By Len McAdams
My Medicare card came in the mail the other day – not such an earthshaking event, really, but the sort of thing that invites rumination. Then a friend from another line of work asked me, “How did you decide to go into the remodeling field?” More rumination: it wasn’t a decision, it was a simple twist of fate.
You see, I started building new spec homes in 1980 on my own after several years working in a really well-organized local company. Then one day in 1982, with interest rates at 18 percent for a home mortgage, I was sitting on two finished houses boasting 22 percent construction loans. My days as a Kirkland builder were definitely numbered. In fact, the outlook was desperate!
My lumber salesman, who knew how difficult our situation was, called one day with a lead for me. It seems he had taken a call that morning from a colorful lady who literally demanded he find her someone to build a deck on her home. The word she used was imperative – it was imperative she have a deck built immediately. Within hours, I was sitting in her living room listening to story after story, nodding my head agreeably, until we struck a deal to build the deck.
No one ever saw a more efficient deck-building crew. My right hand carpenter at that time was a wizard with wood (whose life would be cut short by cigarettes) and I became the best lumber dragging, shovel pushing, broom wielding laborer on the planet. A few days and a couple of coats of stain later we left our first customer smiling; for me, it was a seminal experience. During the process my client let us know her husband had been diagnosed with cancer and she wanted him to spend his remaining days on the new deck. I was hooked on the intimacy of our craft and would be a remodeler for the rest of my working life.
Our company survived that recession as design/build remodelers, and the one in 1996, and the one in 2001. We learned to do smaller jobs, turn down the heat in the office, and add a little effort to each task. Check back with me in 2011 about this downturn and expect the same report. And what fun we have had along the way!
Some years ago a couple here in Kirkland asked me to build a new master suite on to their small home, and after some discussion my honest advice was to move. The addition, you see, would over improve their property, and people usually worry a lot about that. After a weekend of looking at other houses and talking about options, they called me back to go ahead with the remodel as soon as possible. You see, they wanted their daughter to have the new master bedroom and bathroom for her three years of high school, then they could move in after she graduated. Later, I saw the young woman honored at a Kiwanis function for outstanding youth and saw in her the character and love her parents had fostered. It isn’t always about property value, more often it is about real human values.
There are lots more stories, some are funny, some are sad, and a few are best untold, but every tale is about the people. Remodeling of homes only exists because of the exciting and unpredictable nature of our human clients, some of whom have become good friends. Converting their dreams into physical reality composed of sticks and bricks, wood and concrete, is a delicate mixture of art and science. And even if we were to try, the recipe never comes out exactly the same way.
So beware young man or young woman, be very careful around construction projects. One toke of the remodeling drug could be all it takes to find yourself looking back in 30 or 40 years on a lifetime of projects with a smile. When my Medicare card arrived in the mail, it just didn’t seem like the guy who set off to conquer the known world just a few years ago could already be eligible.
