste, and hasmats. Right now, the inside of the garage is a hasmat and maybe that will be my priority tomorrow as the dumpster will be useful in that regard.
Love and blessings,
Anton
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Reno ripped camping
I'm pretty much camping out here at this moment, as both the kitchen and the bath room have been ripped out. At least they put the flush back in before they left! The demolition has revealed an interesting thing. What was suspected about the house not having a shred of insulation is true. Can you imagine what a house up there (Ontario) would feel like, either Winter or Summer, without insulation? Fortunately, though this is not yet California's temperate "sweet spot," (that would be San Diego,) the conditions here are usually not that extreme. So -- the decor I'm currently enjoying is "old sub floor" with accents in "revealed framing." There are very tasteful highlights in the style of "let's leave this in the wall; nobody will know," and "Mickey Mouse and Insect companions were here!" The rest of the house is done in contemprary "old painter's tarp," "Makeshift Drapes," and a very generous application of "Let's put this here for a moment till it's stored or tossed." Delightful. I'm expecting the photographers from Architectural Digest to arrive a bit before the ones from Town and Country magazine. The people from the Tribune Sunday Home Supplement have already come and gone, having been suitably impressed and somewhat in awe of my decorating prowess.
The exterior painters started yesterday and will be doing a lot of scraping and patching today. It has been pretty noisy here. The occasional train going by the house in Palgrave seems very tame compared to this, as we are as well on a busy street, the cross street of which goes to the local recycling center some blocks away. You may be in a similar traffic noise situation, what with the QEW so near. By contrast, my sister Mary's place where I sometimes take refuge, is very quiet, being just off the old "Gold Country" highway running North and South. It is actually called Hwy 49, after the "'49ers" who came in droves to pick, pan, and placer the yellow stuff of dreams out of the foothills there in the mid 1800's.
Day before yesterday it was 76F in the house with all the windows open. The sun set was spectacularly lovely. Earlier I was up at my favorite look-out spot, about three minutes from here. I could see all the bay from San Jose to San Pablo. The sparkling water was wearing sailboats like a bright young girl might wear freckles. Green was everywhere. I ate my fudge chocolate ice cream as I watched the business of the Bay Area ebb and flow below me. I could see all three of the major bridges from my perch. Square across from me was the Golden Gate, with a an immense container ship furrowing its way towards Oakland. Sailboats scurried from it like water bugs from a beaver. The Bay bridge nuzzled Treasure Island to the left and the San Rafael bridge looked lazy with its characteristic mid span slump, designed to save millions in construction costs, and give a thrill to people who drive too fast. Across the Bay and to the right stands the majestic profile of Tamalpais, the "sleeping maiden" of local Indian legend. I wondered if the folks surely up there at the summit could see whales migrating in the Pacific hard to the West of the Maiden's skirts. I saw jet liners taking off and landing at the major airports and remembered the many times I had arrived and departed from here by air, and the remarkable aerial view of the span from the Faralon Islands at sea to the lofty Sierra Nevada Mountains with their treasures of scenery and gold. It was a good day that I held in my hands and drank of deeply.
The exterior painters started yesterday and will be doing a lot of scraping and patching today. It has been pretty noisy here. The occasional train going by the house in Palgrave seems very tame compared to this, as we are as well on a busy street, the cross street of which goes to the local recycling center some blocks away. You may be in a similar traffic noise situation, what with the QEW so near. By contrast, my sister Mary's place where I sometimes take refuge, is very quiet, being just off the old "Gold Country" highway running North and South. It is actually called Hwy 49, after the "'49ers" who came in droves to pick, pan, and placer the yellow stuff of dreams out of the foothills there in the mid 1800's.
Day before yesterday it was 76F in the house with all the windows open. The sun set was spectacularly lovely. Earlier I was up at my favorite look-out spot, about three minutes from here. I could see all the bay from San Jose to San Pablo. The sparkling water was wearing sailboats like a bright young girl might wear freckles. Green was everywhere. I ate my fudge chocolate ice cream as I watched the business of the Bay Area ebb and flow below me. I could see all three of the major bridges from my perch. Square across from me was the Golden Gate, with a an immense container ship furrowing its way towards Oakland. Sailboats scurried from it like water bugs from a beaver. The Bay bridge nuzzled Treasure Island to the left and the San Rafael bridge looked lazy with its characteristic mid span slump, designed to save millions in construction costs, and give a thrill to people who drive too fast. Across the Bay and to the right stands the majestic profile of Tamalpais, the "sleeping maiden" of local Indian legend. I wondered if the folks surely up there at the summit could see whales migrating in the Pacific hard to the West of the Maiden's skirts. I saw jet liners taking off and landing at the major airports and remembered the many times I had arrived and departed from here by air, and the remarkable aerial view of the span from the Faralon Islands at sea to the lofty Sierra Nevada Mountains with their treasures of scenery and gold. It was a good day that I held in my hands and drank of deeply.
Yes, the electrician came.(current events)
The excitement here is at a fever pitch. The Queen came by yesterday to see how things are going, and she was followed by several folks of note in the worlds of arts and letters, science, and global affairs. Bill Gates came by to ask me for some advice and got into it with Donald Trump who was already here for a cup of coffee. A start-up movie company is filming with some of the local talent in the back room and is claiming odds of making several millions of dollars. Oh, and my brother finally came by to move his stuff and direct the gardeners to scalp the back and front yards preparatory for new plantings and laying sod.
OK, I'm just a little bored and tired of the tedium here, and of all of this only the last line is actually true. But because of the waste generated in the scalping process, I had an exciting time at the dump. You see, instead of putting all the waste in easilly tipable containers, the landscape workers had just thrown everything, dirt and plant materials, in the truck. That makes for an impenatrable mass of muck, unshovelable and barely rakeable, if those are actual words. Of course, arriving to unload at the disposal facility, the tail gate of the truck wouldn't open.
All told, I spent two hours unloading the darn thing. It was a rainy day, and yes, the dump is such a lovely place to spend one's time. Two different imense tractors scared the daylights out of me as they charged by, honking loudly, bleeping, and pushing heaps of splashing, smelly debris into a monumental pile. I actually swore a few times, loudly, before someone came along who had exactly the right tool for getting the tail gate down. Serendipitously, he was a house painter and I got him to come and give an estimate on some exterior work. Turns out he is also a trombonist in a local orchestra and I got an invite to the next performance. Anyway, the truck mess won't happen again, as I had some carefully crafted explanatory words with the guys. Some of my crews in Arizona used to try to load trucks that way in order to get more hours. Unfortunately, my somewhat inexperienced brother was directing these fellows and the truck was loaded by the time I looked out the window to check on progress. My bad.
The interior paint job here looks great, and I've even had a few requests to do work from some of the contractors who have been here. But I've already been here in the States too long, but have to see this through as far as I can. I also won't be able to see the passport people until Wednesday next week. As my Mexican crew in Arizona used to say: "Mucho travajo!" Nevertheless, I'm thinking I might do a faux stone finish on the red brick fire place here to make it look classier. Right now it looks pretty sad compared to the improvements around it. I think I will do some kind of keystone pattern. Not sure what kind of rock I will make it look like, but a gray fieldstone would look handsome as a contrast to the mushroom colored walls and white trim near it. Oh, and by nearly unanimous consent, the outside of the front door will be a dark red brown.
Another issue is my brother's former room, the so-called "cave," which he has done in very realistic and thick faux stone. An excellent job, I might add. Almost without exception anyone who has seen it has recommended to leave it alone and price the house to include a renovation of it if necessary. The only opponents to this scheme are the realtors. But as the electrician who saw it said, "Oh, they all just want to paint all the walls white and put down beige carpets!" He may have a good point. What do you think?
We have had some colorful folks coming through here, and who knows, they may be more entertaining than the imaginary dignitaries I mentioned above! For instance, Brian, who came to estimate sanding the parquet, told of a job he just did up in the wine country in a town that is completely Amish. That was just after he did work for a coven of witches, a story that I won't even start to repeat.
There is no alcohol available there in that Amish town, nor meat even for sandwiches. He had to go vegatarian or bring his own lunch. But the contract, he claims, despite the thrifty, restricted, and archaic environs, was in a veritable castle. The owner answered the door, he said, swirling a cape that was two shades of violet, and he was brandishing a sword! Brian was sure that this character was loony tunes, so sketchily got his information and was about to make a quick exit. The swordsman/owner stopped him and proferred a check for $1000 for his bit of time scoping the site. Brian refused it and went back to his office to call his friend who refered him to the job. Well, it seems that he could hardly talk from laughing as he told what happened. He was nevertheless urged to take the work despite his certainty that his prospective client is nuts, as his friend had done installations there and had come away both with his sanity and large checks. So Brian called cape-man's banker to see if the money was good. The banker remarked about the thousand dollar check that "It would be good even if it had nine zeros on it!"
So, he takes he job and finds that the castle owner wanted his office done in quarter sawn oak. Quarter sawn is a pretty rare way of getting wood these days. It is an invloved, and in these ecologically sensitive times, a wasetful process. When he asked the mill about availability, they nearly ridiculed him. So what happens? On hearing that quarter sawn is not available in the needed quantitiy, castle guy calls the mill himself. To make it brief, he paid nearly a half a million dollars to put on a night shift to make his planks. Brian installed it, along with an inlay pattern around the edge to frame the antique and pricelesll Persian carpet to go there. That inlay was of exotic woods chosen after our floor guy did a complete installation of five samples, sanded and finished, in situ, all to be ripped out and restarted after the selection was made. The end product included four griffin inlays, one in each corner, at a cost of $8000 each, above the similar cost of the samples! Good thing this installer is a friend of the family, otherwise I don't think we'd get him to work here. This place is no castle, lol!
After all this excitement, I'm going up this Saturday evening to my sister's in Diamond Springs for a murder mystery dinner. Each course comes with three clues, and at each table is an unknown shill who tries to misdirect your guesses. After following the twists and turns of the above story, plus figuring out what some of the contracors were thinking when they did what they did, and managing to keep my sanity through it all, my guess is that I will solve the case. More next time!
OK, I'm just a little bored and tired of the tedium here, and of all of this only the last line is actually true. But because of the waste generated in the scalping process, I had an exciting time at the dump. You see, instead of putting all the waste in easilly tipable containers, the landscape workers had just thrown everything, dirt and plant materials, in the truck. That makes for an impenatrable mass of muck, unshovelable and barely rakeable, if those are actual words. Of course, arriving to unload at the disposal facility, the tail gate of the truck wouldn't open.
All told, I spent two hours unloading the darn thing. It was a rainy day, and yes, the dump is such a lovely place to spend one's time. Two different imense tractors scared the daylights out of me as they charged by, honking loudly, bleeping, and pushing heaps of splashing, smelly debris into a monumental pile. I actually swore a few times, loudly, before someone came along who had exactly the right tool for getting the tail gate down. Serendipitously, he was a house painter and I got him to come and give an estimate on some exterior work. Turns out he is also a trombonist in a local orchestra and I got an invite to the next performance. Anyway, the truck mess won't happen again, as I had some carefully crafted explanatory words with the guys. Some of my crews in Arizona used to try to load trucks that way in order to get more hours. Unfortunately, my somewhat inexperienced brother was directing these fellows and the truck was loaded by the time I looked out the window to check on progress. My bad.
The interior paint job here looks great, and I've even had a few requests to do work from some of the contractors who have been here. But I've already been here in the States too long, but have to see this through as far as I can. I also won't be able to see the passport people until Wednesday next week. As my Mexican crew in Arizona used to say: "Mucho travajo!" Nevertheless, I'm thinking I might do a faux stone finish on the red brick fire place here to make it look classier. Right now it looks pretty sad compared to the improvements around it. I think I will do some kind of keystone pattern. Not sure what kind of rock I will make it look like, but a gray fieldstone would look handsome as a contrast to the mushroom colored walls and white trim near it. Oh, and by nearly unanimous consent, the outside of the front door will be a dark red brown.
Another issue is my brother's former room, the so-called "cave," which he has done in very realistic and thick faux stone. An excellent job, I might add. Almost without exception anyone who has seen it has recommended to leave it alone and price the house to include a renovation of it if necessary. The only opponents to this scheme are the realtors. But as the electrician who saw it said, "Oh, they all just want to paint all the walls white and put down beige carpets!" He may have a good point. What do you think?
We have had some colorful folks coming through here, and who knows, they may be more entertaining than the imaginary dignitaries I mentioned above! For instance, Brian, who came to estimate sanding the parquet, told of a job he just did up in the wine country in a town that is completely Amish. That was just after he did work for a coven of witches, a story that I won't even start to repeat.
There is no alcohol available there in that Amish town, nor meat even for sandwiches. He had to go vegatarian or bring his own lunch. But the contract, he claims, despite the thrifty, restricted, and archaic environs, was in a veritable castle. The owner answered the door, he said, swirling a cape that was two shades of violet, and he was brandishing a sword! Brian was sure that this character was loony tunes, so sketchily got his information and was about to make a quick exit. The swordsman/owner stopped him and proferred a check for $1000 for his bit of time scoping the site. Brian refused it and went back to his office to call his friend who refered him to the job. Well, it seems that he could hardly talk from laughing as he told what happened. He was nevertheless urged to take the work despite his certainty that his prospective client is nuts, as his friend had done installations there and had come away both with his sanity and large checks. So Brian called cape-man's banker to see if the money was good. The banker remarked about the thousand dollar check that "It would be good even if it had nine zeros on it!"
So, he takes he job and finds that the castle owner wanted his office done in quarter sawn oak. Quarter sawn is a pretty rare way of getting wood these days. It is an invloved, and in these ecologically sensitive times, a wasetful process. When he asked the mill about availability, they nearly ridiculed him. So what happens? On hearing that quarter sawn is not available in the needed quantitiy, castle guy calls the mill himself. To make it brief, he paid nearly a half a million dollars to put on a night shift to make his planks. Brian installed it, along with an inlay pattern around the edge to frame the antique and pricelesll Persian carpet to go there. That inlay was of exotic woods chosen after our floor guy did a complete installation of five samples, sanded and finished, in situ, all to be ripped out and restarted after the selection was made. The end product included four griffin inlays, one in each corner, at a cost of $8000 each, above the similar cost of the samples! Good thing this installer is a friend of the family, otherwise I don't think we'd get him to work here. This place is no castle, lol!
After all this excitement, I'm going up this Saturday evening to my sister's in Diamond Springs for a murder mystery dinner. Each course comes with three clues, and at each table is an unknown shill who tries to misdirect your guesses. After following the twists and turns of the above story, plus figuring out what some of the contracors were thinking when they did what they did, and managing to keep my sanity through it all, my guess is that I will solve the case. More next time!
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