| Author |
Message |
Michael Chusid, RA FCSI CCS
Senior Member
Username: michael_chusid
Post Number: 373
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, March 04, 2018 - 08:47 pm: |    |
You might be a specifier if...
You go shopping for a new home and can remember the brand of windows, roof flashing details, whether electrical outlets have GFCI, and the door hardware finish...
But you don't remember quantity of bedrooms or baths.
Michael Chusid, RA FCSI CCS 1-818-219-4937
www.chusid.com www.buildingproduct.guru |
Dave Metzger
Senior Member
Username: davemetzger
Post Number: 724
Registered: 07-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, March 04, 2018 - 09:30 pm: | |
Michael:
So, what's your point? |
Louis Medcalf, FCSI, CCS
Senior Member
Username: louis_medcalf
Post Number: 97
Registered: 11-2010
| | Posted on Monday, March 05, 2018 - 12:26 pm: | |
When my first-born was about 12 in the 1980s, at dinner I asked him to cut me a slice of bread from a loaf backed by my wife. I told him to cut it about the thickness of his forefinger (biggish lad). He picked up the knife and said, "Dad, you don't have to be so specific."
I replied, "Son, specifications are just a task for most architects, but for me it's a way of life." |
Steven Bruneel, AIA, CSI-CDT, LEED-AP, EDAC
Senior Member
Username: redseca2
Post Number: 638
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Monday, March 05, 2018 - 12:33 pm: | |
Michael,
That is why we use checklists, so that we do not leave something out.
I, licensed Architect, once did a casual inspection of a condo, with a friend, also an Architect, who was thinking of buying it. We did not use a checklist. While admiring the hardwood floors, the view, the bathroom tile, we failed to notice that there was no heating system what-so-ever. This older San Francisco condominium building once had radiator steam heat. But that had gone away ages ago and the residents provided their own plug-in heaters.
My friend realized this while in escrow, but went ahead with the purchase any way. The hardwood floors, the view, the bathroom tile.... |
Michael Chusid, RA FCSI CCS
Senior Member
Username: michael_chusid
Post Number: 374
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Monday, March 05, 2018 - 02:25 pm: | |
David: Point is... I love being a specifier even if it has skewed my perceptions.
Louis: Did you want the thickness measured at the base of the finger or the tip? Measured against the gripping surface of the finger or the side of the finger?
Steven: Thanks for the reminder... We have made an offer to purchase the house... and I do not remember seeing a furnace.
Michael Chusid, RA FCSI CCS 1-818-219-4937
www.chusid.com www.buildingproduct.guru |
Lynn Javoroski FCSI CCS LEEDŽ AP SCIP Affiliate
Senior Member
Username: lynn_javoroski
Post Number: 2141
Registered: 07-2002
| | Posted on Monday, March 05, 2018 - 10:23 pm: | |
Louis, so glad your wife backed the bread. I find it more satisfying to bake mine. (grin) |
David J. Wyatt, CDT
Senior Member
Username: david_j_wyatt_cdt
Post Number: 229
Registered: 03-2011
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 06, 2018 - 08:53 am: | |
My dad was an architect and specifier. When other kids got Scooby-Doo and Batman 3-ring binders for school, I got Schlage and Medusa Cement binders he brought home from the office.
He also brought home what he called "scratch paper" for us to draw on. It was old specs printed on only one side of the pages. A couple of years ago, I found in his house some of my homework from the third grade that I had turned in on this so-called scratch paper. Each page was backed by concrete specs, hand-typed, using the old alpha-numeric numbering system (3A-3B-3C).
I see now there was no escaping this fate. |
ken hercenberg
Senior Member
Username: khercenberg
Post Number: 1155
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 06, 2018 - 09:33 am: | |
David, I thought I was the only one. My dad was an architect who used to bring home 'blueprints' that I drew on. One day when I was about 6 or 7 I turned some over and found all this 'stuff' on the 'back' and asked my dad about it. He patiently showed me what everything was and how to maneuver through the set. An hour or so later I could read a set of Drawings. I didn't think about it again until I was I college and started down this curious path.
Was I doomed from the start? |
Dave Metzger
Senior Member
Username: davemetzger
Post Number: 725
Registered: 07-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 06, 2018 - 10:23 am: | |
Michael:
Of COURSE a specifier would behave as you note; my (snarky) point was, how else would they behave?
Coincidentally, my wife and are buying a condo, and I did check out the roofing, and the age of the hot water heater and heat pump, and GFCI outlets. |
David J. Wyatt, CDT
Senior Member
Username: david_j_wyatt_cdt
Post Number: 230
Registered: 03-2011
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 06, 2018 - 10:31 am: | |
Ken,
Doom might be a little harsh. Let's call it fate. Your story confirms that the Fates are as much at work these days as they were in the times of Aeschylus. |
Ron Beard CCS
Senior Member
Username: rm_beard_ccs
Post Number: 442
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 06, 2018 - 03:02 pm: | |
I remember writing my first spex "...using the old alpha-numeric numbering system (3A-3B-3C)." ...well, now dimly anyway.
My kids saw how hard it was for me get timely receivables and they stayed away from specification consulting.
"Fast is good, but accurate is better."
.............Wyatt Earp |
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