Whenever I start to get bored by a topic, I think of that iconic poster from the Vitra Design Museum depicting 224 chairs from the German museum's vast collection of contemporary furniture. That poster reassures me there are infinite ways of looking at even the most basic thing.  What could be more boring and obvious … Continue reading The Beauty of Creative Blocks

My nextdoor neighbor, who has a better view of my yard than I do, called to tell me the pink saucer magnolia is blooming. That means it’s Pat Hickman Day. Our family invented Pat Hickman Day to honor the foresight of the man who built our house almost 80 years ago. In addition to constructing a small, no-nonsense Cape Cod cottage in […]

Driving home from construction school recently, I tuned into NPR’s interview with author Christina Baker Kline about her forthcoming novel, A Piece of the World. Kline’s follow-up to Orphan Train explores the relationship between artist Andrew Wyeth and Christina Olson, the subject of his best-known painting, Christina’s World. Referred to as America’s Mona Lisa, Christina’s World … Continue reading Wyeth Meets Hardie: Interweaving Art & Architecture

Construction school, by the numbers: According to the 80/20 Rule, 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people.  According to retired General Electric CEO and chairman Jack Welch, corporations should fire the least productive 10% of the workforce every year. According to conventional wisdom, 5% of building materials will get wasted or … Continue reading Percents, Commonsense & Nonsense

There is a growing pile of scrap wood in the workshop, which has come to represent tremendous opportunity and paralysis for me. Opportunity, because we can use the wood and tools--when we're not working on class building projects--to make anything we can dream up. Paralysis, because when I stare at the pile, suddenly I have … Continue reading Makers’ Marks

After a few recent changes in the construction class roster, it was time to reorganize our workgroups. Someone suggested we do it gym class-style, i.e. choose captains, then let them take turns picking team members. Choosing captains was easy enough, as there are two obvious standouts among our fourteen classmates. But the notion of a … Continue reading If You Wannabe My Builder…

While I recently observed that the older students in construction school are more engaged and motivated than the younger set, the exception that proves the rule just might be the youngest member of the class. Despite that fact that this 16-year-old woman was born even after that dewy cohort known as millennials—and the fact that her … Continue reading Who’s the Boss?

The Pareto Principle, aka the 80/20 Rule, reigns in construction school, where 80 percent of the work is done by 20 percent of the students. Our program space is divided into two zones: the classroom and the workshop. One is silent and sterile; the other pounds with noise and swirls with sawdust. French doors separate the … Continue reading A Few Good Men

This weekend, I finagled two passes to the House Hasson hardware show at Gaylord Opryland Convention Center, where manufacturers of building supplies try to woo retailers to carry their products. I totally forgot to take photographs, so just imagine a big-box hardware store with reps at every display, sharing the wonders of their SKUs. Aisle after aisle of concrete, roofing guns, … Continue reading Of Mice and Men

As a writer, I'd say my most valued tools are a sharp pencil and a fat eraser. Armed with the bipolar instruments of creation and deletion, I can embark confidently on any train of thought, no matter how unformed, then edit my ramblings, saving myself the public humiliations of flimsy first drafts and errant punctuation. I suppose that's why I'm so … Continue reading Sharpest Tool in the Shed