A friend of mine recently asked me to help her out. She is remodeling her house on a budget, and wanted to change a few details to make her home more fun, and reflect her personality. She had some recycled materials, and wanted to use them to make a butcher block countertop for her kitchen, among other things.
This project is the kind of thing I have seen other "carpenters" slap together in an afternoon, with tragic results. There are so many people who just do the bare minimum to get by, with no motivation to get things done right. For example, at a prominent theater in downtown Miami, the Operations Manager asked his in-house carpenter to build a bar for the lobby. Simple design, with a laminate overlay. Easy enough. However, when he built it he had a few problems. He made the bar too large to get into the door, so he cut it in half to bring it in, and once assembled left the seams unfinished. Also, this carpenter did not trim back and sand the laminate seams, leaving sharp edges which actually cut people after he had left. Seriously? Where is the attention to detail? The desire to do a job as well as it can be done? Regardless if you are bagging groceries or heading up a multi-million dollar company, the attitude should be the same. The people I admire most do both the big fancy jobs and the simple little projects with the same professionalism.
A new wooden countertop built on existing cabinets below.
So no matter what job you are doing, do it as best as it can be done. See what a difference it makes in your life! Even the small, simple jobs deserve all the skill you can bring to it.