Sticking with it

Monday was a real whopper - one of those trite displays that everything that can go wrong will go wrong, in a spectacular and wild fashion.

I know I'm painting a picture of our projects in Stone Ridge, Saugerties, Woodstock and Bearsville as seamless and perfectly executed, and for the most part, they go very well, are managed lightly but with laser precision. But being far from home, when things start to spiral the wrong way, oh lordy can they really deteriorate rapidly.

So, at 7:45am I discover much to my chagrin that the 3 man crew sent from Eldred to Stone Ridge (1.5hr drive) failed to take a generator, and since the power is still not on, that means they drove 1.5 hrs (or 4.5 man hours) and now they can't work. Since Stone Ridge isn't really in the middle of anywhere, there is no local equipment rental shop around each corner - in fact, there is not equipment rental shop anywhere. I especially loved the fact that everyone was trying to solve this problem without me knowing it. The fact that the electric still was not on, and we are 65% finished with Cottage 38, well, that's a whole different challenge when you are building in new areas - new inspectors, new neighbors, new electric companies, etc....

With new areas and new building inspectors I always handle the inspections myself, since a lot of times the conversation and the attitude goes a long way. Nothing worse than having a project side-tracked by a fussy inspector and a amateur person from my team escorting the inspector around the house. I've built 100+ homes, so have done at least 400 inspections, personally - I know how to do it so everyone walks away satisfied. So, at 8:30, while I'm on my way to the inspection 1.5hrs away, I get a call from the same guy, Brian, saying the 'pressure gauges' on the plumbing pipes have been removed prematurely, meaning my plumbing and insulation and fireplace inspections are not going to happen, since there was some miscommunication, or actually lack of communication.

So, can't work due to no electric and a fussy inspector is going to be pissed since I'm wasting his time since we called for an inspector, and then weren't ready. Because it's far away, putting this broken egg back together would take a lot of time and effort and coordination and money. Since I'm a guy into efficiency, really drives me nuts.

I even called my plumber to hussle up there, 1.5 hrs away on a moments notice, to get the pressure back on the pipes (not a easy thing to do). (we put pressure on the pipes, with both ends closed, in order to prove there are no leaks in the piping, before we close up all the walls(.

Then it started to turn. The typically ball-breaking (or very thorough, depending on what side of the coin you like) was accomodating, impressed with our progress and quality and showed some flexibility. My excavator who lives 30 minutes away just happened to be in the area, with a generator, that we could use for the day. And as I was leaving, the electric utility - Central Hudson - arrived to do the final hook up and give us some juice.

A whirlwind of a morning from total collapse to total triumph. And the reason why I relate all this is because that's really an analogy for our business journey as a whole - if you don't stick with it, you never know how close you came to turning the corner and succeeding.