• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

South Mountain Company

Martha’s Vineyard’s integrated design/build company

  • What we do
    • Process & Practice
    • Architecture & Engineering
    • Building
    • Interior Design
    • Solar & Energy Technology
  • Who we are
    • Our Team
    • The Company
    • Martha’s Vineyard
    • Beyond our Shores
    • Our History
    • Our Model
    • Careers
    • Internships
  • Portfolio
    • Residential
    • Non-Residential
    • Solar & Energy Technology
    • Affordable Housing
  • Media
    • Newsletter
    • Press Archive
    • Blog Archive
  • Contact
  • Search

Dear Reader,
This blog is now an archive. John Abrams (Founder of South Mountain, author of this blog, and a book of the same name) retired on December 31, 2022. All posts published up until this date are preserved below.

For updates on John's next chapter, visit abramsangell.com.

For updates on South Mountain's second act, subscribe to our newsletter using the form below.

In Praise of Carpenters

By John Abrams | August 8, 2017

This soulful piece of writing comes from SMCo Production Manager Newell Isbell Shinn. I’m proud to share it. – JA

A carpenter’s intimacy with a building is particular and visceral. They know, for instance, how every material in a house smells when it is cut, what kind of dust it makes. They know how many pieces of each thing they can lift by themselves, how many with help, and the ratio of pieces moved today to tomorrow’s aches and pains. When they walk away they know a building with their body in a way other occupants probably never will.

Carpenters wear layers, and rarely argue about whether to set the thermostat at 68, 72 or 76. In fact, on those few halcyon days when temps stay in that neighborhood, it is cause for celebration. If eating your food on makeshift seating while exposed to the elements is a picnic, then the life of the carpenter is a picnic nearly every day.

Going to work as a carpenter may mean spending the day in a dank crawl space, a blazing roof top, or a sheetrocked room with a million dollar view. The material of the day may be heart breakingly beautiful wood grain or back breakingly awkward OSB and foam panels, and what it is is usually beyond the carpenter’s control, a result of decisions made elsewhere and earlier by clients, architects, managers. Those decisions can feel capricious.

The work of making buildings is full of hazard, discomfort, and disappointment, and lends itself to a certain natural grumpy cynicism. Carpenters know every way in which reality as verified in field can make a joke of plan, schedule, and budget. Carpenters have seen, or at least heard of, every way a beam or a machine can slash, crush, disfigure, or destroy a body, and they work in the shadow of them all.

The work of making buildings is hard work, but also full of magic, of spontaneous improvisational genius, and transformation. Carpenters do their work in a world that isn’t square, level, and plumb when they get there, but is (mostly) when they leave. They are mechanics in the old esteemed sense of that word.

Character is quickly evident in the way one walks across a cluttered deck, holds a tool and puts it down, and in the way one strikes a line. A carpenter must trust the person on the other end of a heavy load or the other end of the tape, and can therefore be quick to judge. They can also be patient, kind, and generous teachers. Everyone learns from someone else. Carpentry requires camaraderie.

At a time when fewer and fewer humans make anything of physical value, carpenters engage in a profoundly creative process, drawing on intellect, muscle, machinery, and materials to produce objects of lasting value, to create shelter, to fulfill basic and archetypal human needs. The carpenter is in some ways mid-wife for the visions and dreams of others, bringing buildings into the world with all the attendant clamor, muck, and uncertainty of birth. It is hard work and, done well, it is honorable, elegant, and inspiring too.

Categories: Collaboration, Housing, Martha's Vineyard, South Mountain Company Tags: carpenters, newell

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Mitch Anthony

    August 9, 2017 at 1:56 pm

    This is a heartbreakingly beautiful ode to craft, resiliency, collaboration and just plain old showing up. Thank you, Newell. You remind me that work is a clear and simple way to show your true character. You motivate me to up my own game.

    Reply
    • John Abrams

      August 11, 2017 at 9:27 am

      Although we always have room to improve, your game is pretty up as it is, Mitch! People reading this might be interested in your blog Clarity First https://clarity-first.com/blog/ which is always compelling and thought-provoking.

      Reply
  2. Karen K Davis

    August 9, 2017 at 2:21 pm

    Very eloquently said Newell. Knowing you, knowing the many people at SM, knowing other fine carpenters & having lived in a SM house for 9 years I think your words so beautifully bring alive a carpenter’s work. Thank you for articulating this so well. Karen Davis

    Reply
    • Newell Isbell Shinn

      August 10, 2017 at 9:11 am

      Thank you Karen. I could write an ode to clients as well, who make it possible for carpenters to practice at the highest level. Thank you for being among that number.

      Reply
      • John Abrams

        August 11, 2017 at 9:21 am

        Karen,

        We have had the good fortune to serve many wonderful clients who have allowed and encouraged us to stretch our craft. You and Dave are among those who have truly pushed our limits on both craft and building performance at once. Yours is truly a house of and for the 21st century, and beyond.

        We’re grateful – – John

        Reply
  3. Bob Scott

    August 10, 2017 at 6:19 am

    I love that last paragraph Newell. Do you mind if I copy and paste it to my shop/office wall?

    Bob Scott

    Reply
    • Newell Isbell Shinn

      August 10, 2017 at 9:04 am

      Bob, thank you. I would be honored!

      Reply
  4. Peter Ives

    August 10, 2017 at 6:22 am

    Thanks

    Reply
  5. Tom

    August 10, 2017 at 8:43 am

    You nailed it Newell! You eloquently assembled the the characteristics a carpenter is built upon! Thank you!

    Reply
  6. Declan

    August 10, 2017 at 11:02 am

    “…mid-wife for the visions and dreams of others”

    These truths are beautiful. Thanks, Newell and the SMCo crews who inspired this.

    Reply
  7. Steve Greenberg

    August 11, 2017 at 9:27 am

    Beautiful Newell! I think I finally know why I keep showing up on a job site and asking to help!

    Reply
  8. Sue Burnet

    August 14, 2017 at 10:51 am

    Wonderfully eloquent piece Newell!

    Reply
  9. Justin

    August 16, 2017 at 7:32 am

    Newell,

    I don’t know you, but I know the company you keep well! They are the the reason I can relate so well to your words. I read this when it was published and it has been lingering in my thoughts for a few days. The reminder of old friends and the camaraderie and fellowship of what it means to be a carpenter was a necessary and welcome surprise.
    Thank you.

    Reply
    • jabrams

      August 18, 2017 at 6:52 am

      Hey Justin,

      Nice blast from our past to hear from you. Here’s hoping all is well for you in Maine; you are missed in Massachusetts.

      John

      Reply
  10. Tom Rochford

    August 20, 2017 at 12:47 pm

    Newell,
    thank you for that ode to carpenters, it was very moving and “oh so meaningful” Three weeks ago we lost a dear friend and a great carpenter, Mike Milner. He was the guy who taught me the trade and showed me how to build everything square and true. I remember one job where, after laying up the ridge and roof rafters, Mike saw the ridge board was not straight (it had traveled an inch or two – over a fifty foot distance and that was unacceptable). We went back and took apart the rafters and blocking. We measured everything a second time and cut the rafters again – to their proper dimensions and when we laid up the new rafters, the ridge board remained straight and true.
    Thank you for your article, it really hit home. With your permission, I would like to download a copy and give it to Mike’s widow.
    Tom Rochford

    Reply
  11. Will

    August 20, 2017 at 2:23 pm

    Very well said Newell. From San Diego for college where my brother who was a framing contractor swayed me from college to learn the building trade it was the best decision I ever made. From laborer to apprentice to journeyman and finally lead building custom homes in the ski resorts of Colorad and Lake Tahoe so much knowledge gained sometimes through trial and error and now am at a phase to always be one step ahead of what works and what doesn’t around the learning curves of the trade. Efficientlcy, streamline, foresee and plan ahead from the minute you wake up til the end of your work day makes the customer happy as we are rewarded with the next referral. My passion is carpentry and my love for wood runs deep. Thank you for your gift of insightful words. Will Golden

    Reply
  12. Fernando P

    August 20, 2017 at 7:58 pm

    What a great mosaic of the experienced hands, seasoned mind and forging heart expressing the nobility of a very undervalued calling.
    Thanks for taking the culture one step closer to restoring that nobility .

    Reply
  13. Dave LeTellier

    August 21, 2017 at 8:19 am

    I may be losing my mentor soon… a great man of the trade and the one who introduced me to it. I hope you would allow me to read this beautiful piece at his funeral when that day arrives. Thank you so much! You have brought me to tears thinking about our wondrous life as carpenters. Sincerely, Dave

    Reply
  14. John Abrams

    October 1, 2017 at 6:56 am

    Thanks to all of you for your comments about Newell’s piece. it really touched a chord far and near. In the coming months it will be appear in Fine Homebuilding Magazine.

    Reply
  15. Access Doors and Panels

    January 20, 2020 at 2:41 am

    A carpenter’s intimacy with a building in particular and visceral. They know, for instance, how every material in a house smells when it is cut, what kind of dust it. Many thanks to you for sharing my background and thoughts!

    Reply
  16. Seattle's Best Carpentry

    September 23, 2020 at 9:12 am

    A carpenter invests his body, mind, and soul into the works he is making and this article embodies this! Thank you for sharing to us how passionate carpentry can be!

    Reply
  17. Carpenter services in jaipur

    November 16, 2021 at 4:46 am

    I enjoy the way you’re trying to do things.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

sidebar

Footer

UPS/Fedex

15 Red Arrow Road
West Tisbury, MA 02575

USPS

Post Office Box 1260
West Tisbury, MA 02575

Call/Email

508.693.4850

info@southmountain.com

Subscribe

Follow Us

  • Instagram
  • Houzz
  • Pinterest