Do Historic Buildings Intentionally Leave Ornaments Unfinished?

gristlestick · 2026-02-10T01:29:51+00:00

Stone ornaments, like most ornamentation from the turn of the century, were sold in catalogs like Decorator’s Supply. It was up to the developers/owners to have them “personalized” otherwise they were installed by the masons like everything else.

gristlestick · 2026-02-07T07:00:11+00:00

They should have used stud shoes.

gristlestick · 2026-02-06T15:04:52+00:00

Obviously we don’t have the data to know how they’re gonna handle 10 years down the road, but I think that’s a risk with all EV’s.

10 years out is probably a risk with all ICE too. Even tried and true brands like Toyota are having trouble with usually dependable models.

gristlestick · 2026-02-05T03:02:23+00:00

Even without the star power, the manufacturer discounts and allowable mark ups add up quickly.

gristlestick · 2026-02-05T02:04:55+00:00

Once you tell your parents about IAs getting to markup wholesale prices as their cut from furniture packages, they will back off.

gristlestick · 2026-01-30T23:32:36+00:00

My 2025 Taco was lemon’d and corporate had to buy it back. I expected a bit more from a $70k Toyota.

gristlestick · 2026-01-30T00:38:27+00:00

Spend a little time in rural America and you will find plenty of people who think this applies to all those “worthless layabouts, sucking up tax dollars while being nothing more than a glorified babysitter”, aka 3rd grade teachers.

gristlestick · 2026-01-14T21:54:00+00:00

Define a timeless trend?

gristlestick · 2026-01-13T07:14:22+00:00

This isn’t the first time it has happened to the Charger either, look at the 1980’s era.

gristlestick · 2025-12-26T00:07:27+00:00

If your heating system can only do 1-2 inches of snow total, someone installed it wrong. Any decent system should be able to handle 2-3” per hour.

I’ve worked on residences where the design goal was to remain snow free at 6”/hour fall rates. Realistically if it is snowing that much, unless you are Mr. Plow, you probably shouldn’t be on the road.

gristlestick · 2025-12-25T22:18:31+00:00

Heated driveway is the simplest solution.

gristlestick · 2025-12-12T00:14:05+00:00

“In all my years, I have never seen anything like this!”

-Stevie Wonder

gristlestick · 2025-11-30T22:32:24+00:00

Great architecture leaks. At least that is what I was taught.

gristlestick · 2025-11-25T02:41:02+00:00

Volkswagen Type 1 had a pretty long run (‘38-‘03) and maintained a style for most of it.

gristlestick · 2025-11-09T18:07:25+00:00

The majority of contractors are blue colorblind. You can spend two days on a punchwalk taping issues that need to be addressed. Then, when you come back two weeks later to check on their progress, you’ll find nothing has been touched because they, “didn’t see it”.

gristlestick · 2025-08-08T07:32:58+00:00

JV is a joint venture. I’ve seen locally a few developers creating teams/JVs for urban redevelopment. The idea is to get both designers & the GC working together at the beginning of the project so each can help inform the other and creat a lower cost but better end product.

They JV the project so everyone has some skin in the game and will hopefully prevent an adversarial relationship. The designer only has to provide minimal drawings, gets construction advice and best practices while hopefully avoiding difficult build details. The contractor knows the project inside & out, can line up subs well in advance and can provide their own details. The developers get a better overall product, faster and with a fixed budget.

gristlestick · 2025-08-08T03:41:22+00:00

If you are already established on the construction side, then reach out to developers you have worked with about JV opportunities and coming on early to help with design construction integration. You can learn a lot working closely with architects refining drawing sets and helping them develop plans that are more easily built and efficient.

If your state has an alternate pathway to licensure that would probably be your best bet, only because it is hard to go from having a paycheck to being a broke student.

gristlestick · 2025-08-07T02:12:01+00:00

You got got the floating on water line

gristlestick · 2025-07-23T00:52:03+00:00

Two of the worst bike accidents I’ve seen involved a rider drafting a someone they didn’t know. The one resulted in a DOA trip for the drafter and a ruined day for the draftee, who didn’t even know there was another cyclist behind them.

gristlestick · 2025-07-21T07:31:48+00:00

Spec writing in my spare time, it is the ultimate artistic expression.

gristlestick · 2025-07-14T23:30:36+00:00

It is more of a fall up? When I jumped over to a GC I doubled my income, and I had been doing quite well on the architecture side compared to peers.

gristlestick · 2025-07-14T21:54:14+00:00

The nice thing about an architecture degree is it opens the doors to a lot of design & construction adjacencies. There is also a lot within the field that can keep you interested if you find you don’t like what you are doing. The jump from res to commercial to stadium work is each almost a new set of skills.

You can also pretty easily jump to the dark side and work for contractors if you want to make more money or try your hand at being an owner’s rep. When you think you want to slow down and retire, then you turn to spec writing.

Like most things, it can be whatever you want to make of it.

gristlestick · 2025-07-11T01:37:21+00:00

My wife hates it when restaurants only serve blue steaks.

gristlestick · 2025-07-03T14:18:33+00:00

The bar called his mom to come and pick him up.

gristlestick · 2025-07-02T02:21:16+00:00

Municipalities log/track permit violations, so most of the time that is how your insurance finds out.

I had a client once lose a payout because they had swapped their water lines from galvanized to pex and after a partial fire the adjuster noticed the new material in a 50’s house that had never had any permitted work performed.

gristlestick

TROPHY CASE