About the Author I started my career as a civil engineer. It wasn't quite as exciting as I had hoped but I stuck with it long enough to learn how to go about getting things done.....how to go about getting something in the physical world built or fixed. I moved on from that by basically starting over from scratch. I had seen firsthand in my engineering work that you could write the prettiest specifications all day long but if you the writer didn't understand the actual process of building that thing you were specifying you were heading for a train wreck.....usually a pretty expensive one. So I decided to go back and learn building from the ground up. I went to work for carpenters, plumbers, electricians, heating guys, and masons. I never did get to learn how to operate heavy machinery though....always wanted to have run a bulldozer..... I learned the trades from the bottom up, the hard way. I stayed with each trade long enough so I understood how things went together and importantly, I learned the lingo associated with the work. If you can't speak the language how can you function? After that I went into contracting, doing repair work and new construction on residential and light commercial buildings. I got to the point where I could, on my own, build a house from the foundation clear to the chimney top. When I write specifications now to get something done I know of what I speak. For the next sixteen or so years I worked in a local non-profit agency in Maine running a home repair program. We used public funds to repair the homes of low income home owners and if their place was too far gone, build them a cunning little ranch house.
