The last blog post was a year ago.... and in that post I said 2020 had been the longest year in forever. Well, I officially take that back. (Insert me with arms up surrendering)... 2021 you win.
After arriving on a job site yesterday afternoon I sat down, slowly pulled out my computer, and then stopped as I found myself in a blur. It hit me. My tank was on empty. Zero, zilch, nada. I'm not talking about my gas tank friends (although that seems to hit zero very regularly these days with all the driving between sites). I hit that point of the week where I was completely and utterly exhausted. Anyone else hit that point during the week? Not going to lie, sometimes it's Mondays, lol.
Not a day goes by that I don't hear, read, or even watch videos about the current world we live in. Some of my counterparts in the industry will touch on it occasionally, but most of what I see is complaints from consumers. I'm going to be real here because, well, transparency is how we roll. There are absolutely challenges in dealing with today's market conditions (and it's exhausting on so many levels). You may not be in the market to build a home, but there is most certainly something in your daily life that has been affected.
Building a home has a million moving parts and pieces, just as many parts as the dreams that were had to design it. It's like building a house with Legos (loved doing this as kid, surprise surprise). This is the best way I can explain what it feels like to be builder right now that most people can relate to:
Pre-pandemic Lego house:
Step 1- Take your Lego bin and dump it out on the floor perhaps even keep some in the bucket.
Step 2- Pull out the instruction booklet.
Step 3- Sort through the pieces to find what you want.
Step 4- Start construction of your perfect Lego creation.
2021 Lego house:
Step 1- Take the bucket of Legos and empty 10% of it on the floor (in long shag carpet preferably- actually, if you are reading this and have shag carpet please stop and call us immediately)
Step 2- Take a few handfuls out of the bucket and drop kick them so it's raining Legos and you have no idea where they are going to land.
Step 3- Take a few more handfuls and throw a handful into each surrounding room with your eyes closed.
Step 4- Take the rest of the bucket outside. Spin in a circle and launch the Legos in the great abyss known as the grass.
Step 5- Now you're ready to start building your perfect Lego creation.
Wait, what? Your'e ready to start building your perfect Lego creation?
......except Legos are everywhere (and I mean E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E!) Have you ever thrown Legos? It takes years to find them all. YEARS. (We won't talk about stepping on them barefoot because that's another level of pain- hence why we need to have a call if you have shag carpet). So, your 2021 Lego house.... you thought you had the pieces you need but you can't find them now, you're scouring all the rooms for the pieces that were scattered, and you're on your hands and knees carefully picking what you can out of the blades of grass in the yard. You have an instruction book- um, go ahead and toss that, you won't need it this year.
What you need in 2021 to build a (non-Lego) home isn't a manual. You need someone willing to go to bat for you against all of these hurdles (and many more that you don't even know about as a client). You need someone that's picking up the pieces you don't even know are scattered.
When the million real life "Lego pieces" for a home are affected by factors that are always changing, getting kicked, thrown, and spun around, it makes consistency and progress challenging.... for some. Is building in 2021 tough? Yes. It absolutely is. I won't deny that. But, it's not impossible. It takes patience and proactivity. It takes a builder willing to not only step in, but to step up. In a BIG way.
Challenges push us and are an opportunity to be better, which create a better result in the end. Take that 2021. I'm going to build the best Lego house yet. You just wait.