Sunday, March 20, 2011

Commercial Work


One of the first projects my 18-year-old son worked on with me was a conference table, for a commercial real estate sales office in downtown Portland. This was done when cutting and finishing was done with handheld skill saws and grinders. Shaping and detailing an unforgiving and reluctant stone like granite was a real challenge back then. It was a slow and difficult process to turn two raw slabs of granite into a matched three-dimensional stone table.

We were both quite proud of our hard work when we delivered it to the tenth floor of the commercial real state office and installed it on a custom wooden base ready for us. It all came together very well we thought.

Before we left the office, three architects walked in, one stating, “What a handsome piece of stone,” congratulating the other on his stone selection.

Then a group of young commercial salesmen came in, not noticing us, “HOW MANY APES DID IT TAKE TO CARRY THAT UP HERE?” and laughed.

This was my son's introduction to commercial stone fabrication. It's no wonder we all prefer to work for private home owners who respect and appreciate good craftsmanship.

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