In The Beginning

I'm going to start a blog about my construction career. Now that I'm 6 years into my career I better get the reader all caught up on how I got started.

I was born in the front seat of a drilling rig. My father owned his own business and I was one of the lucky laborers since I was a boy. Not the greatest job but I learned a lot about mechanics, ergonomics, and physics. I didn't learn these disciplines on paper but I did get an understanding of the concepts and how things worked. I saw how hard my father worked day in and day out in the blistering Texas sun and I knew that the path of the water well driller wasn't for me.

My mother and Brother convinced me to go to BYU Idaho and there I had to choose a Major. I wanted to be a developer like my grandfather on my Mothers side, however, there was no courses in land development. So I thought that civil engineering would give me the best advantage to achieving my career goal. I didn't sign up for the proper math classes in the early semesters of my college career so upon meeting with my councilor we both realized that I would not be able to make up the ground and she encouraged me to consider another Major. About that time my cousin was studying at BYU Utah in Construction Management so I checked out the field and thought I'd give it a shot. I took some courses and found out that I really enjoyed the classes. So, I decided to go down this road in the construction field. I finished my course work at BYU Idaho and hung around for one more semester in Rexburg Idaho while my wife Mary finished her degree in Marriage, Family and Human Development.

I then transferred to Utah Valley State College where I graduated with My Bachelors (Cumlaud) in Technology Management with an additional Associates in Building Construction/Construction Management.

I took my first Job with America's Home Place. I gained a lot of knowledge there and really got my feet wet in the construction industry building scattered lot homes in multiple counties. I gained a good understanding of production building concepts and practices. I was determined to make my mark in the company with all of my newly gained knowledge from my course work. It wasn't long before a couple of old timers taught me about reality and practicality. Still I was able to improve the company in a few areas and that was satisfactory for me. My wife and I didn't have much of a Family support group in Georgia and felt that the grass would be greener on the other side. We prayed to know where we should move our young family and we both felt that we should move back to Utah.

Upon arrival in Utah I went to work for John Zitting with Diamond Z Construction. There I gained valuable experience building high end custom homes and doing light commercial Project Management. I got my start in estimating at Diamond Z Construction. I always wanted to get into estimating in school and with this new opportunity I jumped at the chance. I wanted to take the carrier to the next level and Diamond Z was going through a rough financial patch so I decided to look for a more secure opportunity. That's when I got a call from Jared Riddle my future Boss at Liberty Homes.

Liberty Homes was a great company. It had 50 plus employees (If you counted the agents) and a great group of management. When I started at Liberty Homes my boss was so far behind the 8 ball that he was trying to simply stay afloat. He didn't even have enough time to get me properly trained. It worked out a little better that way because I decided to take the bull by the horns and figure out how to get the work done using some of my own processes that I developed. I soon found that these processes caused others to change the way they did business. I remember the day that I introduced hyperlinks to the Purchasing staff. Wow was everybody impressed. Now they didn't have to waste so much time at the file cabinet looking stuff up they could just scan it file it and create a hyper link to it from a master spreadsheet. My bosses were impressed. I think this, along with a few other tricks that I had up my sleeve, made it so that I gained the confidence of management. About that time they needed someone to take on the Arizona market. I felt up to the challenge so I approached my boss and told him what I wanted to do. It was almost like I was in my own little world setting up shop in Arizona. I was hundreds of miles away but yet still running the back office of the construction. At first it was a challenge because we didn't have the software in a position where we could e-mail the Purchase orders out but with the help of some of the local management we were able to push that technology forward in time for our construction start. I got to be involved in setting up the design center and negotiations in pricing with the subs. I set up systems that helped with tracking pricing increases and systems that would allow the operator at a glance to look at a "Dashboard" and know exactly what needs to be done and when. The Regional VP was Marty Black and he had a reputation for being non-understanding and demanding. I found that the non understanding portion of his accusers was inaccurate he understood everything he just didn't have the patience to deal with people who didn't listen. My personality actually complements people like Marty Black and I found that we could work well together if I just rechanneled the energy that he would release on frustrating situations. I guess I could separate the fact that his anger was not about me and that it was more about the undesired results. So many of my colleges couldn't get that concept and they took personal offence when Marty would really blow up. I figured that it would only add to the fire if I got upset as well. My wife taught me long ago that I want to be water not gasoline when I'm thrown into a fire. I never achieved acceptance with Marty but I feel as though he respected me in the end for sticking it out with him. I think he was used to others bailing on him long before they could ever gain respect in his eyes.

At liberty homes I also had the opportunity to set up the back office of the design center. My coworker Gerald Rynolds started tinkering around with the color sheets and made some great improvements. He made them more user friendly. My Bosses wanted to take the concepts to a whole nother level so they put me on the project. I think Gerald would have done a good job but the workload was so cumbersome in the Utah operations that Gerald had to attend to other business. I jumped at the opportunity as well because I knew what to do and how I would accomplish the desired results. I first got the spreadsheet in the general format that I wanted. I knew that if I took it to some of the higher ups in it's general condition that they would go 20 different ways with it. After I sold management on my ideas they assigned me to work with the Sales staff in the design center. We put a lot of time and energy into the program and it paid off to. It became so useful that it was interwoven into the operations of all in the company and to the majority of our subcontractors operations as well. It was a very fulfilling accomplishment.

Liberty homes afforded me the opportunity to be on the cutting edge of technology. I worked with Bob Pollan in the It department and I had a lot of fun getting new systems online and seeing the marked improvement of our technology implementations influence the daily operations. Most people were scared of installing new technology but Bob and I basked in it we were excited to click on the next button to see what it did and how it could influence operations. We would project and predict what influence these processes would have on each individual in the company and then we would devise a plan as to how to get buy in from all the stake holders that would potentially shoot down our ideas. It was an exciting time. I enjoyed going to work on Mondays.

My wife and I saw that our kids were getting older and that our first child (Isabella) was going to be in first grade soon so we though long and hard about where we wanted to live permanently so that our children would have a good steady rearing. I was from TX and she was from PA. I always tell people that we decided on PA because there were to many bugs in TX. Although some of it is true the real reason is that we felt that land was cheaper in PA than Utah and I knew that I always had TX in my back pocket if I wanted it so let's see what PA is all about. We decided and took it to the Lord and He sanctioned our decision to move to PA. I had a hard time figuring out how I was going to tell my Boss because he was so good to me and I felt like I was quitting on him. It worried me for the longest time. About that time it was hunting season in Utah and I and a co-worker decided to go hunting near Zion’s national park next to the virgin river. So we took an extended vacation and had a good time. Little did I know that the company had a huge lay off so when I came back on Tuesday I was one of the last ones notified. First there was shock and then there was disbelief after the disbelief dispelled the replay button kept going over and over again. Why? What did I do that caused m to be one of the ones selected to be let go? All Marty and Jared kept saying was that it was just a financial thing and that if the market would turn around that they would hire me back again. I still remember the phone call to Mary explaining the situation. After a couple of verification comments like "Seriously" she said well it will be OK. So are you coming home then or what are you going to do. I told her that I was going to come home but that I wanted to go talk to Bob and Jonathan (My hunting buddy). The next few days were awkward getting adjusted to unemployment life. I went into the office to gather some things and to train the others on how to run Arizona. As I spoke to the remaining few employees I knew they would not be able to take care of my baby. As I would explain the processes and reasons why I did what I was doing their eyes glazed over. I could read the expression on their faces it was screaming the thoughts "This material/instruction is insignificant in my life because it is only a matter of time before I'm cut". They were right. Anyway all the executives were still friendly to me and I felt they owed me a favor or two so I called up Jerry Pay and told him that I knew that Liberty Homs was part of a Builder 20 group and that I was moving to PA. I thought that I might be able to look up the members in the PA area and see if any of them were hiring. I remember him telling me of 2 builders one in Allan town and one in Lancaster named EG Stoltzfus although he or I could hardly pronounce it. I called them up and neither of them were hiring however When I talked to Chad Stoltzfus he said that Andy Brubaker over in the Commercial construction Division had an opening for an estimator. I was pretty excited and soon enough I was talking to Andy and setting up interviews with him. I decided (With Mary's help) that I would organize a week long trip back to PA and set up as many interviews as possible. I had 5 interviews and two that responded back with offers. One was Andy Brubaker with EG stoltzfus and the other was John Kensley with Kensley Construction. Both offered competitive salaries and it seemed like Kensley Construction was a slam dunk. My family had ties and one of my good friends recommended me to John, however, I felt that EG Stoltzfus was a better fit. They were a smaller company but that meant that I could use my creativity and help streamline some of their processes. this appealed to me because I had such great satisfaction in doing the exact same thing at Liberty. One of the harder conversations I ever had was calling up John Kensley and telling him that I was to turn down his offer. At last I did it and that only meant that I could call Andy Brubaker and let him know of the god news that I was to accept his offer of employment. I had a great feeling of security knowing that I had a job moving to PA.

Immediately as soon as I got started Dave Albrite (Senior Project Manager) started preparing me to take over the Sunset Terrace project in the capacity of Project Manager. Although I took on this responsibility right away I was still hired as the Estimator. It was hard to transition from an environment like Liberty homes (Perhaps one of the more technologically advanced Generals) to an Amish roots company that didn't even have a file server. I dug in though and I got some good feedback and made some pretty good first impressions that quickly gained me the respect that I needed. I quickly determined that even though no body was going to spell out my duties and responsibilities I kind of figured that my 3 main responsibilities were PM Sunset Terrace, Estimate, and finally figure out best practices/systems improvement.

Sunset Terrace is a job that consisted of 24 Apartments, 18 Town Homes and 1 community building. The job site was 1-1/2 - 2 hours away depending on traffic and hwy construction. We muttled through some grueling issues with the Architect, PHFA Rep, and the Owners Representative. As you look at the Project it is extremely gratifying to see the buildings and know that I had a part in getting them built. Sunset Terrace was a tough one but in hindsight it was a great experience. I learned a few things the hard way. But sometimes the hard way is the best because it sticks with you. I do look forward to the next PHFA project.

Advanced Cooling Technologies was the first project that I estimated and handed off to Shannon. They wanted a few walls added so that they could close off some Laboratory spaces.

Foxshire Dr. was another one that I won the bid and handed to Shannon. WE renovated some office space and finished out some of the basement area to create a training room in the basement.

Engle printing We simply added walls in an existing office space. Again I estimated and Shannon PM with John Glick as Site Manager. We made a killer team.

Brownstone was a fun project that took a long time to get off the ground. I was involved in estimating and then retained the Project Management roll. I got to work with Stacy Farnestock on this project. He was great to work with all of his construction experience made the construction process smooth even through some difficult weather conditions. We basically built a 9000 SQFT office building. The sub base was really good and we set the expectations up in the subcontractors minds ahead of time so that when it was time for each phase of construction we had a lot of the details already hammered out. The owners were amazing people to work for.

Mennonite Homes is a remodel of a retirement community. It consists of 6 residence apartments and 3,000 LF of corridors. We took the institutional looking facility and converted it into an updated place where people feel comfortable and warm.

LDS York Renovation is the church that my wife grew up in and I had my wedding reception in the cultural hall. This was the first job that I landed for the LDS church and I was determined to do a bang up job. I was low bidder by many thousands of dollars and everybody was worried that I missed something. Shannon was my Site Manager and I retained the Project Manager roll. It was a good experience because we got to see how the LDS church operates in an non religious setting. One experience that I remember was that part of our scope of work was that we were supposed to demo the pews. I was going to call all the members and have them come and pick them up and save the company some money and bless the lives of the members. However when Tara the facilities manager got wind of my idea she stopped me in my tracks and let me know that we are never to give any of the church materials to the members that would just open a can of worms that we don’t ever want to open. She explained that if we did that then they would come asking to take the carpet and drapes. Tara approached me asking if one of the Bishops could offer the pews to another local congregation. I told her that I didn’t care and it would probably save us a dump fee. The Bishop organized the effort and the other Church Minister couldn’t believe that the Church would be willing to do such a thing. At any rate the project finished on time and under budget with no hiccups.

LDS New Bloomfield renovation was where a wood pecker was attacking a gable end of a church building. We used an advanced product called Stone Flex. It was a siding product that came in sheets that had pebbles sprinkled throughout in a base of resin. It was very durable and would give a Wood Pecker a headache. Well as we dug into the issue we discovered that the previous contractor did not use the proper methods of flashing. So the water was getting into a pillar, which, in turn, caused the wood to rot, which caused the wood ants to come and feast. And that is what enticed our friend the Wood Pecker to go to town on the side of the building. While we were there we renovated two bathrooms, the Baptismal font, and did some flooring work.

LDS Camphill/Carlisle Pavilion - This project is where I had the Architect tell me that another General contractor built a pavilion just like this in Gettysburg and they had a Zero item punch list. I took it as a challenge and told Stacy that we needed to have Zero items on the punch list. Well the job went flawless until we had a cold spell and it got so cold that the painter couldn't paint and still uphold his warrantee. The time of the punch list inspection came during this cold spell and I got 1 item on the punch list. There was one end of a birds mouth truss that needed touched up. I told the Architect that I owed him a Zero item punch list so he better give me another job.

Mennonite Financial is a renovation fo existing office space that I estimated and handed off to Shannon and John Glick. This one was on a fast track and we had to turn the numbers around very fast. We did so and we won the bid. the owners then wanted us to turn the construction around in 1 month. Most would think this to be impossible but Shannon John and I put our heads together and came up with an aggressive schedule. We finished on time and under budget.

Conestoga Valley Church of Christ is a project that we priced out and beat our competition so much that the church gave us opportunities to add additional work. We added 5 windows going through Block/brick veneer, (2) New class rooms, new cool looking ceiling tiles in lobby, new glazing on the front doors, and updating the mens room. The congregation was all impressed with the work and the clergy are really pleased with the results especially at the price that they have budgeted.

Beautiful Smiles Family Dental was a project that I Estimated Project Managed and also Site managed. The Dr. wanted to add a 4th operatory to the Dentistry. This was a good experience because I was able to take care of everything from start to finish. The staff was good to work with and I got a good taste of the details that need to go into all the dental equipment. This job makes me feel comfortable now when I am faced with the challenge of estimating a dentistry.

Dr. Daniels is a job where they gave us 1 week to bid out the job. Our instruction was to demo the space next door and cut a hole in the demising wall between the two spaces (Front and Back). Then we will install 3 new operatories. We weren't the low bidder, but, because we did work for them in the past, we ended up getting an opportunity to go back to our trades and see what they were willing to do to make this project happen. We were able to meet Dr. Daniels budget and we are currently remodel/Expanding his Dentistry.

I’ve been assigned to various process improvements within the Commercial construction side of EG Stoltzfus as well as tag teaming the Misty Ridge and Hopewell Mannor Projects that are up and coming with Dave Albright. I look forward to working and learning from him.

Well this is my brief history of where I’m at today and I hope that I will continue to write a few times a week. I plan on starting simple but I anticipate my writing skills to improve as the days go on. I'm making a commitment to myself that at 4:00 p.m. every day I'm going to start to Blog about the events of my career. I hope you all enjoy.