As owner, I have been in construction for over forty-five years. Matter-of-fact, I’ve never not been in construction. Growing up my dad had a construction business and he would often take my older brother and I to the job sites. Once we were able to safely climb a ladder and swing a hammer, we went to work alongside our dad.
As the years went by, my dad and his crew taught me about everything I thought I needed to know in residential construction; however, I ended up going to school for construction and graduated with my degree in 1980. Eventually, I started running projects. It was an upgrade from digging ditches, but it came with its own set of problems. I learned in my early 20s that when 5:00 p.m. rolled around it wasn’t so easy to walk away when you are a project manager. As project manager, the old song lyrics, “its five o’clock somewhere" didn’t apply to me. I had to earn my pay by working hard and being dependable. It eventually paid off.
My aunt (my dad’s sister) married into an Amish family. Her husband, my uncle, was in partnership in a construction business so my dad ended his business and we went to work with my uncle and his partner's construction company.
Where I thought I knew it all, well, let’s just say I still had some things to learn. My uncle’s Amish brothers had a thing or two to teach me about finish carpentry, and so they did. I eventually honed in on my skills and even won an award as craftsman of the year back in the day from the Builder’s Association. To this day, I still do not know who nominated me, I only know it was for my craftmanship on the back bar for Max & Erma’s Restaurant in Dublin, Ohio. That’s been back in the 80s so if you go looking that bar has probably been long replaced.
After I proved myself, I was given my first project to run from ground up. It was a doctor’s office. I also started getting bonuses if the job was delivered on time and made money. Looking back my jobs must have done both because I started running more and more projects and bigger projects.
My uncle left his partnership to pursue other interests, I stayed on with his partner for thirty years after my uncle left. During that time, I worked my way up to vice president. The job started requiring more and more traveling and supervising out-of-state projects. With my family growing and obligations at home and the strain traveling was putting on my home life, I made the decision to leave my job and open my own construction company with my son. We started building our business and have been in business ever since getting clients mainly by word of mouth.
Unfortunately, after the owner of the company I worked for passed away so did his business. However, I will forever be grateful for the opportunities he and my uncle gave me.
Talk about a blast from the past, the old picture that you see is my brother and I at work with my dad. My brother and dad both are passed away, but I will always cherish their memories and the strong work ethic my dad instilled in us.
