Ain't No Double Wide!

Courtesy of Connor Homes / Jim Westphalen Photography

"MANUFACTURED HOUSING!" Conjures up the worst of images in your mind doesn't it? Two halves of a mobile home driving down the highway, backing up traffic. Cheap, vinyl paneling lining all of the walls. Tornado magnets. Hound dogs sleeping under the porch. But the home above 'ain't no double wide' and it is by definition...manufactured housing!

Seeing is believing so last week my business partner and I went to Middlebury, Vermont to kick the tires at Connor Homes. This was not completely unprompted - our new clients, Cozy and Mark Palmer have dreamed of a New England clapboard home for years. We are thrilled that they not only selected us to help fulfill that dream, but also wanted to help us understand the Connor Homes building process by taking us to the factory. It was a truly spectacular and amazing tutorial!

You really can't believe what we saw!  Imagine 110,000 feet of warehouse, roughly three football fields, where entire homes - and I mean big homes, were being assembled. The efficiency was staggering! How about only 1.6% waste from all of their manufacturing processes! Heck, we will haul off fifteen or twenty 40' dumpsters full of waste from any one of our jobsites! Connor is "green" REALLY GREEN! What they don't cut up for blocking goes into bins for the local compost company to turn into chips for the compost pile.

Maybe the best adjective to hang around Connor's Homes neck would be "semi-automated." We watched in amazement as a 10' tall by 14' long, 2 x 6 wall section was completed in about five minutes! But then when you have automated tables that pre-determine where the studs go; when those same tables roll the nailed wall section on to the next station where the wall is squared up and plywood sheathing is tacked on; where doors and windows are cut out of the wall section sheathing with two man routers; and finally where that sheathing is face nailed with a power nailer that has twenty nail guns firing simultaneously, you can produce wall sections that fast.

Connor's manufacturing software is so good that each wall section is numbered, and stacked according to when in sequence we will need that part to assemble on-site. The Palmer's 3,800 square foot house frame will be completely produced in about seven to ten days!  Could this be the changing face of the home building business?

We will supply the foundation, roofing material (metal standing seam), systems (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing), as well as necessary labor. But even all of the interior cabinets and trim will be supplied by Connor - by flatbed, later in the building process. In a world where really fine homes are usually built in 18 - 24 months, is it possible that the Palmer's will be living in their home five months after Connor Homes shows up on our jobsite? Those timelines used to be reserved for small tract houses, and - you guessed it - DOUBLE WIDES!

Work Ethic? What's That?

In his bestselling book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey re-defined the term "paradigm shift" to describe a change in basic assumptions about life and the workplace. After visiting with several of my younger friends who have been very successful in business I have come to realize that we are undergoing a substantial paradigm shift in the work habits, and work ethics of the next several generations. 

My Dad steadfastly worked thirty-five years for Eastman Kodak. Every day he would get up, and suit up for the challenges that lie ahead at the office. He had a place to go - usually needing to be there around 8am, and generally heading home sometime after 5pm. It was expected that he would give Uncle Eastman 40+ hours a week under the watchful eye of his superiors. Dad never complained - that generation just expected to be working those kind of hours at a place other than the comfort of their own homes.

A lot of that obviously rubbed off. When I entered the workforce it was already ingrained in me that I would be giving the homebuilding company I was working for at least forty hours a week. Anything less would be considered stealing from my employer! Come to think of it this is the same template that was thrown back at me when I asked my lead trim carpenter how he got his guys to work so hard (UPS has nothing on these guys - think Everready Bunny on steroids!). Simple he said, 'if they take a lazy step they know that they are stealing from me; that means I am stealing from my Contractor; which means he is stealing from the client; and NO ONE  is going to steal from the client!' I love that guy.....

Fast forward to my young successful friends. Everything seems to be results driven. Is this the paradigm shift Covey was talking about? This next generation appears to be happy with workers who might only work 15 hours a week so long as they are "hitting their numbers." The expectation has become performance driven, and their accountability extends only to the achievement of their assigned goals. What ever happened to "extra credit?" Can we really build homes spending only 15 hours a week so long as we meet our target objectives for budget and time efficiency? Somehow I don't think that will fly!

But I have become concerned that future generations don't really understand the value of hard work. When you are achieving your boss' expectations by only working fifteen hours a week, how will you respond later in life when the demands of work and family require sixty to eighty hours a week? My son-in-law, a twenty year veteran of the Navy has mentioned several times that the young recruits are incredibly "soft!" Could it be that they really don't know how to work hard and have majored instead in video games? Suddenly I am not liking my chances of being protected by the up and coming generation!

Can't "BEE" True...

To say that you meet some facinating people in the building related trades can often be a enormous understatement. Any time you mix creative people together with the big money required to build a home, hilarious things are bound to happen. 

Take the time I was making a routine jobsite visit and found one of the lead framing carpenters with a big old cotton wad in his ear. 'Jeff, what in the world happened to you?' "Ear ache" was Jeff's reply - "absolutely killing me, must be a wax build up!" You could tell the poor guy was in a lot of pain. As faithful and loyal a framer as you could ever want, he was thinking about going home.


For several days Jeff suffered along. When asked about why he wasn't going to the Doctor, he mentioned that he felt his ear was improving. 

Then one day the cotton was gone, and Jeff was whistling and working away. 'Jeff, what happened - the cotton is out of your ear?' Reluctantly Jeff replied, "...ahhhh I was sitting around at lunch and decided to clean out my ear with a sixteen penny nail (not recommended for the best of personal hygiene!) and I'll be dad gummed if I didn't pull a dead honey bee out of my ear!" He surmised that a bee had crawled in there looking for the ear wax without him knowing it, and had stung his eardrum! These guys are tough - I believe I might have heard the bee before it stung me!

A Sixteen Penny nail - the Framer's version of a "Q-Tip!"

Passion Drives Perfection!

Nothing worse than hating your job! It's miserable to get up every morning knowing that the "ball and chain" known as your job is right there ready to weigh you down. Oh, and that feeling you get on Sunday night as you contemplate the week ahead...total depression!

I know! in my former life I took a corporate job in downtown Dallas. Coat and tie on the twenty-eighth floor just wasn't for me. Save for a few All-Stars that really had fun running the business, everyone else seemed to have this hopelessness about them! I asked one guy how much longer he had before retirement, his answer - "six years, 192 days, three hours, and 42 minutes!" How's that for loving your job?


When my girls were young I encouraged them to find something in life that they were passionate about and pursue it. My reasoning?  If you are passionate about something, more than likely you can figure out a way to make a living pursuing that passion. They have! And, me too!

Years ago in a weak moment I found myself confiding in one of Dallas' most prominient business leaders (also a client and friend!) about how bad a salesman I was. I'll never forget his answer, "...quite to the contrary - you are one of the best salesmen I have ever seen! You are passionate about your work so you know everything there is to know about it, and that translates into an ability to handle any objection someone raises!" That never occurred to me. Must have worked pretty well on him though - we have built three homes for him and his family!

Passionate people tend to do their work better. Since you love what you do, often you become dissatisfied with mediocre performance. How many times through the years have I torn something apart on my time, at my expense because I just wasn't happy with the result?

Come to think of it, this blog illustrates my point perfectly. I love writing (my mentor said "it knocks the fuzz off your thinking!"). So here I sit, writing and re-writing this blog just because I want the content to be perfect!  Go ahead, call me passionate - but please don't ever ask me how long before I retire - I really have no idea!

Aesop's Fables...Revisited!

I hate losing! Worse, I hate losing to someone who has told a big story to convince a potential client that they can do a better job than we can! In previous blogs I have ranted and raved about the bid process being 'a collection of stories, all designed to influence the buyer into selecting your version of the story.' The process know as "bidding" should be punctuated by that old proverb "buy the truth, and sell it not!" It happened again this last weekend, they bought the wrong story.

Let's see now: our insulation bid was cheaper; our roofing bid was cheaper; our window package was significantly cheaper; even our air conditioning package was cheaper (see 8/23 blog, "You Said You Wanted Air Conditioning..."). Ahhhhhh, but the price to fix the wood rot around the windows, and under the stucco was significantly more? No way - you can't even see the damage! Why underbid the potential expense when you don't really know, and you're supposed to be protecting the client? Never mind that our bid was accomplished by bringing our supremely talented guys together on a Wednesday so that we could respond to the client's needs for immediacy two and a half days later - not two and a half weeks later like the other guy! Oh come on, forget that my partner and I bring a combined 70 years of experience to the equation - he having framed houses for twenty-four of those years! Doesn't that account for something? Chalk it up to a bad burrito! 

If you truly are going to live the "let go, and let God" lifestyle, you can't get upset when He doesn't give you the work you have been praying over. Certainly there was something there that didn't work with our skill set. Most probably He protected us from something - that's they way it has always been in the past! The ones we have forced against His will have gotten us into a world of hurt. But in our flesh, we hate to lose! 

By definition a fable "...illustrates a moral lesson which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim."  Further to the definition it also says, "...a fable may be a deliberately invented or falsified account of an event or circumstance." So....who is telling the fable here? Is it me or the other guy? I like our chances on this one! Let me offer the moral then - "don't believe everything you hear - particularly if it takes two and a half weeks to make it up!"

"Pigs Get Fat, and Hogs Get Slaughtered!"

Come on now, we all know the economy is terrible! But really, is this the time for business owners to be getting greedy? Will people really resort to saying or doing anything just to grab that  next additional piece of business? Sadly, I'm afraid the answer is yes!

The Bible says, "LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure!" (Psalm 16:5) I don't need anything else! That settles it for me! But that wisdom sure flies in the face of this world. Trading the "seen" for the "unseen" always seems to confuse us! I mean, you can "see" that next piece of business - but you have to trust what you can't see when God provides.


Since there is tangible evidence of in the flesh "buyers" out there, people who have something to sell take it upon themselves to "sell" as much as they can.  After all, that's how you grow your business. But what happens when your competitive exuberance sells more that you can produce? Does a weak economy mean that you grab all the sales you can - despite your inability to keep up with the production? "Pigs get fat, and hogs get slaughtered!"

I've seen guys who have a natural knack for selling. To bad they don't have a natural knack for building (producing)! The secret seems to be to "let go, and let God." Since He produced all of what we see and experience anyway, don't you think He knows what we need? I'll bet on the fact that He does! 

Through the years our business' have been horribly busy from time to time. We also have been slow. But God always gets it right - I've yet to miss a meal or a mortgage payment! We've been blessed beyond measure! Our "portion and our cup" have always been full. Does this sound a little bit like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute? Sometimes it feels like it, but we serve a Mighty God who always make sure we experience a soft landing!

You Said You Wanted Air Conditioning...

Molly and I were contacted recently about taking on a new line of scented air fresheners for her store, Heart's Desire. Although HD already carries a line of scented air fresheners, this was being touted for it's patented platinum wick which has a smaller carbon footprint, and no open flame - significantly more "green" than the brand she already carries. Molly really knows retail, and experience tells her that the container and the fragrance trumps the "green" qualities of the platinum wick. Unless you are a granola eating hippie who is into saving the whales, "green" doesn't stir you. It's the container for beauty, and the fragrance for your senses.


Apparently I have never learned these lessons. We understand the container and fragrance thing (Architects speak reverently about this being "form"), but it's what's under the hood that really excites us! (That same creative group respectfully calls this "function") Case in point... I was called in the other day on a remodel that requires almost no interior cosmetic work. That's really unusual! My client's new home is seventeen years old and needs all new heat and air conditioning equipment. It also needs replacement of all of the wood windows, as well as repair of the exterior wood rot around the windows. It seems that the original builder didn't flash around the cast stone which surrounds several of the windows, and moisture has leaked back behind the simulated stucco. WHAT A MESS! 

Evidently the builder was focused a whole lot more on "form" (or the pretty stuff), than on "function" (what's under the hood). But who can blame him? We all live amongst the pretty stuff, not in some air conditioning duct! I guess I didn't learn that well because it has always seemed to me that homes not only ought to be beautiful, but also really well built and durable... Perhaps I have been delusional!

The "dreaded" Flexduct!

Without getting too technical I learned years ago that air moves through an air conditioning duct in a circular manner. Just like the blood that is coarsing through our veins, it works better with a smooth, solid wall that is not kinked or obstructed. (Have I lost you yet?) It makes sense that rigid tube duct would carry air more efficiently than a kinked slinky, with corrugated inner walls, covered with insulation (a/k/a "flexduct"). Pass the granola, but that just may be why we need a whole new air conditioning system after just seventeen years! You guessed it, the air conditioning units were trying to force air through rough walled, badly kinked flexduct and it caused enough back pressure to wear the unit out! Boy oh boy, am I sounding "green"...

Here's my point: you can buy scented air fresheners with fantastic scents, in beautiful reservoir containers, without noticing the platinum wick that has the "smaller carbon footprint." But you better not buy a Mercedes without checking to make sure that it doesn't have a four cylinder, sewing machine engine under the hood! If you don't check, you may be surprised - an engine is not just an engine!


Similarly, you can buy a beautiful home, finely appointed, that is cool and comfortable at the very moment you fall in love with it. But what's going on in the attic? Does it have properly sized equipment that has been well maintained, and distributes cool air efficiently through galvanized tube duct? Or do you open the attic door and see something that looks like spaghetti attached to a crouton? After all, to some people air conditioning is air conditioning, and "you said you wanted air conditioning..." Ouch!

Gadgets...

Probably no one else in North America has returned both a Wi Playstation, and a TIVO. I have! I hate gadgets! How can something that is supposed to improve the quality of your life be so complicated that it takes endless hours to assemble and learn, and then either malfunctions or falls apart in your hands? WHAT AN ENORMOUS WASTE OF TIME!

My family and friends have learned the hard way that I have this character deficiency. Take the receipt scanner. On the surface it appears to be an amazing device for keeping track of your receipts. Some friends of ours got me one for Christmas. After endless hours of getting it set up and learning how to use it, I was finally ready to get organized. About a quarter of the way into a pile of invoices, it quite working! Horrified with the initial result my friends sent it back to the manufacturer. The manufacturers response? The operator (me) must have set it down too hard on the desk and jarred the scanner! They would be happy to sell us a new one! Who wants to spend more the time to potentially have the same result? I organized my receipts the old fashioned way - BY HAND!

There is a Steammatic BBQ Grill cleaner on the shelves of my garage if anyone wants it. My wife gave it to me. The theory is that you fill it with water and the heat of the grill provides steam to help you clean the surface. A friend of mine had one and he said it leaked like a sieve! My Steammatic most probably won't make it off the shelf!

When it became apparent that I needed to expose the hypocrisy of gadgets I hate, I asked my friends for some of their favorites. The one on my right may be the best I have come across - an electric bug zapper that you swing at the bug, hoping to fry it on the face of the racket! How many windows, lampshades and priceless heirlooms has this thing taken out? Did someone outlaw the old plastic bug swatter that was stuck on the end of something that looks like a coat hanger? Is capitalism so pervasive that we need to invent new way to kill a bug so we can make a buck?

What about a Roomba Robotic Vacuum Cleaner? Theoretically you turn this on before you go to the movies. When you come back the Roomba has completely vacuumed your home and parked itself back in it's charger station. My friend has had his dry docked in his office for the last two years - it constantly gets stuck under furniture with the brushes full of dust and lint, AND BURNS ITSELF OUT! Remember the blog on "Planned Obsolesence?"

How can you possibly dry your clothes without "dryer balls?" Forget the fact that not too many years ago even the dryer was considered a "gadget." You remember of course that our forefathers used to wash and scrub down by the river using rocks to help with the really tough stains. But a clothes line with clothes pins was all the dryer they used to have! How did we survive?

What's a "Slap Chop?" Was my life so incredibly difficult that chopping vegetables with a knife and cutting board absolutely beckoned someone to make a Slap Chop? If I order it on TV, for a limited time only they will send me not one, but two Slap Chops for the low, low price of $19.95!! Heart be still!

With two Slap Chops imagine the humongous amount of vegetables and fruits I can get chopped before that thing breaks! Most probably I will need to have a place to put all of the production of the Slap Chops so surely that will require the "EZ Sealer." Problem is, it's rumored to melt the plastic as opposed to sealing it, and it sometimes will catch the plastic on fire! Please sign me up for that wonderful convenience!

Those that have both the EZ Sealer  and the Wiz Toaster Bags just have a death wish! Let me make sure I understand - we are going to take the cheese and veggies we chopped in the Slap Chop (leaving the remainder to be sealed in the EZ Sealer), stick it between two pieces of bread, ease the whole ensemble into one of those Wiz Toaster Bags, and toast it all? Provided we don't burn the entire house down, that actually sounds good! Is life really this complicated or does it just seem that way?

What a mess! Never fear though - when you have cut your fingers on the Slap Chop; burned yourself on the EZ Seal; and charred your Kitchen with Wiz Toaster Bags, throw it all away in the motion activated trash receptical! That's right, now you don't have to physically lift the lid, or fool around trying to find the foot pedal - just wave your bloody, burned fingers over the top of this baby, and voila - trash is immediately dispensed! WOW - imagine what can break with this new toy!

And for me that is "kinda" the issue. That great, wise old proponent of the family, Insight for Living founder James Dobson said it this way, "...the more stuff you have, the more stuff you have to fix!" I've never forgotten that! So when one of our clients who could have anything he wanted, listened politely to a dazzling presentation about low voltage lighting that was being suggested for his home, he opted for a regular old panel switch with dimmers. His reasoning? "...more reliable, breaks less!" AMEN! I get that...

Confidence Shattered!

OK, I admit it, I'm spoiled! For almost twenty-eight years now we have worked hard to build our business so that we have tradesmen that are consistent performers. Other blog entries will support my philosophy that you look for the very best in talent, and retain them so that they become our "team" of talented tradesmen available for every project. Sure everyone has a bad day, but the steady, consistent performance of talented people really does lull you into a false sense of security! Our guys can do anything!

What a shock last week when my brother-in-law asked me to help with an air conditioner that went out in his beach house. During the summer he rents it out. I thought we had the right service provider identified in that market - at least his previous performance suggested his capabilities. Three trips, frazzled renters, and a little over $2,000 later, I am realizing that my confidence in this guy is shattered! It makes me count my blessings for the consistently responsive talent I have right here in Dallas!

So spoiled am I that this episode reminds me of the lessons we learned years ago, before we saw the wisdom of building - and sticking with a great team of sub-contractors. Let me share several with you:

• Once violated, confidence is difficult to regain. It's a lot like trust. Confidence seems to be given through consistent, exceptional performance. 
• Zip the lip! Performance, or the lack thereof is one thing, but flippant remarks in defense of your poor efforts is like dousing your sub-standard offering with gasoline! My guys are sick of hearing me say "head down, feet moving, NO EXCUSES!!"
• If customer service is not your passion, GET OUT OF IT!  'Nuff' said....
• Understand expectations. Some have greater expectations than others, but all have expectations. Understanding your client minimizes the risk of loosing their confidence.

The bill for substandard services arrived yesterday. I find myself questioning everything on it! The old adage "fool me once - shame on you, fool me twice - shame on me!" has kicked in. If the serviceman hadn't gotten snippy with the renter we might be able to write this off to normal maintenance, and just a bad day (or two or three!). But his "lip" makes me want to "skip." I have lost confidence in this particular act and have already started rooting around for a competent firm that has lots of integrity! 

'Press Clippins'

My ultimate performance review came in the inter-office mail a couple days after the presentation. Twenty-eight years ago I spent a brief career in corporate America working for a private oil & gas company. George Cunyas, the wise, wily old General Counsel listened politely and patiently to a presentation I was making to the Executive Committee. While the other fourteen participants showered me with accolades upon my completion, George quietly left the room to tend to his other duties.

His assessment of my performance came a couple of days later in the inter-office mail. A glowing review of the work I had done to compile a massive amount of information in a concise, and highly organized manner. It was followed by a life changing post script em, "P.S. May we never believe our own press clippings!" A moniker that I have lived by every day since! So simple...so direct. A gracious reminder that no matter who we are, or how great the things are that we've done, humble pie is best served in response to life's thundering applause!

This was a new brand of Jello for a guy who used to run to the local paper the day after one of his basketball games to see his name in the box score!

But 'never believing in our own press clippings' is the correct attitude!  Our moral compass for absolute truth, the Bible says it this way, "Your flip and callous arrogance in these things bothers me. You pass it off as a small thing, but it's anything but that. Yeast, too, is a "small thing," but it works its way through a whole batch of bread dough pretty fast. So get rid of this "yeast."" (1 Corinthians 5:6 - The Message). If Jesus Christ "...made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant...", should we do any differently?


No one appreciates talent more than I do. But I find it singularly refreshing when I stumble across someone who is immensely talented, has the resume to prove it, but their greatness can only be discovered over an extended period of time. In other words, they don't wear their greatness on their shirtsleeve! 

Believe it or not we all serve an audience of One! Why do we spend so much time trying to impress people who's opinion really doesn't have any eternal significance?