Current Work:
Full Time to Freelance
Processing construction administration paperwork may not be a glory job, but it's a job, it's worth doing, and worth doing well. Yes, it's not big money and high prestige, but in this day and not everyone gets to keep using their hard won skills and knowledge instead of say.... ending up a clerk processing forms at a hospital.
Is there any challange? Of course, the same as the entire profession. Not enough time (as there is not enough fee). Always have to find faster more efficent ways to get the work done, file it for easy access, adapt to various on-line PM systems, and of course, always thinking how to document the process to allow jrs to come up to speed quickly, get the job done right the first time.
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What's in Your Attic (Click here)
aka - What the GC Left Out
I was surprised,
Which isn't easy when it comes to buildings.
The walls have been spreading / leaning.
But luckily...
Not much considering it's been there 70 years.
As there was no visible damage to the masonry wall under it, which I have to believe is because it had been previously patched.
At this point, the plan is to install some ties between rafters in the attic, redo the soffit outside that wall, engaging the masonry walls and locking it in to the sill plate / roof structure now that it's fixed and stable. That will keep everyting together as is. Then adding some trim detail to spruce up a long boring wall, and add a infiltration barrier as well as another foot of insulation to the 4 inches of old batt insulation over the top floor ceiling.
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Your Old House - Building Evaluations vs Feasibility Studies (Click here)
First, we all need to salute "This Old House", Bob Villa, PBS and all the rest who have made fixing up an old home cool.
Secondly, forget a "Building Evaluation", of course it needs work. What you need a feasibility study - an idea if, and how your dreams can be realized through Your Old House.
I walk through with the client, listen to what they say, what the broker / owner says, etc., develop an appreciation for building, it's current condition, utilization, and possibilities vis-a-via the buyers constraints and dreams. Then, usually have a bit to eat, coffee and discuss more of the buyers concept of what they are looking for. Take a half day to a day to write up notes, develop some back of the napkin sketches, the odd estimate. Ta - Da.
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All of these properties are in the Catskill Mountains, also known as "The Mountaintop", Catskill Preserve, and to those in New York City, simply as Upstate - as everything north of the city boundry is lumped together into major mind baskets that shrink thousands of miles into nothing at all.
I like to encourage folks to vacation, buy, fix up in the Catskills. For those in New York City It's the closest mountain area Upstate that offers really radically better weather, air, and water quality. Most streams in the Catskill Mountains remain COLD all summer, unpleasantly so really, but, what more would one want when it's 110 in the shade in the big city? Sitting on a rock with your feet in a stream reading a book (ok, your Kindle). Not to metion New York City's weird idea of locating the playgrounds our kids use between major highways. There are no major highways in the Catskills.
To boot, for the carless, Trailways runs more than enough busses through the Rt. 28 corridor, which is Woodstock - Delhi. They stop and pick you up ANYWHERE along the way. Then for day tripping the country runs a $2 bus all the way to Kingston.
The Catskill Mountains, and adjacent Hudson Valley, even the cities, Kingston, Saugerties, Delhi, Tannersville, Hunter, Phonecia, Margretville, Palenville, Lexington, all have property for sale at any level. Admittedly at the low end, you are DEEP into Do It Yourself territory, for a decade, but, if the structural frame is sound, the rest is doable. Hire an architect / engineer / and termite inspector (carpenter ants really) to vet the place first. When you fix it up, seriously consider only ADDING to it. Demo is huge amount of work, hauling to dump is expensive, and it's just plain wasteful. Screw GB over old cracking plaster, furr out for new wiring, etc.. Lots of ideas on my website, or just contact me for more.
Fixing up a house is GREAT EXERCISE too!
Fun for the family - teach the kids self confidence - yes, you can't micro manage them, here's the hammer, the nails, the wood, we want it to look like this, call if you need an assist. Too small for hammer, there are 6 volt screwdriver / guns, predrill the hold, screw, move on. Time consuming? You're teaching the young'uns, not running a sweat shop.
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Library
Below are pdf's of all the slides above.
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