Build Notes (New Construction, Older Homes, Renovations, Interesting Finishing and Details)
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Great detailing. The person who does all of our exterior detailing and quite a bit of the interior actually hand sketches all of these types of details to scale. He’ll take something like this, not copy it exactly, but pull the general idea from it and work it into a newer plan. It’s funny because every time he does something I’ll think it looks familiar, then months later I’ll be traveling somewhere and realize, that mf’er, that’s where he got it from.
Other than some of the really extreme modern stuff, I don’t know how much in residential architecture is truly new. Most of it has some connection to things people were already doing 70, 100, 150 years ago, sometimes way before that. Even Arts and Crafts and mid century modern were still borrowing from older ideas. Really it’s just taking those things, changing them around a little and making them work for what you’re building now.
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@northsouthdenimguy
Impressive examples of real craftsmanship. Nowadays, it is becoming less common. -
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@northsouthdenimguy
Unfortunately, the client for the marble tub did not pay his last bill in full, therefore only
of
As a small, equalising justice, he is currently behind bars in Austria -
During the economic downturn from 2008 to 2011, I was doing a lot of renovations because new construction was virtually dead here in the States. The last year I was doing renovations, I got stuck a few times with people refusing to pay their final bill, usually the last 5% to 10% of the job, until they had squeezed every possible extra out of you for free.
Fortunately, shortly after the last time it happened, I was able to get back into building custom homes again.
Some people just aren’t good people. They’ll take advantage of you as long as you let them, and somehow convince themselves they’re justified in doing it.
@selveldgesteps
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@northsouthdenimguy im in commercial/industrial mechanical construction but have noticed that after 2008 virtually every job, no matter how big or small, has a "right to lien" clause
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@northsouthdenimguy said in Build Notes (New Construction, Older Homes, Renovations, Interesting Finishing and Details):
I got stuck a few times with people refusing to pay their final bill, usually the last 5% to 10% of the job, until they had squeezed every possible extra out of you for free.
I fucking hate people who do that.....Be kind to people, you never know when the roles will be reversed....
"OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011
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@Giles
My experience, it’s usually the arrogant, full-of-themselves blokes, flaunting their so-called wealth, who end up being nothing but trouble. -
I’m probably going to give away who I’m talking about by saying this, but I really don’t care. I’ll say without hesitation that restaurant owners and restaurateurs have been some of the worst people I’ve ever worked for. They rarely pay on time, you’re constantly chasing your money, and in my experience they almost always find some reason not to pay the final amount.
Case in point, the last one who really stiffed me was a very prominent Southeastern chef and restaurateur who was also a James Beard Award winner. I had done the kitchen in his personal home, which turned out absolutely beautiful, and later did a refresh on one of his restaurants for what I believe was its five year anniversary. Before we touched the hardwood floors, I specifically asked him whether Murphy’s Oil Soap or any other cleaning product had ever been used on them. I don’t remember exactly what the wood was, possibly heart pine. He assured me absolutely not. He said they had a professional cleaning company with explicit instructions to use nothing more than a lightly damp mop and no products whatsoever.
My hardwood flooring company came in overnight, lightly sanded the floors, and applied polyurethane. He told me polyurethane was what was already on the floors. I had actually suggested going with an oil finish, but he didn’t want that. He wanted something with a little sheen to it and something he felt would be more durable. The next day, while we were finishing the rest of the refresh, the polyurethane started peeling off the floors. Clearly something had been used on them at some point that prevented the new finish from bonding properly. He didn’t want to take any responsibility for that, and rather than get into a prolonged fight over whose fault it was, we just bit the bullet, sanded the entire floor all the way back down to raw wood, and refinished it properly. Needless to say, that cost me money.
Something similar happened on his personal house. When it came time to collect the final 5% or whatever remained, suddenly there were a bunch of additional things he wanted done that were never part of my scope of work. It wasn’t even a tremendous amount of money, but I don’t believe he ever paid me the final balance.
The funny part is that I later built out a bakery he was heavily involved with because the bread was being produced for his restaurants. I believe the space was around 10,000 square feet. The shell was already there, but we retrofitted the entire space into the bakery. Thankfully, he wasn’t actually the owner writing the checks, even though he acted like one. I knew the real owner very well, so I got paid properly on that job. Had I been relying on the chef to pay me, I probably would have gotten stiffed again.
And just for a little perspective for everybody who says, “Screw that, I wouldn’t have done it. I would have sued him. I would have filed a lien. I would have walked away.” I was broke as a fucking joke at that point. When 2008 hit, I went from doing very well to having essentially zero dollars coming in almost overnight. Every single job mattered. A decent renovation might cover a few months of mortgage payments on the unfortunately more-than-one home I owned at the time, which had seemed like a great idea right up until 2008. A tiny bathroom job might cover the cell phone bill, gas, electricity, groceries, or whatever else was due. I literally started equating every job with which bills it was going to pay.
It was a very bleak time, and sometimes the practical decision was to finish the job, eat something you probably shouldn’t have had to eat, collect whatever money you could, and move on to the next one. You can be completely right on principle and still not have the luxury of spending months fighting somebody over a relatively small balance when you need cash flow right then. I wouldn’t change that experience for the world. Well, maybe I would change parts of it, but you know what I mean. Lol.
Edit: I should’ve been clearer in that last sentence. I wouldn’t change what I learned during that timeframe or how it changed my overall perspective on what I wanted out of life, at least monetarily and, in some ways, life in general. Other than spending a ridiculous amount of money on boots and clothing, of course.
