I just finished reading through the Sunday NY Times - late in the evening, after a full day working, doing exactly what the article I just finished said we as Americans DON'T do anymore.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Sadly I have to agree with the basics in the article. The Home Depot mentioned is just down the road from me - I'm there regularly, having spent more than I really want to think about renovating a 1920's Colonial. I prefer the local lumberyard but their yard closes at 4 and HD is open until 10.
The skills mentioned in this article - basic home repair - didn't used to be so rare in neighborhood I'm in. The older attorneys hereabouts likely stripped the paint from woodwork when they moved in 40 or 50 years back. One of my neighbors down the street can be found doing work on his children's houses and one lawyer working for the Manhattan DA's office is known for his gutter cleaning skills.
But these are older residents - not at all typical of the 'younger' residents - and I say that even of my own contemporaries in their 50's.
Owning a toolbox - once a defining characteristic of being an American - has become rarer and rarer. continued........
I confess that I'm from a blue collar family - a long line of tradesmen that did 'good enough' since arriving here. My roots go back to before the revolution - and I'm not that far from where they arrived. A bunch of ancestors are buried in a nearby cemetery. No ever moving westward in this bunch. They did well enough over the years right here. My father's generation were mainly in printing. Before that I had a Great Grandfather that set tiles - worked on the mosaics in the NY subways. Further back you had a boatbuilder that worked on some pretty famous yachts.
My father was the only one in his high school to have a car - unusual in the WWII years. I think it ran on alcohol and pretty much anything else - an old Model A he built from parts. He restored old cars as a hobby - then as a business after typesetting (linotype) died. I worked a summer in the family shop - wondering how my father endured it. But he was a true craftsman when it came to cars. He did cars for a wide range of people - some wealthy; one CEO comes to mind - some not. Most of the men in that fraternity worked with their hands in oen way or another though you had a few professionals - doctors and dentists and such.
There was a certain ethos I learned growing uo.
You never paid anyone to do something you could do yourself. If you didn't know how to do something you asked around - odds are someone knew how to do whatever you needed done and would show you or tell you how. This is before the plethora of 'How-to' books and videos on Youtube. If you needed special tools to do a job you borrowed them or went out and bought them. It was probably cheaper than paying someone - and if not - well, next time you had the right tools.
This legacy remains very real in my basement. The masonry tools I have go back to my great grandfather. Turns out I'm pretty good at setting tile myself. I have pipe threading tools that were owned by my Godfather - he didn't want them back - and an assortment of tools from my father-in-law including a vise and 4' level - both of which I use regularly. And while my younger brother got most of my father's mechanic's tools, I have the engine hoist. A friend and I used to buy older cars and part them out. Was a good way to make a few hundred dollars in a weekend. Of course those old Camaros and Mustangs would be worth a fortune whole now but.......
I'm the first - and only - in my family's lineage to go to college. Engineering - did pretty well at it though my wife's career surpassed mine (parallels to my parents). Ironic - my mother probably out earned my father as a secretary when they married. She went back to work when I entered Junior High - out of necessity. Dad wasn't happy. Good thing she did though. She ended up with a Fortune 500 company (when they had good benefits) and was able to pay for the health care he ended up needing (no pension or benefits from ITU #6 - a reason my family is less than thrilled with unions). She even managed to build the house she always wanted when she retired - had a nice life in the time before she died.
Worked part of the way through college renovating apartments with a group of guys - Did work in exchange for free or reduced rent. Worked as a carpenter for a time to make money for tuition - and always did work on my own cars. Was cheaper to run a car with a blown oil pump to get it home - and change the engine - than have to pay for the towing charges. And despite the aggravation of periodic clutch changes, manual transmissions are fare easier to rebuild than automatics... Few people even change oil anymore much less do brake jobs (though I do confess that I take my newer cars to the local garage now).
I took wood shop, metal shop and auto shop in high school. the only drafting class I ever had was in HS as well - odd that college didn't have such a things - one of the country's top engineering schools. Those skills got used in another job I held doing shop drawings for an Architectural and Engineering firm. I would have loved to be a Civil Engineer but in the late 70's the economy was godawful so..... changed direction and got an industrial engineering degree. Not so great for employment around here (though I really hadn't planned on staying). You see we DON'T make things here in the US anymore. The first job I had out of college was in a manufacturing plant - that shut down 6 months later. I worked for a while in the largest employer in the Bronx - a large commercial printing operation - now long gone along with most of the manufacturing operations in the Bronx. Farberware - the second biggest employer shut down shortly after (this being during the 80's) - sending 800 jobs to Hong Kong.
My sons didn't have ANY shop classes in school. The equipment was sold for scrap when my oldest started Kindergarten. What a waste. They've learned carpentry basics from me - and put them to use building sets for plays - the only place you'll find such work now in most schools.
Most of the kids I had in Cub Scouts over the years had never held a hammer or ANY kind of tool. Pinewood Derby cars were some kind of mystical creation to Dads who worked in banks or brokerage firms. A good number of the cars got buit in my basement over the years.
The town I'm in is full of older houses - most past their 75 year expiration date - the time where pretty much everything needs to be done over. I was well equipped to move here - having done my parents old place over after finishing college. THAT place was a disaster - starting out as a 2 room shack built in the 1800's - added on to over the years. But local rules make it harder and harder for anyone to do work. Towns want architect's drawings - stamped and certified - for ANYTHING. It's sad when I know more than the architect who likes to draw pretty things that are totally impractical (ask any contractor).
I've replaced every window in my house - something that would have been prohibitively expensive if I'd had to pay someone. I could do one window in the time my oldest took a nap when he was a toddler. I painted my parents old place hanging off a ladder with a baby monitor. I'll insist that much of the work I di was repairs not needing a permit but I have no doubt the local authorities would prefer that I file for a permit and pay a fee for ANY work. The Wall Street types moving up from Manhattan may be able to afford doubling the purchase price with renovations but that's beyond my finances. We bought at the absolute low in the housing market - and while the value (and taxes) may have more than tripled our income hasn't.
I'm still not done with this place yet. I'm finishing a major amount of work now - though I had a contractor do the basics. I'm getting a bit old though it seems like I ended up doing the heaviest work myself. Turns out I'm not bad at stone work - though saving a few thousand dollars was the motivating factor. Oldest kid is in college now - THAT is expensive.
Buit it's pretty unusual for someone like me to be doing work on their own house now. It's OK to do a little project but heavy work!?!!? That's what contractors and laborers are for. I guess it's OK to build a coffee table but a whole porch?
The mindset regarding ANY type of manual labor is that it's something to be avoided. I laugh at all the people that pay gardeners to mow lawns - while paying to go to a gym. Used to be your kids mowed the lawn - no longer. Build a wall? Plant shrubs? ick. Paint a room, never mind the whole house..... fix a wall, a ceiling? Had my shoulder done years back. Rotator cuff. The doctor (team MD for a NY football team) wanted to know if I'd played ball.... no.....25 years of taping drywall.....
A long time friend is an attorney - national rep. great in his field. His oldest sone still remembers a decade back when I put together a barbeque for his father (without the directions). At a party there I recall another attorney talking of how he dealt with contractors - 'I pay a third up front a third half way through and never pay the last third..." The SOB could tie a contractor up in court forever over 'problems' to avoid paying. Great way to treat people who work for a living...... There's not much respect for such work - or even the things that need such work. A good friend who's a mechanic in one of the more affluent places here notes that ost of te shop's customers scream like mad about repair costs - but those same people never get their oil changed. I laugh at some of the Manhattan types that move to suburbia without knowing anything about houses - and not even trying to learn basics. Old steam heating systems need to have water added regularly. One newbie blew up their boiler first heating season. Called the fire department because there wasn't a super to call...... But then these people bought the place without turning on faucets in every sink - turns out that one in the kitchen wasn't even connected.... lol.
I've got a couple older cars it's time to start working on again. Oldest son had no interest but the youngest wants one - and is getting his license this fall. I can do anything (ANYTHING) on a car built up to the 1980's but the newer ones......(Auto Mechanics have to take more continuing ed classes than pretty much anyone else). The engine hoist will come in handy - will be putting in a rebuilt engine and a new 5 speed in the '67 (along with a new disc brake set-up).
The guys working for the contractor doing the work on my place wondered why I'd hired them - I was out working with them regularly and was better equipped in some ways. Actually I hired them because I did NOT have a Bobcat and excavator though they needed my tools to change the flat tire on the Bobcat and hydraulic hose on the excavator.
You see, I've still go a tool box - one hell of a tool box. Auto tools - full wrench and socket sets, an oxy-acetylene torch set, floor jacks and all the pullers and specialty tools you can think of... to carpentry - table saw, routers, bandsaw, drill press..... I've got one tool chest just full of drill bits - twist, spade, hole cutters, masonry (I LOVE my Makita Hammer drill). Need a saw blade? what kind? Sawzall (love Milwaukee), carbide tipped 10". 12". or just a plain old 7 1/2" circular blade.... 12" diamond? How about sanding - sheet, discs, belts, drum?
A Harbor Freight opened up down in the Bronx. They have a hydraulic press that looks interesting (use it to press on wheel bearings on axles.....). It's a bottle jack and steel frame - not much to worry about and it won't get a huge amount of use so sometimes cheap works out (I really don't care if I burn out the cheap circular saw cutting bluestone and such... if it got me through this job I'm happy... didn't want to wreck a good Milwaukee).
The 'shade tree mechanic' was part of this nation's history. Pioneers fixed ANYTHING because they had no choice. Some astounding inventions came from amateur 'mechanics'. And the self-sufficient American was the norm, not the exception.
No longer.
And for those that denigrate such skills, I dare ANY attorney to figure out the geometry for the cuts on an L shaped roof with a couple dormers. I'd just love to see some financial genius figure out how to cut stone and dry lay a wall. The problem solving skills and planning needed to complete even some basic jobs is a lot more complex than most realize.
Of course a few people still retain these skills. A nephew owns a farm upstate. He rebuilds tractors for fun - when he has the time. Usually he's busy fixing something on the farm. But again, this is unusual.
Perhaps that's one of the problems with our national 'leadership' - as the NYT article noted you're not going to have Obama or Romney building a cabinet (like Jimmy Carter) or doing much of anything else with their hands. Most of our politicians are attorneys - and I joke (not really) that lawyers cannot have any mechanical skills - the knowledge of the law they need takes up all the space you'd devote to such skills. They are mutually exclusive skill sets. And maybe that's what's wrong with things. When political and business leaders are more focused on accounting gimmicks and financial ploys than actually MAKING things.... you get what we have now.... a chase for the cheapest possible labor - irregardless of the knowledge needed to do any work - a denigration of any skill sets you yourself do not possess and a pursuit of the 'easy' way to do things..... When you're building something you appreciate simplification and making things easier but too often the 'easy' way backfires and requires that you do things all over. In ancient Sumeria a builder had to stand under a roof he constructed and would be put to death if a house he built collapsed. A mechanic who installs new brakes wrong is in for a heap of trouble. But our Wall Street mavens who sell pure crap as AAA don't seem to think there are consequences to such actions. When you're building REAL 'things' they work or they don't and there are very real consequences when they fail. That's a lesson many have forgotten.
Given the current state of affairs - and the state of our economy - I'd rather have a basement and garage full of tools than a CD with Citibank. And when China and the rest of the world stops taking paper marked $US as payment for real things the cost of the tools I already own will skyrocket.
I wish I'd bought a ton more clear cedar clapboard 20 years back. THAT has appreciated in value faster than any investment (same maybe cherry or black
walnut).
And btw - I don't buy many tools at Home Depot. The big box stores sell cheaper versions of tools that don't last as long. My table saw from Sears that's 40 years old will outlast any new one - just as my old Craftsman wrenches are far thinner (and stronger) than the new ones. Buy good pro quality tools if you're going to use them regularly. Still have the Estwing framing hammer I bought decades back and you can't kill my Milwaukee Sawzall. I have to confess though... battery powered drills and such have won me over - even if I know they'll only last so long.... Dealing with the cord on my old Bosch drill is a pain - even if that will drill through anything. The 18v Ryobi is almost as good for most work - a lot lighter and - no cord.