Plate VI · Carpenter
Carpenter Assembly
a place for work that happens on site and in the shop
A finish carpenter runs the whole business from the cab of a truck and the corner of a shop. The bid, the change order, the cut list, the schedule, and the photos that prove the work are scattered across a phone, a notebook, and memory. Assembled, they become one place: the bid becomes a contract, the change order drafts itself on the walk back, and the finished work files itself into a portfolio.
§ 1The job
The job, before and after.
Before assembly
- Bids priced from memory, late at night
- Change orders written after the fact, if at all
- Cut lists rebuilt from scratch for every run
- Photos lost in a nine-hundred-image camera roll
- Invoices chased for weeks after the work was done
After assembly
- Bids assembled from past jobs and real numbers
- Change order drafted on site, before the truck door closes
- Cut lists carried forward and reused
- Photos attached to the job where they were taken
- Invoices out the day the work is finished
§ 2Materials
Materials in this assembly.
Each assembly is built from a different set. These are the ones this one leans on.
§ 3Quiet evidence
What the assembly changes in a day.
- 07:10A change order is drafted on the tailgate; the site photo attaches itself to it.
- 11:40A cut list from a past job is reused instead of rebuilt from scratch.
- 16:55The last coat goes on; the finished photographs file straight into the portfolio.
- FridayInvoices went out the day the work was done. The evening is free.
A representative job, assembled from recurring observations. Details are composite.
This is one plate. Yours would be drawn differently; the materials change with the work.