The Longhair Laborer: Why is a lawyer painting buildings?

Why is a lawyer painting buildings?

My grandpa on my mom’s side was a carpenter and general contractor. Most of the men on my dad’s side are lifelong DIYers who also work in the construction industry. We’ve got 3 civil engineers, a construction superintendent, a surveyor, a former general contractor, and probably a few others I’m missing. I’ve been putting up sheetrock, tiling bathrooms, roofing houses, building home additions, installing flooring, building decks, forming concrete, and a whole lot more, ever since I was a little kid.

At sixteen, my first job was as a laborer and operator for a local cattle company in Ritzville, Washington. Over the course of four summers, two spring breaks, and a handful of winter days, I repaired and maintained center pivots, fencing, and farm equipment. I changed pipe, built irrigation lines, unclogged pumps, tore down old corrals and outbuildings, and welded new corrals together. I operated front-end loaders, telehandlers, tractors, a backhoe, an excavator, a dump truck, and a semi-truck. I swathed, raked, baled, hauled, and fed hay. I also sprayed more thistles than your average city-dweller sees in a lifetime.

In the summers before and after my time at Washington State University, I worked for the Adams County Public Works Department. For those of you who know a thing or two about government work, you may be asking – should working for a county even count as labor? I can assure you that the prospect of government work did not affect my work ethic. Sure, at times I maintained roads from the luxury of an air-conditioned vehicle but, at others, I walked for miles alongside a chip-spreader in 90-degree heat, raking out bumps in newly laid gravel placed over hot oil.

During my senior year at WSU, I landed one of my favorite jobs to date, working as a laborer (and occasional operator) for an excavation company based out of Pullman, WA. I installed septic and drainage systems, dug trenches for utilities, and prepped ground for concrete. Looking back, it feels like I spent equal portions of my time on either a skid-steer or a “Jumping Jack” compactor. If you’re unfamiliar, I encourage you to look up videos of those two pieces of equipment and take a wild guess at which one is more fun to operate.

I missed working in construction so, earlier this year, I started The Longhair Laborer, a licensed general contractor in Washington State! As a means of advertising its services, I cleaned up an old building in my hometown that my parents own.

That generated a little building envy around town! Soon after, I landed my first job - the same family who hired me to work on their cattle ranch when I was 16 years old hired me to fix up a building they use as a distribution facility for custom beef boxes.

Now … I really set out to start an excavation company, so the question is … do I plan to paint more buildings? Quite possibly - though it's getting too late in the year.

Maybe next spring I'll start a marketing campaign - "Operation paint the town."