Thanks to Ariel! We are making movies and building community…

Early on in the project when we had identified community as a key pillar of our Happy Boolo house project philosophy, we defined this word in a broad sense. It would be about us designing the house to be welcoming for our various communities to gather, but it would also be about the community involved in designing and building the house.  Taking a page from my parents’ playbook when they built their dream home, I recognized early on that it was important to establish good relationships with those working on the house. And both Mike and I wanted the various trades experts to be excited that they were working on this Happy Boolo project.

We also knew the typical narrative about house projects: House Project = Headache, often resulting in tensions and frustrations between the owners and various parties working on the job. From many friends who have done renovations, I have heard horror stories of people not getting along resulting in people walking off the job or the project stopping mid-way. Even my parents who did a great job connecting with the trades experts in their house project had a few rough situations to deal with where they and the people working on the job had a different idea of how things should go, and the quality of the work delivered.

So we said: “Let’s challenge House Project = Headache. “

Let’s welcome these folks into our project, into our community. So we set a goal:  let’s expect a successful project with great folks on the job. At the end of the project, we will gather together with everyone who contributed to the project to celebrate this amazing accomplishment.  If we do run into any bumpy times - which we figured there would be some - let’s find ways to get back into repair with whomever is involved in the situation.

For starters, we have taken a direct page from my Dad’s playbook, and have bought the contracting teams pizza (safest option during the pandemic) as an initial welcome to the job.

Pizza’s here!

Welcome to our project! Our flooring experts enjoy lunch.

We also decided to share the full story of the project with those working on the project, so they had the bigger picture in mind when doing the work, and so they recognized how important their contributions are.

We kicked off sharing our story by having the leaders of some of the contractor teams who would first start the job join us for a kickoff gathering for homemade pumpkin spice cake before deconstruction started in early January.

We continued this practice with the first crew on the job - Recyclean - our deconstruction experts. I came onsite with my one-pager, bags of Happy Boolo Nut Mix, and shared our story.  I also shared our goal of building community through this project and our commitment to hosting a gathering at the end of this project for everyone who contributed. (Of course, this will be way in the future once COVID is primarily a bad memory.) The team listened intently, and seemed really excited about the project.

When I finished sharing, Ariel, one of the team members, said “this is really different - one of the first times a homeowner came to meet us and the only story like this I’ve heard. This is super inspiring.”

I replied “Given none of this is possible without all of you, we feel it’s really important to meet everyone on the job, and thank everyone for their contributions.”

He and I started to discuss in more detail the nature of their deconstruction work, how they work as a team, and he shared a bit more about himself personally. His enthusiasm sparked an idea.

By this time, Mike and I were in the early stages of our website plans - many people in our lives were encouraging us to get a web presence up as soon as possible, but we still had a whole lot of ups and downs to get through as a couple trying to build a website together before we would be live online - that’s worth at least two other blog posts. ;) We had very different ideas of what this site would be like.

Team from Recyclean - Ariel is in the middle

However, as I was listening to Ariel speak excitedly about what he does, the pride he takes in the work, how he and his colleagues work as a team, this thought popped into my mind: “What about taking pictures of the teams doing the work (as much as possible given busy work schedules). Ideally, what about taking videos of these folks talking about their work — why they like what they do, what are some of the challenges they face in doing the work?”

Like many people in the US and other countries, Mike and I have always enjoyed house shows on TV. Over the years, we have enjoyed the various shows dating all the way back to one of the first ones in the US — Trading Spaces with the host Paige Davis. That show was the beginning of an absolute avalanche of house shows chronicling all different types of home journeys (building, renovating, flipping, buying-selling, creating curb appeal), and when the popularity of channels like HGTV skyrocketed.

The thing that I have always noticed in most TV house shows is (a bit like the movies): you see the homeowners, the designer, the architect, the lead builder, the realtor, and once in awhile, you get a glimpse of some of the contractors working on the job - often fast-paced footage as they demo or construct something in renovating a house. But you rarely get to know who they are or hear them speak about their work. Capturing their perspectives and experience is just another way to create community through this project and an appreciation for all that goes into building a home.

“Ariel you have inspired me. Are you open to me taking a video of you talking about the work you are doing?” “For sure” was the immediate response.

With that moment, I started my ongoing role as Happy Boolo house project photographer and videographer on a mission to capture the work getting done. While the pandemic has slowed down the project, on the bright side, because I am always working from home and not travelling anywhere, but up and down my street, and to the grocery store, I am typically available to meet contractors during the day, and capture pictures of them at different points of the work. And the most inspiring part - capturing footage of these experts talking about the work they do.

As Mike can tell you, I am the last person you should trust with technology (besides my mother), but I have thoroughly enjoyed capturing loads of visual assets of our Happy Boolo house journey along the way. And it’s been a pleasure to capture the perspectives of the contractors along the way.

This has helped to educate Mike and me on what goes into building a home, but also has surfaced an immense pride and belief in craftmanship throughout the project. I have come to see each of these crews as artists and artisans with the most critical skills to build a structure that is safe, healthy, environmentally sound, and can serve as a gathering place for community. Sure, they are getting paid for what they do, but I have also seen these folks put their heart into what they do, which is invaluable in terms of the quality output and sense of pride around the work. I have seen them making sure things are just right according to plans; I have seen them redo things when things need fixing; I have seen them look proudly at a job well-done and feel an attachment to their work and to the project.

So thanks Ariel for giving me this idea! You have sparked something beautiful, and another powerful way to build community.

If you missed our original post about the amazing process of deconstruction, and our deconstruction experts and artisans, Recyclean, check out this link.

If you are interested in checking out more about the community pillar of our philosophy, check out this link.

Thanks again gentlemen for all the amazing work to deconstruct our home down to the bones, so we can be renovate this 1964 split into something highly functional, sustainable and built for community!

Deconstruction has turned into a beautiful renovation!