Put This In Your Blog and Smoke It!

Fellow architect Jeromy sent me a link to an article titled, “Your Creative Career: Design It Here.” The article listed nine different design-oriented jobs, including computer aided design (CAD) and interior design. In his e-mail, Jeromy asked, “Notice something missing from this list? Put this in your blog and smoke it!”

Architecture was conspicuous in its absence from the list.

At first I replied: It’s not missing. I haven’t done a creative thing yet.
After some thought, I added: The thing that irks me most is that they include interior desecrators, but not architects. I guess it takes an entirely different breed of psychopath to qualify for our job.

Jeromy: As if interior designers are any more creative. They are just as dull as we are. Lori and I were watching the Dwell Magazine TV show the other night. It seemed that all of the really cool houses were owned by the architect that designed them. I'm beginning to think that is where architects indulge themselves. Actual Architecting™, for other people, is not fun, except in very rare cases. Architecting™ for yourself, if you have the money, is fun.
BTW, I have trademarked the word “Architecting™.”

CAD Monkey: Architect…it’s a verb, it’s a noun, it’s an adjective! It’s the new “Fuck.”
My question is, how do I get the money to do some “Architecting™” to my house? Certainly not through 8-to-5 Architecting™ alone. ManThing and I were actually talking the other day about just selling the house.

Jeromy: Buying and selling houses is a good way if you do it incrementally, or excrementally.
The truth is that you can build a cool home. You just need to do your research and planning. Talk to a construction lender, they'll give you some options. You need a design, cost estimate, proposed property, contractor, and a bank. Get all of those things together at one time and you’re in business. The biggest problem that I see is paying rent on an apartment and paying a mortgage while you're waiting for the house to be built. I think this may be why many people build garage apartments.

CAD Monkey: Paying rent and a mortgage at the same time is an impossibility for us right now. Stupid wedding. Maybe we could build a carport and live in it. There was a lot for sale that I was eyeballing on Sunday. It was next door to a house that some other guy is Architecting™. It would have been fun to out-design a neighbor.

It’s the Curse of the Architect: to be blessed with great taste, but never have the ability to afford anything befitting that taste.