Oh my goodness!

No wonder the artist has been asking me for a blog post. It has been since November 30th that I last wrote. It's February 15^th, two and a half months have slipped by. What’s been going on you ask? Lets see…..

-Our apprentice moved on

-We finished the re-side project on Sycamore Ct

-We have been interviewing

-We have been interviewing

-We have been interviewing

-We thought we had a new hire, he decided against it

-We were bidding on a really fantastic project, lost it  

-Started the big roof replacement project on Hyde Ave

-Started a small bath remodel

- on a nice basement finish, lost it (I need to sharpen my bid pencil I guess)

-The Artist is taking on more responsibility each day as the office manager

-We are sprucing up the business– new website (coming), new procedures, new office.

-Deciding on if we still try to hire (actually putting that on the back burner right now, going to rely on sub’s for the time being)

-Really appreciating a mild winter, only about 20” of snow so far

It's been a season of deep contemplation as to where and how we take the business to a new level. As hard as it has been to admit, I really need to fix my body. I have a couple of shoulders that need surgery, and the knees have seen their best days. I continue to play a management/support role for the crew. We know we need enough work to keep at least 3 guys busy, maybe 4 to pay the bills as I slip into 100 percent management and no carpentry. That’s the tough part, trying to slip into no carpentry. I did the demo on a masonry chimney last Friday, not good for torn shoulders, but it got done. The guys hauled all the debris, that helped, but it is Sunday and the advil is still going down.

It has been a time of some disappointment.

When our apprentice quit, it made me step back a little. I was sure it was a God thing when he became part of the team. When he quit, I thought how could I have been so wrong, it seemed so right. Well it was a God thing. A God thing for him, to help him out in his decision making as to what his career would be. We were just an instrument in helping him find his way.

In our offering a job to a potential project manager, I thought it was a done deal, until he came back and re-thought his plans and decided to stay where he was working. I was really looking forward to that new venture for us. He would have been in charge of one of the big jobs I was hoping to get but didn’t. I guess those two situations worked out how they were supposed to. I would have been in a tight spot for other reasons if he came on and then I had no work for him…hmmmm.

Right now we are using two sub-contractors to help with the big roof job. This is not just a shingle job. We are striping the complete roof off right down to the wall line. The complete house at one time or another will be open to the sky. We are watching the weather very closely and deciding each day depending on the weather as to how much we tackle.

So I think that catches me up for a while. For now I am looking for spring, a few big jobs, and a few good permanent men.

~The Carpenter