How I Roll

Marni and I have done a lot of work on our house. There are some things, like putting on doorknobs, that I can do. For example, last night we re-arranged the computer/scrapbook room to better accomodate the flow of how Marni works on bills (on the computer) and scrapbooking. It is not the ideal arrangement of the room, but it is the best we could do without buying new furniture. This is stuff that we can do.

There is a ton of work that Brin has done that we do not know how to do. I took out two walls that had been built only a couple of years before. Neither were weight-bearing walls. In fact, they were extremely shoddily assembled. So it was something that I could do. Get hammer, break drywall, tear out 2x4's, release manly cry.

Brin took out a weight-bearing wall and added a support beam to distribute the weight. He rebuilt a wall where I had previously torn one down and added in our 6' French doors. He has put up our beautiful railing around what was once a hole in the floor and stairs to the basement. He put on our baseboards and crown molding.

Now, could I have done the crown myself? Maybe. Cutting it is messy and not a lot of fun; and I would have to learn to do it. That would mean ruining several pieces of crown molding, which I was not about to do. However, Brin already knew how to do it. He had redone his father's house from top-to-bottom and has had a huge amount of set construction experience; of which crown and baseboards are often wonderful touches to make a space feel real and lived in.

But one thing that I have learned in my time on this earth is that there are some things that I am definitely not good at; and some that I am particularly not good at. Anything which requires coordination or precision with my hands is definitely out. I learned this when I discovered that I could not paint detail work well on plaster ornaments or Dungeons and Dragons figurines. I am better at large sweeping strokes, though not much better.

Brin could teach me to cut the angles and alignment needed to make crown look wonderful. Of that, I have no doubt. But my ability to do it, make it look right, and not ruin a lot of crown in the process...that I have less faith in. Brin is very good at what he does, both as a handyman between contracts, and designing lighting and sets for the stage. He has a very strong skillset that I do not have, and more importantly, will never have no matter how technically proficient I become at a specific thing.

There are a lot of plumbers in the phone book, and dentists, and doctors, and mechanics. Why do you have the one you have? Most likely it is because of a personal referral. If not, it is most likely out of habit. Or both. Unless we have an absolutely horrendous experience, we often will stay with the same doctor or mechanic or plumber even if it makes sense to change--for example, because of the price we pay for service. But there is often something about them that makes them right for us.

Word of mouth is still the strongest form of advertising no matter what ad execs in highrise boardrooms make believe. We do not recommend people that are merely technically proficient at their craft. "Bobby can rebuild your engine...it might not be tuned correctly...but he can rebuild it." We recommend people who are exceptional at their craft. Sure, we will sometimes recommend family if they are only mediocre, but if it starts to rain negatively on us, we stop recommending them to avoid backlash from people who trust our opinions. But when it comes to things that count, we usually recommend the best.

There may be 50 companies listed under a plumber or a dentist, but we recommend one or two (though usually just one). That one is the exception to the other 50. They are the one that counts. Their industry must be "easy" since there are so many in it...but only one is getting our recommend and our business. That's the one that is doing this "easy" job well. The rest are, in our eyes and at best, merely technically proficient.