RSS FeedJan 13 2009
Good? Yes. Cheap? Yes. Fast? Er… Not-so-much.
I’m happy to report that I just heard from Kenny that they’ve managed to get the new roof on my house. (I plan to go light a stick of incense in homage to whatever minor deity is in charge of Portland weather just as soon as I finish this entry.)
You know the project triangle that consists of good, fast, and cheap? The one where you can pick any combination of two elements but you have to forgo the other? Well, Kenny is proving to be good and cheap. (“Cheap”, anyway, as far as anything involving a contractor goes.) Fast, however, is another story. Which has caused me more than a couple of sleepless nights knowing that my roof was ripped off my house during the rainy season in Oregon. (For a detailed explanation of how that came to happen, please see this earlier post.)
Kenny’s emailed updates arrive in a style I’ve come to think of as Kenny-ese. Here’s an excerpt from the latest one: “I have alittle more siding to do on the tops, vary small peices and trying not to waist to much material, the little cuts waist lost and that material is expensive and trying to use as many peices as I can.”
To be clear, I’m in no way knocking the emails. Kenny, with his AOL account, is probably the most technologically-advanced River Rat I’ve dealt with so far on the house. When I’ve mentioned to other people working on the house that the easiest way to get hold of me is usually by email, the reactions were so shocked you would think I’d just suggested they fry up the newest puppy in the marina for breakfast.
Anyway, I think Kenny is holding out on me for any new pictures until the final bits of siding are done. He may even wait until the deck railing and flooring are in. I’m not sure. I’m willing to wager, though, that the next spiffy set of pictures show up the same time as his next bill for labor does.
In other news, it looks like this blog got a mention today on MSN MoneyBlog in a article titled In Praise of Teeny Tiny Houses.
Viva la Teeny Tiny Revolution!
I’m happy to report that I just heard from Kenny that they’ve managed to get the new roof on my house. (I plan to go light a stick of incense in homage to whatever minor deity is in charge of Portland weather just as soon as I finish this entry.)
You know the project triangle that consists of good, fast, and cheap? The one where you can pick any combination of two elements but you have to forgo the other? Well, Kenny is proving to be good and cheap. (“Cheap”, anyway, as far as anything involving a contractor goes.) Fast, however, is another story. Which has caused me more than a couple of sleepless nights knowing that my roof was ripped off my house during the rainy season in Oregon. (For a detailed explanation of how that came to happen, please see this earlier post.)
Kenny’s emailed updates arrive in a style I’ve come to think of as Kenny-ese. Here’s an excerpt from the latest one: “I have alittle more siding to do on the tops, vary small peices and trying not to waist to much material, the little cuts waist lost and that material is expensive and trying to use as many peices as I can.”
To be clear, I’m in no way knocking the emails. Kenny, with his AOL account, is probably the most technologically-advanced River Rat I’ve dealt with so far on the house. When I’ve mentioned to other people working on the house that the easiest way to get hold of me is usually by email, the reactions were so shocked you would think I’d just suggested they fry up the newest puppy in the marina for breakfast.
Anyway, I think Kenny is holding out on me for any new pictures until the final bits of siding are done. He may even wait until the deck railing and flooring are in. I’m not sure. I’m willing to wager, though, that the next spiffy set of pictures show up the same time as his next bill for labor does.
In other news, it looks like this blog got a mention today on MSN MoneyBlog in a article titled In Praise of Teeny Tiny Houses.
Viva la Teeny Tiny Revolution!
You might wanna fix the title
James, thanks for the heads up. Figures I’d make a gaff the day I’m getting a bunch of visitors from MSN.