Considered Opinions

Building Construction

I suppose the “building-things” gene is in my blood because my Dad built things that most people would never have dreamed of undertaking by themselves. During the Depression of the 1930s, there was no choice but to make the things one needed – they were not on shelves, and no one had money to buy them anyway. Many stories about those times can be read at Bart Beck.com, and a couple of my favorites come to mind today, like building their first home. their first real home .

• When they moved from Michigan to North Carolina, where I was born, they owned nothing and had no savings to invest. They first rented a room in someone’s house and drifted around between rented apartments until they could save up enough money to buy a small piece of land. Then Dad undertook a project that he describes here. 
• After returning to Michigan, they bought two lots on Fisher Lake, and he built a large home there for his growing family. When I say he “built the house”, I mean HE first designed it with paper and pencil, HE dug the basement with Harry Shively’s tractor, HE set the forms and tied the steel in the slab and foundation, HE poured the concrete with a cement mixer that HE had made himself from junkyard parts, HE laid the concrete blocks with the help of my cousin Ralph Jr, HE framed the structure with salvaged wood and 12-penny nails, HE did all of the plumbing himself, HE did all the wiring himself, HE designed the roof structure and built the whole damn thing with no help, other than a $1,200 loan^[i]I remember that day and him counting out the crisp new hundred dollar bills for Mom and Todd and I. None of us had ever seen a hundred dollar bill before. from the local Savings & Loan.^[ii]Every time I read what I just wrote, it brings me to tears, thinking of what he went through.

 

Understanding that I have no formal training in any of the building trades^[iii]… or related areas, other than Real Estate Law in college and a short time hanging my real estate agent license with a local broker, and that I have never considered making a living in the construction industry, for a guy trained in electrical engineering, it seems I have quite a number of projects in my inventory of experiences. As I finish my last one this Spring, it seems appropriate to reflect back on them.

• My Dad was part owner of a construction company specializing in overhead and underground gas and electric projects all over the Midwest. Although I never worked on one of his crews, I grew up around the business and learned about digging and backfilling ditches, dozers, loaders, welding pipe from the inside out, and especially Athey Wagons (pictured here – click for close up).
• After high school, Dad got me a job with Beal, Gibson & Rousch Electric Company in Kalamazoo. I was an apprentice electrician and belonged to IBEW Local 131. We did a major remodel of what was then the Upjohn pharmaceutical plant^[iv]I can still remember that sickening smell of some kind of medicine being brewed up. in Portage, Michigan^[v]…now owned by Pfizer, where the COVID drug was developed. Later, we did the electrical installation at the Kalamazoo International Airport, which opened shortly after.
• In college, my fraternity brothers and I lifted the entire three-story fraternity house from its foundation in order to make the ceiling in the basement high enough so we could build a secret bar there. We then converted one of the old chimneys into a wire-chase and rewired the entire house with Romex to replace the knob & tube wiring. Since I was the only one with any experience, I became the “Project Manager”.
• In the early 1970s, Steve Hardy and I bought HUD repossessions, fixed them up, and resold them for a profit—not always a profit, but we had fun and learned a lot about the construction industry and financing.
• In the late 1970s I doubled the size of our house. When I say “I did it”, I mean;
• In the 1980s I hired Tom Scala – in exchange for rent – to disassemble the original Patchen barn. I then carefully salvaged all the lumber, cleaned it up, and “trued it up” on my antique Dewalt radial arm saw. With the help of Steve Hardy and Jerry Dodd, we poured the perimeter foundation that remained from the original Laddick ^[vi]… later Castor house full of concrete to make a suitable foundation for the remodeled Patchen barn. I then used my McCulloch chain saw, rough 2 by 4s and 2 x 6 s from Scarborough’s, and 16-penny galvanized nails to build it from the ground up. Later, after the 1989 earthquake threatened it,  I hired a carpenter to help me frame the lower floor interior.
• There was a time when I used to ski a lot. So, in 1987, I bought a 19th-century Victorian in Truckee.^[vii]I have done more than my share of really dumb things in my life, and I will not try to list them all here, but this one probably is near the top of the list. It had been a Bed and Breakfast business in the past so I restored that business and later renovated the entire property, including; .
• Meanwhile, I have (a) surveyed plots of land^[viii]I use an inexpensive David White transit and Metes And Bounds software.; (b) bought and sold land in California, Pennsylvania and Florida; (c) written a dozen or more contracts, covenants, and easements; (d) gone through the Building Site Approval process in Santa Clara County twice, doing almost all of the work myself; and (e) developed an algorithm for evaluating unimproved mountain land.

 

I list all these things, not to make myself look or feel important, but rather to acknowledge that all this experience has no residual value. It has no value to me because my building construction days are in the distant past, and it has no value to anyone else because it is impossible to pass on such things to anyone else. On the other hand, writing and remembering one’s accomplishments always brings pleasure and there is always a chance that someone will ask for advice on the subject, and I can say, “hell yes; I can help you with that”.

By: Jim
Written: May 4, 2024
Published: May 4, 2024
Revised: 
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