Carpenters, ventilation workers, electricians, all at work. Not pictured: plumber, plumbing inspector, laborer, general contractor.
Today (Monday) was perhaps the busiest day This Odd House will have over its reconstruction. A representative from just about every construction trade showed up this morning at 8:00 (a courtesy to the owner, who doesn’t like the 6:30am start times that most construction workers prefer). Plumbers, carpenters, laborers, electricians, apprentices, “tincutters” (HVAC professionals), city inspectors, and the general contractor all converged on TOH to apply their skills to its transformation.
The morning was a flurry of details and descriptions, with lots of verbal instructions and requests to and between the tradesmen. I was there to make a dozen design decisions in even fewer minutes. As an engineer in a different discipline, trained to carefully weigh interacting constraints and requirements and find the optimal solution, this was very difficult and made me quite uneasy. I witnessed the electrician asking the plumber to re-route pipes so his outlets could be placed to “meet code”. This struck me as an awful re-work cycle, but the plumber took it in stride and authorized the pipes be cut as needed. Amazing. Somehow the system works.
The day progressed with much noise and activity. With that many independent tasks all progressing simultaneously, it is a marvel to behold.