My dad was a woodworker and one of his businesses when I was a kid was called "Gunstocks Unlimited". Although I enjoyed working with wood I more enjoyed finishing and he had me doing hand rubbed oil finishes on gunstocks before I was a teenager. Later on I apprenticed with a cabinet maker friend of mine and learned to finish. NGR was just coming about and I just caught the advent of LPHV spraying equipment before I joined the carpenters union as a cub. Shortly after becoming a journeyman the housing market bottomed out and after spending a few months sitting in the hall, unable to take the work I was seeing available since it was mostly non-union I walked up to the gal in the office and handed her my card. The next day I answered an ad in the paper that said $5/hr. must have your own truck and tools. By the end of the following week I was making $15/hr. ( good money back then) running a crew rehabbing flats in south St. Louis. By the time I was with the company 3 months I was made a supervisor and basically drove around making punchlists and insuring crews had the material they needed. Maybe a year later I started my own company and began focusing on exterior remodeling. I made S tons of money off vinyl siding, replacement windows, decks and room additions. At one point I was the most expensive siding installer in the STL area. That's because I paid attention to detail and was the guy big companies subcontracted to for very high end work. I'd show up to these jobs where the salesmen had already pissed these people off so bad that sometimes as soon as I stepped out of my truck I came under fire. By the end of the first day these customers loved me and the work I was doing and the manner in which I did it. To get paid I had to get the big check at the end of the job, which I always did. At that point I could write my own checks and I have to say that the 1990s were VERY good to Bassbob.
I never again did join the Carpenters Union ( although I was briefly a Teamster). In fact from 1996 to 2012 I was a fairly successful general contractor. When the Obama economy hit the downturn started and in 2012 I took a ( union) laborer position with the local gas company where today I am a foreman on a service and installation truck.
This was a long, convoluted story to say that although I was a journeyman carpenter with a penchant for woodworking and especially finishing, I never made enough money doing that. I have mad respect for guys that can pull it off though because it takes massive talent which I don't possess.
