Monday, June 27, 2005

So I work hard, is that a big deal?

I was thinking about all the men in the world who work hard
and women who work harderboth at home and in industry.
Whose jobs are harder, more difficult than mine.
Who have little or no say in what they will do today.

I saw a video of home construction in Japan,
where modules were built in a factory and assembled later on site.
They save a lot doing it this way, but they kill the worker to make it more cost effective.
This one guy was RUNNING around stapling down the floors
and then when he jumped off the unit,
it would slide down the assembly line to the next work station.
He looked more like an ant or a worker bee than a human.
He was part of the machine, and I am sure he felt like it.

In my life there are few things cooler than building.
I take pride in fitting peoples living spaces into the outdoors in a way that makes sense,
pleases the eye, and is also not wasteful of the resources or the available land.
I take my time, I don't make a lot of money, but I get the satisfaction
of working at at human pace (not bug pace) building beauty and strength
into my clients homes, and seeing both of us satisfied with the results.


In our town there are a lot of modular homes (two piece - snaptogethers)
going in, on any level lot, after they cut down all the trees, bushes, grasses.
There is also a tract of 89 homes going in near me.
Actually its 4 original homes and 85 copies of those.
They ran the earth movers over the whole area, built a huge mound of ugly dirt so that the lucky buyers would have a better view,
(what a laugh, a view with no trees no vegetation,
just your neighbors house right up next to your window)

The sad thing is that people buy this crap
and that mortgage companies finance it.

4 comments:

Jenny said...

I strongly dislike snap-togethers and tract housing. I detest when those things are placed on formerly beautiful farmland. And a huge house is plunked down on a quarter-acre. Do these people have any sense at all? And why does everyone need a BRAND NEW home?

What ever happened to living within one's means? What ever happened to buying a fixer-upper or a small home and then fixing up or adding on?

Why do 20-year-olds feel that they are entitled to the houses, cars, clothes that our parents worked their entire lives for? These things come in increments, folks, and you don't make a lifetime's accrued income the first two years out of high school.

Kerri said...

I don't like modular homes, either. But there are a lot in this town and, honestly, had it not been for them, I don't know where I would have grown up. It's different here, though. People don't buy their own modulars. The Housing Authority owns them and lower income families rent-to-own. In a fishing village where fishing isn't as profitable as it used to be, there are a lot of lower income families so modulars are the best some of them can afford. My dad's a carpenter, so if/when we ever find the means, he is going to build me a house.

Anonymous said...

jayleigh... speaking as the 20-something year old that i am, i just have to say AMEN! to your comment. i'm surrounded by grad students (with spouses and children) who are living off of student loans and buying brand new cars and fancy brand-name clothes with that loan money... and with daddy's help. drives me nuts!!!

Jenny said...

Kerri, of course they are a good thing in some instances... just around here when they are plunked down on prime farmland, it burns my biscuits.

And I'm only talking about the recent RAGE of modulars in the last 5 years on every single lot down every used-to-be-beautiful road.