30 July 2007

Do it Right the First Time!

We've all heard that, right?
In shear madness, I started deconstructing the rear of a little rental house we bought, behind our house, on Saturday. Just the siding-pink aluminum siding. I had removed it from the front and sides 2 years ago and restored the wood siding below on the Greek Revival Cottage (1856). I had hope to find something I could work with on the back where additions had been made.

I didn't. Rats. Instead I found four different types of siding-some which never was meant to be exposed and some really nice asphalt shingle siding! Why, why, why didn't they do it right the first time and put something on that made sense?

Wait a minute...........did I mention that morning prior to the siding demo-I did some porch floor demo on my own house? It is 4 years old. By profession I shoulda known better on how I put it together and paid the price......it rotted through. I should have done it right the first time....and mine only lasted 4 years.

We're too quick here in the Hoosier State to cover up the mess we often are guilty of creating. Sometimes we cover up some really beautiful buildings because it's just easier than "doing it right" and restoring grandeur. Sometimes we build bypass highways-allow commercial development and then have to build a new bypass...........because we didn't do it right the first time (yes, U.S. 31-our multi hundred million dollar highway proposal fix).

Slow down, understand the impact on future generations..........and.......do it right the first time folks.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Having recently returned from a trip to Italy - yes it is true we can certainly find reasons to tear down a building and put up new, but we never think about restoration and how it preserves heritage and the historical signifigance...If people could only see that in other parts of the world there is buiding after building - town after town that the only new building is necessary for growth...the old buidlings are used for housing - recreation - culture activities and the list goes on and on...just look in our little Central Northern Indiana town and you will see the tearing down rather than the preservation...if we only had old Carnige Back! Oh well we can only hope that there are enough folks with foresignt that will listen to preservationist and maintain the beauty and historical value of our older buildings througout the great state of Indiana and our Nation.

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