This last week, everything has been about work. We returned recently from a little time off with family and are trying to get back into the working mindset. This life takes discipline. There’s no one telling you to get up in the morning and go to work. There’s no one really to be accountable to except the client, and the jobs can be so long term in nature, that it’s easy to get off deadline. Structure and rules are necessary for success. This life has made it clear to me that the freer you are, the more discipline you must have, and it’s something I’m always working on. With the large property we have, and a toddler running around, there’s always much to do outside of work, and if we’re not constantly busy around here we’ll get behind - which is where I am now.
Hannah’s studio is coming along. The drywall is now done, and soon the walls will be painted. Wanting to waste no more time, and seeking a professional finish, we hired out for these steps. We’ve been happy with Magee’s Drywall, who have done the job quickly, professionally, and at an affordable rate. We’ll be doing most of the remaining work ourselves. This includes hanging doors, installing and painting trim, installing sinks and a toilet, finishing the concrete floor, and installing various built-ins for storage. We hope to be fully done with the building by winter, but I think Hannah can begin moving-in sooner that that. Hannah has been using the two front rooms of our home for her personal and lesson studios since we moved to Water Valley five years ago, and it will be a dramatic improvement to our living space once she’s in the new studio. It also means we’ll be able to better separate our working and home lives.
The direction of this business has been heavy on my mind lately. When I started out, I had one goal: to keep the business afloat and to let the current take me where it would. My strategy for a long time was essentially to say yes to everything that came in. This had the positive effect of forcing me to learn new skills with each new job, such that I am now fairly proficient in a wide range of furniture making. The negative effect of this is that it’s difficult to apply time-saving systems to your work when every job is vastly different than the last. This business inhabits a very custom niche of our community. When potential clients ask if we can do this or that, I say: We do it all - because even if we haven’t, we’ll learn how and make it happen. And that’s how it’s been, and we’ve gotten by, but it’s hard to become efficient doing things this way. And so I’ve been working on steering my business into a less custom and more production oriented direction (though we’d probably never fully get away from custom work). Quality would still be at the forefront of our mission, but we’d do more repeatable work, which would save time and money. In fact, quality would improve, as we’d become more proficient with each repetition of a piece. Also, certain principles of this work which have become important to us, such as sustainability, working with safe and eco-friendly finishes, using local materials, and etc, are often hard to maintain when you’re trying to meet the expectations of a client who wants something very specific. I think what’s essential to this endeavor though is finding a strong and unique design language, and this is the road I’m walking now.
So there is much change on the horizon, with time and energy our only obstacles. Onward as always!