John -

The tradition your dad passed down to you to document everything as you go
is an oddity in the world.  Most people don't learn to document, nor do
they like to do it.  I agree with you that many times they don't think it's
worth the bother (what good will their documentation be?).  Often I hear
complaints that it will take too long - the person wants to get on to the
next exciting project rather than completing the task at hand.  I think a
lot of this is not knowing in what one should take pride (providing good
documentation can be equally as important as doing the job itself, possibly
more so) and also in our society's change over to quick gratification
(think "Nintendo").

I love the idea of keeping the documentation within the structure.  People
should keep in mind that it not only assists future tradepeople, but that
they might be back on that site in a week, a year (hopefully not a century
;-)) and could easily forget important facts about the structure that need
to be considered on the next round of work.  If not to be altruistic, they
should at least consider it self-preservation.

- Pam

------------ Previous Message from  John Leeke <[log in to unmask]>  on
04/06/98 04:59:11 PM ----------
By the time I was 10 my Dad had me setting up a
file for each project I did and documenting my own work. Make a new picket
for
the neighbor's fence: a file folder with one page of notes, pine, sizes,
pattern for the top shape, primed with thined down white oil paint. Make a
foot stool for a customer: measured sketch with the walnut stain recipe
(walnut hulls in boiling water, steep overnight, etc.) Build an escape
trunk:
(for my interest in magic) eight pages of a step by step proceedure with
written descriptions of its secret latches, sketches & 3-D "ghost views" of
mechanisms, references to 3 magic books from the library at the nearby high
school (I was using the high school library when I was 12?), etc. (mock ups
of
two latches made, but never built the entire chest)
No wonder documentation has been a part of my adult work patterns. (And no
wonder I have the gumption to think that other people would value my work
and
that other tradespeople would be interested in how I do it.)
Sometimes we get into the "self-documenting building." We leave notes and
drawings for future tradespeople stored right within the building itself.
This
completely circumvents the owners and professionals, providing information
directly to the tradespeople who will be working on the building next.
(next
week, next year or next century). Avery has a plastic "paper" that can be
used
in a photocopier that makes quick water-proof, long-lasting copies of our
notes that we tack on top of girders or stuff into wall spaces and behind
cabinets.
John Leeke