In a message dated 7/27/98 9:20:21 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:

<< Believe me, I could go on, but
 you get the picture.  I won't take out my need for therapy on y'all.

 I watched them.  I learned something from them.

 Godspeed to PTN.  Anybody want to start up the Preservation Clients
 Network?  I could use a support group.... >>

Dan's experiences with his "Butcher's" are all very true to my experience.
Often my job, as a contractor, is to sort out the various butchers and select
the better of the lot. The idea is to attempt to set up the best individuals
on the project, keep tabs on the progress, and do everything possible to avoid
a crisis. Any contractor concerned with quality has to handle the task of
finding, training, and keeping competent people to do the work, regardless of
their being on-staff or subcontractors.

The problems Dan has had with his own house you can multiply many times over
and apply it to the contractor's daily existence. Add to this the problem of
keeping the customer's confidence when the designated butcher decides to add
lib on the layout or throw in an unspecified material. Make it worse when you
cannot explain the reason for documentation and communication... "I just want
to lay brick, you deal with this bullshit." The best that can be done is to
find good craftspeople and to connect them to the right project.

A really good contractor is one who can balance all of the idiosyncrasies,
remain sane, and get 95% of the work done properly -- and intelligent enough
not to take on work that is not suitable to the people resources at hand. It
is a lot more diffucult, I think, than clients normally assume. When a project
goes wrong it seems to keep going wrong forever without end. I don't think
contractors actually get to spend much time building anything with their own
hands. In order to do this they would have to fire everyone and, as Dan
suggests, go solo. I think many contractors dream of going back to the days
when they started and returning to the field where there seemed to be simpler
headaches.

There does seem to be a prevalence of attitude to fast-trak -- get in, do the
job, get out and get paid, where quality tends to take a back seat. I find
this most difficult on punch list when the urgency to get paid is balanced
against the need to fine tune the work.

The construction industry is comparible to academia if you take all the
diplomas and resumes and throw them into a pile on the floor and then let the
best teacher win. You may get a well taught course, or a really lousy course,
but you will have no opportunity to know beforehand what to expect, despite
asking older students, who will color their impressions with their own
subjective biases. You may also end up getting your greek philosophy off the
back end of the pick-up truck.

][<en