I'm starting this blog to ponder the nature of our business, as well as to explore any path that opens as a result. The business is called HOMEWORKS, and we do residential building, remodeling and design. I've been doing this work for over 35 years. It has taken different forms and colored my life in many different ways. Before my 2nd marriage in 1982, work was a way to enable me to explore things I hadn't before my first marriage, particularly things that had nothing to do with work. After my marriage to Leila in 1982, I became an instant parent to two spectacular souls aged 5 and 7.....Eliza and Isaiah. The colors of my life changed dramatically with these three. Business took on a new meaning.......it enabled me to have a family. I had to take it more seriously, which spawned another major shift...more employees, bigger jobs, significant expansion of scale. Very quickly, two more children...Levin (1982) and Kayla (1985). I am immersed in the world of parenting and all that that entails. I am a fully engaged parent. I go to all the school performances, I help with school events, I change diapers, I read stories. Leila and I do it all together. Albeit she's the leading player. I follow her lead.
Between 1982 and I'd say 1990, HOMEWORKS became a player in the high end custom housing world in Westport and immediate environs. I had to start relating to architects, and the nature of my relationship with clients changed to something less casual. We were no longer dealing with just small additions and repairs. We were getting into whole houses that cost serious money and clients who expected to see professional workmen who looked like they knew what they were doing. Not that we didn't know what we were doing in the "old" days, but things were more relaxed then and there was a lot less pressure.
This period also coincided with the computer revolution. I jumped into that with both feet, starting with a Commodore 64 and progressing into the world of the Commodore Amiga, waiting for the PC world to catch up, which it finally did sometime in the early 90's, which also coincided with the demise of the Commodore and the Amiga. I still have all my old Commodore stuff. Leila has labeled the boxes "MORE damned Amiga stuff!!" You never know.......I'm now doing everything on the computer, including very cool 3d design, which enables me to sit with clients and design things interactively with them.
In the 90's I had as many as fifteen employees, but since then I've scaled back, both from necessity due to diminishing job opportunities, and because I was ready to have fewer employees. We're now down to 4, not including me. Lindy Comstock is the only one not related by blood, although he's been around so long, he might as well be called family. Mark Miley married Eliza 8 years ago, and they have two fabulous kids, Alexandria and Aoghagan, so now I'm a grandparent. Mark has extensive schooling in computer animation and dreams of working for George Lucas, but so far has had no serious bites in that world. Fortunately for us, he's become a skilled craftsman in our world and will stay on for as long as it takes for George to see what he's missing.
So now the boys, Isaiah and Levin, are throwing their energy into HOMEWORKS to help launch the next phase of our business. New challenges face us, and what we see ahead is exciting as well as scary. We're developing a website with the help of a local genius in that world, Alyn Carlson. We want to engage the challenges that face our trade in the coming years with a philosophy that is responsive to the needs of the people and the planet. We also want to have some fun.
So let's see where this all leads.
