Rodney and Patrick

Meet Rodney and Patrick, from FM Home Builders. These two did the vast majority of work reframing my home. Rodney has been framing for decades in Alaska, and has built or repaired many homes in my neighborhood. His insight into my initial framing situation showed a thorough understanding of how the parts of a wood-framed home work together as a system, and he brought a lot of knowledge and craftsmanship to my project. I’m grateful to Rodney for making time in his schedule to reframe my home, and to Patrick for his hard work.

I’ve heard from several people that the problems I’ve encountered have made them nervous about embarking on their own building projects. It’s true that there are real systemic flaws with how we regulate building and builders in Anchorage and in Alaska. There are some bad actors out there, and our system does little to nothing to protect people from them. But it has been my experience overall that the majority of folks in the building community take pride in what they do, and want to do good work. For every unscrupulous person, there are many whose work falls somewhere on the spectrum between good (or at least “good enough”) and excellent. I hope that the problems with my project encourage people to think critically about who they hire, but they should not turn anyone off from embarking on a project at all. There are many people in the building community who are worth your time, money, and trust.

Thanks again to Rodney and Patrick for getting my project back on its feet.

Photo taken January 20, 2021. Posted April 16, 2021.