Handy Andy
I've always been good with my hands. In my younger days I used to tell people “If it's got tits or tires I can make it squeal”… and before I even knew what that meant, I was taking shit apart and putting it back together, just to see how it worked. 7/10 times I was successful. At this point in my life I'm up to about 90%
At the ripe age of 11, I constructed a “security system” for my room (because security was a real problem in my only child household lol) that included electrifying the doorknob. It was awesome. Or so I thought.
My dad however did not, and circumvented my state of the art system by kicking the door off the hinges and beating my ass. Lesson learned. Turns out I just didn't need that much security….
At 12 I used my paper route money to order some parts, disassembled my (OG) Nintendo and fixed the overheating problem prone to those units.
Back when “Heathkit” was a thing I was building radios, amplifiers and even an automated lawnmower.
Pretty soon it was bicycles, motorcycles, then cars. The formula was the same, disassemble, spend all my money on go fast stuff and rebuild better.
Electrical schematics, flowcharts, hydraulic diagrams…no problem.
Naturally I was drawn to construction and after a stint in jail in my late teens for some dumb shit I'll talk about somewhere else, I bullshitted my way onto a construction crew as a “carpenter” and my life changed forever.
Suddenly I was the youngest guy on a crew of true craftsmen, (who saw through my bullshit immediately, but liked my energy), and they taught me the right way to build things in return for living vicariously through my exploits and nightlife, which were just starting to take off...
One thing led to another and I moved to New England where I understudied with some real world reknown timber framers and really took my construction career to the next level. Log homes.
Construction has always been easy. Before I could (legally) drink, I was reading and understanding complex blueprints, dialoguing with architects and engineers alike to problem solve and design-building projects without their help. Or a college degree.
In 2006, I walked away from a very lucrative commercial construction career, against the (wise) advice of the company's owner, my father in law and wife and started my own construction business. I had a few dollars in the bank and about 50k of contracts in my hand… I thought I had it made!.. What could go wrong?
Everything, that's what….
Turns there was a LOT more to running a business than just being a great carpenter, you have to be a good businessman too, something I still struggle with to this day. I lost almost 20k of my own money on those 1st few projects, but pride wouldn't let me go back to working for someone else.
Among other things, pride is a great motivator.
It was time to get scrappy - and I can get down and dirty with the best of them. You really don't know what you're made of until the wall starts falling down and all you have is a shitty Walmart umbrella to hold over your head while you dance..
I've been fortunate to be part of some amazing projects over the years and have led various teams down paths none of us had any business going down… but here we are. Well, me anyway. Those guys are all gone. Some started their own businesses, some screwed me and some got screwed.
But we had a helluva time along the way.. and built some amazingly cool shit.
