Nothing like Starting a New Year completely broke...

After years of living on the financial edge, my wife and I finally decided to buckle down, pull up on the bootstraps, pinch the pennies, and every other slang term for becoming financially intelligent. To put this in perspective, imagine having one income for the past 10 years while having 4 kids, renovating an office building, renovating a house (while renting another one) and going through all the trials and tribulations of owning an architecture practice.

My wife has managed to acquire the skills of a coupon/sale ninja and between her efforts and my reorganization we have accomplished the unheard of feat of not ordering pizza or Chinese food for over 3 weeks! I bet that alone has saved thousands!

The architectural profession is always a series of ups and downs. You may land that big contract and sometimes that "big fish" just sits outside your reach, picking at the bait for months. My office has it's hand in many cookie jars, so it's not too desperate but we've had our moments.

This downcycle is the longest I've seen. Two years and counting. I tell people that 9 months is the usual cycle for dips in workload. The largest challenge right now for project start up's is the financing. Banks either make clients jump through more hoops or they (the banks) just don't want to loan at such a low rate.

Indications appear to show an upswing for this year. Maybe we will all see a positive Summer of 2011...

Getting feedback on Linkedin

I've been posting on LinkedIn for the Architect group and am getting some good feedback on questions I've posted there. One of them is, "what would you do if you couldn't be an architect anymore" premise. The site is a professional networking site that helps you connect on a level different than FaceBook or other sites.

What would I do? It's a toss up on what I would do to be happy or what to do to earn a decent income for the family. When the going gets rough, I realize that my options can't beat doing what I am doing right now. I'm my own boss (and he's a big jerk!) and I make my own schedule (23 hours is fair). I guess I could earn more, but it would come at a cost of an hour + commute, being beholden to someone else, and staying employed at the whim of someone else.

It think I'll stick with the devil I know, for now...

If you are a member of LinkedIn, please check out the ARCHITECT group and look at the comments on the discussions.

Getting into an office

I spent about a year at the house on Oak Street with an office in Richard's future bedroom. With him on the way, it was time to move forward with renovations at our current studio space. It was a big financial commitment and still is, however it is part of a longer-term plan to develop the practice and have a place for clients to visit and grow the business.

The idea was to have enough space to expand, adapt and be able to do things that I couldn't do before. No more climbing over someone else to get to my drafting table. The studio is housed in a building bought from the City for back taxes. The first comment made to me was to just "clean up the first floor" and open my office. Have you seen the place?? I wouldn't bring my worst enemy in the door looking like it was. No, the client must see an example of what could be done. So began the renovations. There are times I still cannot believe what has been accomplished. A complete gutting of a ruined 3-story building and reconstruction of our studio space.
Here is what it was on the first floor during demolition. A dark hole. Now we have a bright space for clients to visit and enjoy.
As always it is a work in progress.

the backstory

In 1996 my wife and I bought a fixer-upper in Long Island, we spent 3 years making that house a home and in the end we wound up moving to UPState NY to continue our lives. Little did we know where we would wind up!

Well, my firm was started in 2001 when I obtained my license to practice architecture. My family was renting a house in Geneva after finally selling our home in Sodus Point (our #2 fixer-upper!). The world had changed. 9/11 had happened and just about everything took a break, including my job as a design manager of a local timber frame company.

I had been working towards my license, moving from Long Island back to UPState NY. Between working, studying and just trying to juggle all the things life throws at you the idea of working for myself really took off after losing my manager position and working for another architect (who turned out to be a total basket case and unlicensed to boot!) 90 miles from home. That's it. If I have to deal with this I might as well just work for myself!

If you want something, sometimes you get it. What you want and what you get are, at times, not exactly what you expected but you work with it and keep moving towards your goal.

In this blog, I'll be bouncing back and forth between what I am doing now and recollecting what I have done over the past 10 years. I can't believe it's been that long, but the calendar doesn't lie. 700 projects, 4 children, and 1 very strong wife have all been part of the journey. I hope that you'll enjoy what I share here and at least take away some small valuable seed that will grow and help your experience in life, work and family.

Thanks for reading and viewing.