Or - Oh yeah, I have a blog
I guess I’ll start with the big news.
I have Cancer.
specifically mantle cell lymphoma.
This comes at a time when my work is starting to gain a larger audience both in terms of design, detailing, philosophy and all that but in terms of how I work - the evolution of the Bluetime Collaborative idea.
I am amazingly lucky in that I have amazing projects going on in design and construction and recently completed (stay tuned for Sugarbush House photos!) I am working with a curated list of amazing builders and carefully selected (and amazing) clients. Wait…is this a business model?? Is it teachable? All of whom have been incredibly supportive through this cancer thing. As have my friends - too numerous to mention but you know who you are.
So, the weird thing where I get cancer and it makes me realize how lucky I am.
Over the past year I have been working on an incredible project with Gero of Mindel and Morse builders here in Vermont. We see it as a further exploration of ideas we brought up with the Sugarbush House in terms of materials, methods and relationships. Relationships? Yes -this business is equal parts product, process and relationships. I want my clients to become my friends. How can I design for someone who I don’t like and value and am interested in and want to spend more time with? I also want them to be my most ardent sales force. I want to use each project as a stepping stone to the next and not just tick off the projects, do the work and move on. This is a fairly recent realization and also a sort of business model. The emotional investment that I put into my work is very important in that it allows me to do my best work. Which is what people are paying me for.
I guess I am not (or no longer) a commodity architect. I am a boutique architect as much as I hate that term. Although there is still the aspect where I really can’t say no sometimes. But I’m getting better at curating. The cancer has really forced that.
I have also been able to speak more publicly about the projects and processes I am involved with. Thanks to the folks at Fine Homebuilding, SEON, Efficiency Vermont, the BS+Beer Show, Emily with her E3 with Emily podcast and this new zoom format for conferences.
Back to the cancer thing and what it means.
I was diagnosed last December. No major symptoms, just swollen lymph nodes and the in retrospect realization that I had been dragging a bit over the past year. I am nearly finished with chemotherapy and will be on assorted drugs for years. I may or may not undergo a stem cell transplant (also known as bone marrow transplant) in July. I say may or may not because I am enrolling in a randomized study to determine if, with all the recent advancement in drugs, the transplant is really adding all that much to extending remission times and improving outcomes for this type of cancer which is not curable.
In terms of my work, this has meant that I have had to say no to projects that have me going into other people’s houses (renovations) There was an aspect of this with Covid but I have little to no immune system due to the chemo and have been isolating myself in a fairly extreme manner. Also, I have a very limited amount of energy to accomplish things each day and many days that I am not able to accomplish. Period.
I’ll probably need a nap after writing this.
Also, check out this bike from Ibis that I really want for when I can ride again.
