Archive for May, 2009
Stretching the truth
Thursday, May 28th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
STRETCHING THE TRUTH
The warm breezes of summer take me back to the days when I was but a young man of ten years. In the summer, my parents would travel from Niles, Michigan to Webb Lake, Wisconsin to visit the place of my birth. Most of my relatives still lived in the far north woods which surrounded the twin lakes connected by a channel called Webb Lake. Out of those two lakes flowed a creek which was named, coincidentally, Webb Creek. My grandfather, whom I loved dearly, lived on several acres through which the creek flowed. Land which his father had purchased for one dollar an acre.
My grandfather was a man who was respected by all who knew him. He was a builder who built every home with loving care. He and his son (my uncle) would cut timber from the local forest, saw it into lumber, and stack it in pyramidal stacks to cure. After a year or two, they would plane the lumber to make it into smooth dimensional lumber out of which would spring his wonderful creation of a custom home for some customer from the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Customers who were wealthy enough to build a lake home on one of the hundreds of lakes in that area.
My grandfather and uncle would physically perform every aspect of the building process. They dug and poured the footers by hand, laid the foundation, framed the home, as I said, using their own lumber, built the cabinets, did the wiring, did the plumbing, and every other part of the job they accomplished with pride. I can remember watching my uncle lay the rock for the massive fireplaces for which they were known. It seemed to me like it took hours to pick out just the right stone. Many stones were tried until finally one was found that would fit perfectly into the appropriate place. My grandfather and uncle were perfectionists and took great pride in a job well done. I’m not sure they made much money in their homebuilding profession because they lived in a less than modest home. It seems as though they were more interested in doing the job well than in actually turning a profit.
Even though my grandfather was an honest and trustworthy man, there was one flaw which became evident after he would take me fishing. When we would see folks he knew, it seemed that every conversation turned to fishing. When he was queried as to the results of our fishing the previous day, he would always mention that we caught our fish on such and such a lake, although we had not even been there. I soon figured out that he wanted to keep his favorite fishing spots a secret that just the two of us could enjoy.
It seems that this is a great tendency of all fishermen. Stretching the truth about where, which bait, and the size of the catch is born into every man or boy who enjoys the pleasure of fishing. I have learned that taking pictures ensures the veracity of any catch. Since the days of fishing with my grandfather, I have enjoyed taking my sons to some wonderful places where we catch fish until our arms ache, and we have the pictures to prove it.
I think that I learned a great deal from my grandfather and uncle about taking pride in building homes that both my customers and I can be proud of. They say an acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree and I am proud to have followed in my grandfather’s footsteps. When I started building homes, I also dug and poured footers by hand, I did the framing (although the framing material came from the lumber yard), I wired, did the plumbing, the trim work and the painting. Over the years, however, I began to sub-contract those jobs to others who were competent in their trade and devoted my time and effort to run my building company in a business-like manner.
I have taught my sons also, to live by the golden rule. Eric is on the job every day to ensure that the subs are performing up to expectations. He works with our customers making suggestions as to how the drawing of their home can be translated into the finished product that is desired.
You can be sure that big ads, and fancy claims don’t ensure a quality home. Honesty, integrity, and reputation are more important in choosing a homebuilder than any other aspect. In past articles, I have mentioned some of the little things we do that make for a quality home, but the most important ingredient is integrity. Precision Builders prides itself in being honest in all our dealings.
Oh yes, and pictures have eliminated the fish tales.
Defective sheetrock
Monday, May 18th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
THE HIGH COST OF LOW PRICES
I’m old enough to remember the “good old days” when almost everything we bought was made in the U.S. In fact, anything made in Japan was considered junk– something with a very limited life expectancy and destined for the trash heap in short order. We would laugh at the cheap trinkets shipped to us from Japan and wonder why anyone would be so foolish as to even consider purchasing such useless and fragile things. What a waste of good money.
Even as recently as the 1970’s, Wal-Mart was running a “Made in America” ad campaign. Today, I feel like I need a passport to walk their isles with all the foreign merchandise. According to a survey by the National Labor Committee, of 90,000 pieces of clothing and shoes, 85% were not made in America. The travesty of the whole thing is that when comparing American-made items with those made elsewhere, the selling price was less for the American products in many cases. As an example, the Master Lock combination lock made in Milwaukee sold for $2.96 while the knock off made in Taiwan sold for $3.67. In the case of many clothing items, the American-made article sold for the exact same price as the imported product.
You may not be as old as I, but I remember very well when Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon visited China in 1971-1972 for the express purpose of establishing relations with the Chinese so we could become trading partners. During the Carter administration, in 1976, Deng Xiaoping became China’s leader. In January, 1979, Deng made an historic trip to the US during which he talked about how China could leapfrog the lost years with America’s support. And leapfrog they did.
For years I refused to buy products made in China, but now, it is nearly impossible to find anything that is made in America. This trend is a fact of life in the homebuilding business as well. Lights, plumbing fixtures, cabinets, flooring, etc. in many cases are made outside our borders.
Recently, an issue involving Chinese-made drywall has come to the surface. Usually drywall is made in the US, but during the shortages of 2004 through 2006, Chinese-made drywall was shipped into the Florida area. This material emits a rotten egg smell similar to sulfur. Whatever is causing the smell, results in breathing difficulties. It seems as though it also causes copper wiring, copper pipe, and air-conditioning evaporator coils to fail. Fortunately, this material did not make its way into East Tennessee to the best of my knowledge.
By now you are probably asking why I have brought up the world trade situation. The answer is this. It’s good to know the quality and safety of things before they are put into use. Precision Builders has been involved in discovering technology that can make your home a safer place in which to live. We can help you discover ways to build your new home in an environmentally safe way. If you are afflicted with allergies, we can show you how to make your home more comfortable and less prone to cause your allergies to rage. We do understand the high cost of low prices and strive to build quality into every home we craft.
Electricity rates would skyrocket
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
“ELECTRICITY RATES WOULD NECESSARILY SKYROCKET”
My first car was a 1956 Chevrolet two-door hardtop. Do you remember how the little chrome flap over the door window would flip up when the door was opened? Pretty cool. This meant that the door did not have a frame of metal surrounding the window which made it look very streamlined. You also had to know the secret access to the fuel filler which was hidden behind the rear taillight. Back in those days we didn’t give much consideration to fuel economy since gas cost 29.9 cents per gallon. This particular car delivered only 12 to 14 miles per gallon, but that didn’t bother me a bit.
My, how things have changed! A car that gets only 14 miles per gallon today is an albatross. A vehicle for the wealthy. A car that can hardly be sold. P.T. Barnum wasn’t exactly right. There aren’t enough suckers to go around these days to snap up a vehicle like that.
In the same way, homebuilders weren’t very interested in energy costs in the early 70’s when I started building. We didn’t think about ways to build an energy-efficient home. Energy costs were low, especially in the areas where TVA furnished power. TVA rates were the second lowest in the country.
Did you know that 62% of TVA’s energy comes from coal-fired steam plants? Why is that important? President Obama said, “So, if somebody wants to build a coal plant, they can–it’s just that it will bankrupt them, because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.” He went on to say, “Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”
Are you ready for that? Everyone I know was complaining this year because of the high electric bills they experienced. Are you ready for those bills to skyrocket even more?
When energy costs rose dramatically in the mid 70’s, I worked hard to find ways to make my homes more energy efficient than those of my competition. These techniques I still use today along with other innovations that have been developed recently.
For example, do you realize that your home, even though built by a good reputable builder, has an air loss which is the equivalent of your front door being open 24 hours a day? The framing system of the average home takes up about 22% of the exterior wall space. This 22% is uninsulated. There is a framing technique that reduces the amount of uninsulated space to about 12%. It’s called “advanced framing technique.” This one technique alone results in up to a 5% energy savings.
Today, homes can be built so that the amount of air loss is reduced from the size of the open front door to the size of a 3 inch circle. As you can imagine, the cost to build such a home carries a price tag of about 15 to 20 thousand dollars. Looking at the future through the eyes of our president, this may be a very wise investment.
There are less costly approaches as well. The next best system, called “flash and batt,” utilizes a closed-cell poly foam on the inside surface of the wall sheathing along with regular fiberglass batts. This system adds only 2 to 3 thousand dollars to the average home price and should result in good energy savings. The closed-cell foam effectively seals the exterior against air loss.
An even less costly system is called “tight-fit.” Cellulose insulation mixed with glue is blown into the stud cavity to make a much tighter seal than standard fiberglass batts. This system adds about one thousand dollars to the cost and can result in energy savings, especially when combined with advanced framing.
This may be the time to trade out of your “gas-guzzler” home and consider building an energy-efficient home that will pay big dividends in the days of high energy costs which lie ahead of us.
Budget cut of 17 billion dollars
Monday, May 11th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
I LOST 40 POUNDS THIS YEAR
I lost 40 pounds this year but you would never know it by looking at me. I decided to implement the federal government’s method of reckoning and creative bookkeeping. When the government reports that the budget was cut 17 billion dollars, what they mean is that the next fiscal year’s budget, which is much higher than the current years budget, was reduced by 17 billion dollars. There was no real savings and in fact, the budget is higher than the current budget. In my simplistic mind I see that as an increase and not a budget cut. How about you?
So, I can claim a 40 pound weight loss because I was expecting to gain 50 pounds but only gained 10 for a net loss of 40 pounds according to accepted government reporting practices. You can apply creative accounting to other areas of your life as well. Imagine how your bank balance could be ballooned by applying this technique. Or ladies, imagine the possibilities using this practice while shopping for clothes. You can report back to your husband that you purchased all those clothes and didn’t spend a dime. In fact, you had a net savings. You were expecting to spend $500 but managed to obtain your purchases for only $432.27 for a net gain of $67.73. “Honey, I made $67.73 today by shopping. Do you want me to deposit my earnings in the checking account?” Your bank balance would increase by $567.73 because you didn’t need the $500 and made $67.73 to boot. What a deal!
Unfortunately, in the real world we can’t operate like our elected officials. If we did, we would be put in jail for fraud. Bernie Madoff discovered the reality of that fact. He was simply employing the principles that his elected officials used. The social security system is the mother of all ponzi schemes. Apparently Bernie thought what was “good for the goose was good for the gander.”
Creative accounting can be used in the home-bidding process as well. A contractor may provide you with a bid that is lower than others but he may have left out some critical elements or priced some things on the low side, expecting to come back later with a change order to recoup the monies spent. When getting bids from several contractors, make sure you are comparing “apples to apples.” My advise would be to get bids from two contractors who have flawless reputations and good recommendations from their previous customers. Be specific and clear in what you want priced in your new home and apply the same criteria to both contractors.
Creative building-schedule promises have been used to lure a customer away from contractors who are honest. A few years ago, after spending many hours with a prospect, they were lured away from me because they were told their home could be built in a time frame much shorter than I had told them. The husband wanted to use me but his wife thought the promised shorter build-schedule was more important. As it turned out, their home took about five months longer from start to finish than I had told them. I started a larger home about a month after their home was started and finished it about four months before their home was finished. Ask a builder’s references if their home was delivered on time.
You can rest assured that we will not use creative bidding practices or creative scheduling to entice you to use us to build your home. We will price your home fairly and tell you as honestly as possible how long it will take to complete construction. Our goal is to have as good a relationship with you at the end of the process as we had at the beginning.