the wall

Well, friends, we've hit another wall - but hopefully it is not going to be too much of one. Our subcontractors can't work on the core until our permit is pushed through, which has been our main holdup so far. We are working hard to get everything settled and fixed so that our permit can go through, we can start the big build on site and we can finish the core.

In between writing emails and budgeting and scheduling and other miscellaneous things, I've begun to analyze the situation of being a "free architect" (or unlicensed, architecturally-trained non-architect). Part of the project's concept is about bringing high design to a population that never sees it; this is eliminating an element of the labor cost. In the theoretical situation of only paying for the very materials your house is made of, and the concept of donated time. What a healthy economy, where you only pay for tangible goods rather than services...granted time = money. Who am I to say that my design work has a dollar value? I could price it by the hour, but what if my design is less "high" but slower in coming than the next architect?

I also wonder why I am involved in conversations that have statements such as, "I'd love to continue doing nonprofit, but obviously that couldn't work out. Maybe in the future once I make some money I could come back to it." Nonprofit work destroys your financial situation and drives you deep into debt, and genuinely all you want to do is get by.

Good ol' capitalism, eh? Thoughts in the midst of a construction hiatus.