Annual Builders Exchange picnic

July 19th, the annual Builders Exchange picnic. We have a great raffle with dozens of great prizes. Local companies donate gift certificates or items. One of the gifts was an obviously underpowered drill. The guys sitting next to us, leans over to my boyfriend (who has nothing to do with construction except for knowing me) and says, "ha ha a girls drill". Boyfriend just shrugs and looks over at me.
I'd love to set that guy straight, but once again I just smile and groan.

Office hazards

The Cardinal Construction office is in a sweet little area near the beach. We are in a small building next door to a hair salon. Right before I moved into this building, we were called out for an insurance job where an elderly lady had driven through the front window of her beauty shop on the other side of town.

I am fearful that my little office will meet the same fate when one of the elderly clients from next door hits the accelerator instead of the brakes. Not a day goes by that a car doesn't pull out into traffic without looking - complete with squealing brakes. This morning one of the ladies drove up over the concrete bumper in front of the building and scraped a section of her wheel well and crushed what remains of a bush. It happens about three times a week.

PCBC in SF

People often ask me if I have a more difficult time when I meet clients and they realize I am a woman? Usually not.

The one event where I am never treated as a contractor or a business owner is the PCBC show in San Francisco every year. The Pacific Coast Builders Conference is a gigantic annual show where you can cruise the Moscone Center for information about new products, and services. There are hundreds of booths for every imaginable construction related items.

I drag Boyfriend along and he agrees to go just to appease me and he enjoys picking up freebies. The funny thing is that when we approach a booth together, the sales people automatically start discussing their product with him. He has no construction knowlege and no interest in learning anything about construction. He'll just stand there and let them go on, he'll look over at me to see if I have any questions! Most of the time the sales people can't be bothered to glance over at me.

It amazes me only in the construction industry itself do people assume I am not a contractor or business owner because I am a girl.

Next year I'm going with Susan Dee.

Safety first Evidence second

When working on sites close to traffic we take every precaution for safety. Cones, signs, and yellow tape all help to warn drivers.
Bruce tells me that he makes sure he always wears his bright orange vest with the company logo for one good reason…
He says the orange helps show the tire tracks and the company logo helps the family members in the lawsuit after they reclaim the body!
Let's hope that's not the case.

Vacation photos - architecture

From my vacation photos you'd think I went only on architectural tours. I love checking out the buildings, museums, churches and wonderous spaces I've read about, photos I've seen and buildings I've dreamed of walking through. I'm known to take photos of construction sites in foreign countries. Including photos of the hardwood floor restoration in Versailles, scary scaffolding in Mexico, cranes in New York. Some photos are taken with specific people in mind, knowing they'd like to see certain things that interest them about building.

My four favorite buildings of all time...

the Roman Colosseum

El Duomo - St Maria del Fiore in Florence Italy

La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona Spain

Notre Dame in Paris France

Green Building

I sit on the Board of Directors for our local Builders Exchange. It's a non-profit organization for licensed contractors in our area. By joining, members get benefits like group insurance and they have access to plans and projects going out to bid.
Today at our monthly meeting, we had two guest speakers from the City of Santa Cruz to talk to us about the Green Building Code changes the City is making. Builders now have to earn points by doing something "green" in order to be awarded a permit.

I'm all for reducing waste, recycling at the time of demolition and building smarter, such as considering the orientation of a building and roof placement to allow solar at a later date, if not at the time of building. Many of the contractors are disturbed by the changes. It is a lot tougher to get plans approved through the City. Some of the changes are difficult and expensive.

After our guests left our meeting, we were doing our normal monthly business and discussing the Annual BBQ picnic for members. One of the features will be a dunk tank and we agreed that a City Official sitting on that dunk tank would raise a lot of money at the BBQ. I know of at least a dozen contractors who would sign up and pay for the chance of dunking the Green Building official.

Note - July 19th - two building officials actually submitted to the dunk tank. The inspector for Scotts Valley braved the dunking and John Ansic - the Green Building pro mentioned earlier showed up!
As a little boy stepped up to take his first shot, John asked, "Hey little boy, who does your dad work for?" Then when some other contractors stepped up to the plate he'd call out "Double Fees!" or "Red Tag". Thank you for being so good natured.

oh you think that's bad... listen to this one...

Working in the mall is a weird twilight zone experience sometimes. The hours are odd, you have to work when the mall is closed for most of the noisy construction. You use the cargo doors, delivery entrances, and passageways behind the scenes that others never see. When you come off your night shift, dusty and dirty, you are leaving the mall just as the well-dressed bored housewives are starting to arrive.
Given the choice, I’d never step foot in a mall again.

On this particular project we were demolishing a Disney store and turning it into an Apple store. As part of the demo we needed to sawcut the concrete floors. Based on the blueprints provided by Murray the Mall Manager, we were safe to cut. Then came a fireworks display of sparks and a flying saw and a startled employee then complete darkness and silence.

We had cut through an enormous electrical conduit providing power to several other stores and the nearby escalator – and it had NOT been shown on the blueprints for the site. Thank God no one had been electrocuted or hurt. We were forced to shut down for the night.

Over the next few days, Murray the Mousy Mall Manager had the electrical repairs made, called the escalator company to re-start their escalator, got the other businesses back on the grid and we finally went back to work. Every day of delay in construction meant a day later opening the store and I knew our client would not tolerate any delay, no excuses. We’d have to find a way to make up for the lost time.

It became obvious that the escalator had been damaged, it never worked a full day after the electrical fiasco. After three days, it stopped working altogether. Because it was close to our store, we saw the constant round of repairmen coming by but didn’t give it much thought. Our store was on the main floor, so we never used it.

Shortly thereafter I got a call and letter from Murray the Misguided Mall Manager telling me how much the new escalator was going to cost. Interesting, sure but what did I care? Oh… he thought WE should pay for it! He explained that our construction dust had caused the mechanism to jam. And here I must tell you that out store had been surrounded in a soundproof, snoop-proof, dustproof barrier, we were airtight and practically shrink wrapped. It would have been a miracle of biblical proportions if our construction dust had gotten out into the mall, nevermind into an escalator mechanism.
Murray the Malicious Mall Manager set up a meeting between myself and the escalator company to negotiate the cost of the new machine.
We sat down at a conference table, me alone with my inadequate notebook and photos. The escalator company had every available service person at the table. They might have taken some of those guys out of retirement! I admit it was more than a little intimidating.

Since I had no knowledge of escalators, I just listened. Murray the Meek Mall Manager never bothered to call the meeting to order, didn’t have an agenda, it became a free for all. The escalator company employees started trading War Stories. “We had a breakdown in a such-and-such a city and you won’t believe what we found… a quarter all bent up in the gears.” “That’s nothing,” someone else jumped in, “we had the heel off a woman’s shoe jamming ours.” Laughs all around. The escalator stories escalated. Somebody else had gotten a stroller wheel out of the mechanism. Somebody tried to top that story and on and on they went. Thank goodness for the drive to always out-do the last guy.

I acted amused and impressed, so they kept going. What a strange meeting. After about half an hour of stories, I closed my notebook, stood up and looked around the table at the guys. I thanked them for inviting me. “Apparently it takes a lot more than sheetrock dust to jam an escalator. And we won’t be contributing to the repair.”
I turned and walked out of the room and out of the mall and never heard another word about it.

Flipping Out

I'd love to work work with this guy - Jeff Lewis from Flipping Out.

Great sense of style, great taste and amazing vision. Just crazy enough to make it interesting.

I'm sure I'd learn a lot working with him.

A guy I'd like to work with

A guy I'd like to work with - Nate Berkus.

Nate, call me if you do an Oprah "House Makeover" show in California. We could make it happen for you.

Imagine the exposure.

Fun guy, frantic project deadlines, good deeds.

Already worked for him

Worked with this guy.

Wow, what a ride. Hard work but I wouldn't trade it. It was like getting my constuction PhD in two years.

I was the Project Mgr for the prototype and very first Apple Store at Valley Fair.

Thanks Steve.

Critter Gitter

At Cardinal Construction, we do not sub out much work. I have a crew of talented men who know how to do almost anything on a jobsite. However, when the need arises, I’m not immune to hiring expert help.

A wacky client Marion called and asked me to come by and give an estimate for installing French Doors to her patio deck. She also decided to have us replace the deck while we were at it. A week before we were to start, she called complaining of a strong odor near the patio doors. We let a couple days go by, but it didn’t get much better. We decided to demo the deck and see if we could figure out the problem. JB started and called me soon after, “you’ve got to get over here right away and bring your camera.”

Under the deck were dozen of carcasses. Like the size of cats. Upon closer inspection we realized they were turkey carcasses. What the heck? So I waited until she got home and asked her what had happened. Sheepishly she admitted to throwing the turkey remains into the back yard after every Thanksgiving and Christmas for the last twenty years. “I guess the raccoons or cats dragged them back under the deck.”


Apparently one of her ungrateful raccoons had crawled under the foundation and died, that’s what was causing the smell.

None of us could fit through the crawlspace and I had no idea how to reclaim the raccoon body. I started calling around and someone referred me to “The Critter Gitter”.

He came blazing across town as soon as he got my call. He leaped out of his truck dressed in a jumpsuit and carrying some wicked looking tools including a long metal pole with a sharp hook on the end and a metal noose. He was a wiry young guy to be sure, and he had a crazy look in his eyes. As soon as he made his assessment he dropped to his belly and soldier crawled through the tiny opening to the foundation.

“I can see it,” he called out. “Oh yes, a young one, about 8 months old… got her.” Then he slithered out with his prize. He went back out to his truck, wrote and invoice, handed it to me and sped off to his next job.


Hopefully Marion has stopped throwing turkey remains into the back yard - but we sort of doubt it.

Threatening Soda Art

Most of the time our clients are wonderful to work with. We are busy enough to choose the clients we want. I turn down about 2-3 clients a year. It takes the form of an estimate with a very high hassle fee tacked on, that way if they still want to work with us, we make the hazardous duty pay rate. Often I turn them down before even sending an estimate. Sometimes after I send the estimate I realize this is not a client we want to work with and I give them the name of a company I think they are better suited for and gracefully back out before we’ve signed a contract.

Many years ago we worked with an elderly woman who lived in a mobile home park. As the project progressed we noticed she was not completely "there" when she started voicing some weird ideas. Our project included building decks and stairs on the exterior. The guys never went into her house, but she called me one day insisting that the guys had gotten into her house and used her phone for long distance calls while she was at the beauty shop. I asked the guys and of course they had not used her phone.

It became obvious that she was more than a little paranoid. I offered to pay her phone bill, telling her that all she needed to do was make a copy of the bill with the calls and I’d gladly pay her back. Of course, since the guys hadn’t used her phone, there were no long distance charges on it.

We finished the job and sent her an invoice and payment never arrived. After a week or two, I called to see if I could go by and pick up a check. She started yelling at me about a bunch of unrelated stuff and I began to think about how I was going to get paid without a battle.

She went on and on in her rant and she ended by telling me she was afraid to go out of the house because the guys were out to get her. What? I tried explaining to her that they were across town on another job and she could stop worrying about them.

She told me why she was so threatened. She said on the last day, Karl had poured out his soda on the pavement in the street. He’d poured it out “in the shape of a gun pointing at her house”. It was all I could do not to bust out laughing.

Although Karl is very talented, I don’t think he’s capable of pouring out a soda in the shape of a gun!

How much for that dog bite?

I have only been bitten by a dog twice in my life. Once when I was about ten years old, the other last month.

We were preparing to replace a deck that had been torn from a house by a falling tree in one of our windy winter storms. I usually go to the surrounding neighbors to let them know we’ll be in the area and to call me if they have any concerns about parking, debris or noise during construction. We pass out a marketing letter we call our Debris Letter. It’s actual purpose is to see if they want any work done while we are in their neighborhood.

I started up the next door neighbor’s driveway and heard a hound dog bark, followed by the hound dog charging down the driveway towards me. He stood in front of me barking and growling and I knew with certainty I would be bit. I didn’t want to be bit in the hands, so I held them up. And I didn’t want to be bit in the ass, so I didn’t turn around. The moment I took a small step backwards he lunged and got me in the left thigh. Did he break skin? Yep, a good deep puncture wound.

I left a card and note on the owner’s truck, parked on the street. He called me shortly thereafter. What an asshole! He was as aggressive as his hound dog. I told him to put up a Beware of Dog sign warning that his unleashed dog would bite. Obviously I never would have walked up the driveway had there been a warning sign. To which he informed me that he could probably “get me for trespassing”. Huh? Apparently he expected to get sued, so he was already on the attack. He went on to tell me that he had little kids that needed protection. Pity the small kids who come over there to play at face level!

I was sorely tempted to report his dog to the local SPCA who would have quarantined the dog, fined the owner and forced them to keep the dog leashed. I was never tempted to sue, that’s not my way.

Eventually, a Beware of Dog sign popped up on his driveway. He’d called several times to see if I was OK and mostly to make sure I really was not going to sue him.

Meanwhile I was trying to find a way to remove this gigantic tree and root ball which had fallen over and crushed the deck. The insurance company was only willing to pay $1,300 and I could not find anybody to remove it for that price. I hate losing money on even one item, so I was in a funk about how much it was going to cost out of my pocket above the $1300 from the insurance claim. Lo and Behold the neighbor with the biting dog called me one afternoon and told me he had a front loader and dump truck at his house that day and did I want to pay him to remove the tree and root ball?

“Well, sure, how much?” I asked “How about $600?” he asked. “Uh, well, I guess that would work” I told him. Quietly jumping up and down in my office on the other end of the phone line.

So a dog bite is worth $700.

Gary's Rule

One day when I was griping to my friend Gary about an employee who was not working out, he said...

"You can never fire a guy too soon, but you can always fire a guy too late."

How many times have I delayed firing an employee only to have it affect the other great employees? I waited too long and Raging Roy threw a tool in anger on a jobsite and scared one of my most loyal employees Casey. I waited too long and Dominic took a razor and cut his own arm and scared and shocked hard working David. I waited too long and Larry had the opportunity to scream at me on a jobsite and totally melt down, calling me names involving anatomical words he'd never use on a guy.
You're fired! I quit! You're fired! I quit!

Note to self - when in doubt apply Gary's Rule.

Taking the HIT for Deadbeat Contractors

It's not bad enough that I get hit as soon as I step in the front door. I spend the first 30 minutes assuring a new client we are not the nightmares that all their friends had on their remodels. I have to explain that it's just standard everyday policy that we show up on time, on the day we say we'll be there. I have to assure them that we stay on the job until it's complete. We don't abandon their job for days at a time to go work elsewhere while their place is torn apart. And when the surf is up and the swell is from the northeast, we will NOT be surfing, we'll still be working.

I get so tired of trying to convince new clients that we are not there to rip them off, destroy their home, do a crappy job and run off with the money.

So today I expect a progress payment to pay for the completed tile portion of the project, which has gone beautifully. My client insists on holding back money because - and I quote - "her designer was on a job where the tile guys screwed up the marble with the wrong sealer". Apparently she expects us to do the same bonehead maneuver and she wants to make sure she witholds enough of my well-deserved payment to recover the cost - just in case we as as incompetent as her designers worst case.

I'm so damn sick of taking the hits for all the deadbeat contractors in this town!

Interviewing potential employees

Every day I meet at least one person looking for a job. Never have there been so many people who fax me a resume, call to ask if we’re hiring, show up at the door looking for work, or e-mail me looking for job openings. On larger jobsites around town, spray painted signs hang on the fencing saying, “Not Hiring”.

Today I agreed to meet James, sent over by an architect. My main job during an interview is to get to know the person and determine their experience in the first 15 minutes. I’ve developed a checklist of questions pertaining to the various trades in construction.

Usually I weed out the guys without vehicles, without valid drivers licenses and the guys without tools. “I just sold them” means his work isn’t that important.

I started going through my checklist with James. So far so good, drivers license, a large assortment of tools and a van. He drifted off on stories right away and I had to reel him back in. I worry when a guy comes in and tries to dominate the conversation during an interview. Just answer the questions!

Then I asked if he could read blueprints. “uh yea, I read a book about it. I understand about the symbols and stuff.” So to clarify I asked if he’d ever built anything using blueprints and he talked some more about the books he read on it. “So, the answer is that you haven’t built off prints?” “Well”, he explained “my dad is an architect and I grew up around this stuff, so you could say it’s in my blood.” “So I’m hiring your dad too?” I asked, my patience quickly running out.

When guys tell me that their dad/brother/friend has a certain skill when I’m asking about their skill level, it’s a problem. Construction knowledge is not hereditary and it can’t be transferred from friends and if they’ve only “seen” their friend use a skill, it does not mean they acquired that skill.

Next I asked about his experience with stucco. Immediately he veered off to a tangent, rambling and rambling. Did he have any stucco experience? Turns out he took a window out once from a house that had stucco. I cannot figure out why it took four minutes to get to “no stucco experience”.

We moved on to framing, electrical and plumbing. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that installing plate covers on outlets and switches is not considered “finish electrical”. I was becoming frustrated with five minute answers in lieu of “no I don’t have experience in fill-in-the-blank”. Finally I told him that we only had ten minutes, so we better move on to the next topic.

It was becoming obvious that he was not experienced in construction. So I tried again by asking what jobs he had done and who he had worked for. Another warning bell went off. He described working for his mother. Never a good sign. Working for your folks is not necessarily construction experience. It usually falls under chores or hobbies. It’s also impossible to get an accurate confirmation or referral from mom or dad.

Clearly, he did not fit in with the apprentice level guys but I thought maybe I could hire him as labor if his rate was low enough. “How much are you looking for as an hourly wage?” I asked. The answer a guy gives will tell you an awful lot. If they don’t know what they’re worth, it’s very, very low. If they know exactly what they are worth and hour and confidently state it while looking you in the eyes, then that’s what you will end up paying them. But if they flounder around, they are fishing and do not know what they are worth. So James tells me his wage, it’s “between $15 and $20 an hour”. How many employers do you think will pay a dime more than $15 at that point? Not even one.

I’ll continue to interview potential employees when they take the time to stop by. There are a few gold nuggets out there, but sifting through the debris to find them can be comical.