Custom
Koontz - I am so tired of people referring to "custom" work, or "custom"homes", when the actuality is that they are talking about production work. The semantics of the words may not matter to the consumer, but they matter intensely to a tradesperson.
You do not buy a "custom" product off the shelf at Lowe's. Nor do you purchase a "custom" house from a residential developer. Custom means something that is made individually for a customer. If you choose one of the options on your developers' house, that is still not a "custom" house. If the same product is offered to everyone, it is not custom, it's an upgrade.
If your contractor tells you that they can't or won't do something, because they "just don't", it's because they won't spend their time on custom work-they want production work. The same cabinets go in every job they work on because it's easier for them.
Custom work takes a considerable amount of time-and not only on the actual job site. If you want custom work, you need to understand that the process starts long before the carpenter is on site. For the tradesperson, it begins the minute he or she sees the space and starts envisioning what could be. For custom work, 60% is in the workers' head, figuring things out, the other 40% is putting it into effect. That takes talent, time, money and faith.
You can have custom work using a good designer and a good builder, but you can't get it from a home store or a tract builder.
You do not buy a "custom" product off the shelf at Lowe's. Nor do you purchase a "custom" house from a residential developer. Custom means something that is made individually for a customer. If you choose one of the options on your developers' house, that is still not a "custom" house. If the same product is offered to everyone, it is not custom, it's an upgrade.
If your contractor tells you that they can't or won't do something, because they "just don't", it's because they won't spend their time on custom work-they want production work. The same cabinets go in every job they work on because it's easier for them.
Custom work takes a considerable amount of time-and not only on the actual job site. If you want custom work, you need to understand that the process starts long before the carpenter is on site. For the tradesperson, it begins the minute he or she sees the space and starts envisioning what could be. For custom work, 60% is in the workers' head, figuring things out, the other 40% is putting it into effect. That takes talent, time, money and faith.
You can have custom work using a good designer and a good builder, but you can't get it from a home store or a tract builder.
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