From The Ground Up

Photo: Lonnie Laffen

It was late spring in 1979 and my dad was looking for a new project. Well, that’s a bit superfluous. He was looking for more room for our growing family in our split-level ranch in rural Wisconsin.

I remember him sitting at the dining room table, sketching out his ideas, running numbers and planning to convert our garage to living space and add a bigger, two-car garage with a workshop on the end. It was a big project—and looking back, I’m surprised he decided to be the general contractor of it. After all, each day he got up, put on a suit, and drove to downtown Milwaukee to his day job as a banker.

But dad was dad and soon contractors were showing up to pour foundations, followed by framers to do their work, and so on. I remember him throwing weekend “parties” where his friends from nearby farms would come and work on the project, ending each night with a BBQ dinner made by my mom. I guess it was our version of a barn raising.

As summer turned to fall, the project was finished, and I soon found myself missing those weekend work parties.

The point? Creating something from nothing is lot of work—and the more planning that goes into the front end, the better the result in the real end. This is the de-facto theme of this issue. We cover creating facilities and public spaces that meet the needs of your community. The ideas we share are designed to help you “get it right the first time.” One of my favorites is a visual tool for nailing your budget. Thomas Betti suggests envisioning turning a completed facility upside down and see what falls out. All those things laying on the ground—furniture, sports equipment, towels, etc. are things most people forget to include in their preliminary budget. Like I said, it’s a neat trick—in an issue full of them.

I hope you enjoy it. Let us know what you think.

Till next month…

Rodney J. Auth

Publisher

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