Tuesday, August 22, 2006

When we were considering our building type options, I gave away some contact information to steel building companies in order to get price quotes on metal buildings. The prices were a bit higher than what we'll get with a Tuffshed barn kit, and the overall value of a metal building is a bit lower in my book, so we didn't end up going that route. I still get the occasional email from some of these building companies offering me a building someone had cancelled the order on, which they have now been authorized to sell at a reduced price. I have always instinctively ignored such emails, but a few days ago got an intriguing one and called up. The email from the company said they had a 30x40x12' building they needed to unload and they'd sell it for the outstanding cost. Here is basically how the conversation went:

Me: Hello, I'm calling about an email I received from Robert.

Receptionist: Okay, hold on a minute.

[A few minutes later.] Robert: Hi, how can I help you?

Me: Hi, Robert. I heard about a building you had a customer cancel and were trying to unload. I was curious about it. It was 30x40x12'.

Robert: Oh, okay, let me see. I know it was 30' long, but let's check that length. That building may have already sold, so hold on a minute while I look for the file. If it's still here I'll grab it for you.

[Another minute later.] Robert: Okay, it hasn't sold yet. Let me tell you about this building. First of all, what are you building it for?

Me: A darkroom. For an artist.

Robert: Ahh. Well this is a 30x38x12' building we contracted for from a Richard B. in Texas who was going to use it to restore antique cars. He ordered the building in our Sandstone Tan and he upgraded pretty much everything. All of the fittings have been upgraded to stainless steel, and the roof has been upgraded to a PBX - do you know what that is?

Me: No.

Robert: Well, it's a much better roof, which he bought a 25-year warranty on. He also asked for burnished brass door handles, a decorative weather vane, racing stripes, and a solid steel replacement door in case the original door is kicked down by drug lords in search of antique cars. But since he ordered the building he has acquired an additional parcel of land and decided he needs a bigger building, so he authorized us to sell this one for him to recover the balance due.

Me: Oh, so he doesn't want to get his money back that he's already paid on it?

Robert: No, no, we're making him a deal on his new building. And we said we'd help him sell this one to make his life easier.

Me: Wow, okay. How much are you asking for it?

Robert: Well, let's see. Where is that price? Let's see here. [Audible shuffling of papers.] I don't see it. [Yelling.] Where's that price in this file? Oh, okay, I see it. Always in the back. Well, with all of the upgrades this guy had on this building, it came out to about $25,361, but he paid down $3,600 and has paid an additional $9,500 on it, so the balance due is only - well! It's only $12,261 - and that's delivered. You'd just have to put $3,600 down on it and could pay the rest on delivery.

Me: Wow, that's some discount.

Robert: Well, does this sound like something you could go with?

Me: I'll have to talk with my wife about it.

Robert: Well, I ask because this building is set to - let's see, if it isn't purchased by Thursday, they'll break up the order. And that's a real pain in the ass for us, I can tell you. I hope I'm not on the crew that has to do that job!

Me: Yeah, that sounds like a lot of work.

Okay, I made up the bit about the brass and the racing stripes. But my point is, this is a scam. I suspected this the moment he told me about Richard B. and his antique car restoration, and of course had my suspicions confirmed when he mentioned that the building had basically had every upgrade possible. Since the company's website doesn't offer any prices up front - you have to call and speak to one of these guys to get any numbers - it seems clear to me how simple this scam is. Sure enough, when I did a quick search on Google I found that several smaller steel building suppliers advertise on their site's home page that they do not engage in such practices, a sure sign that this act is all too common. I also found a case where the State of Colorado had taken a steel building company, General Steel, to court for deceptive business practices which included:
  • Misrepresentations that General Steel was a manufacturer;
  • Misrepresentations that General Steel was selling existing buildings, when in fact it merely ordered buildings from suppliers only after consumers placed an order;
  • Misleading use of the term “clearance buildings;”
  • Falsely implying that its buildings were available at 50 percent off the normal price;
  • Failing to disclose that the building being sold were simply “shells” and did not include doors, windows, or even opening for the placement of doors and windows;
  • Misrepresentations regarding the non-refundable nature of the deposits; and
  • Misrepresentations in the process of selling windows, doors and other components.
I have no idea how many of these claims would hold up against the major building company who contacted me, but I'm pretty sure proving the second and fourth ones would be an open-and-shut case. Given that the company is currently advertising a "Summer Clearance" sale, despite the fact that their buildings are created from raw materials that can be cut to any length and do not reflect any appreciable design changes from year to year, chances are the third one would be a safe bet as well, although that's common practice in many industries. Who knows what I'd learn about the latter issues if I had actually ordered a building from these people.

Friday, August 11, 2006

We spent a long time researching what type of building to use to create Jenni's darkroom. A long time. Too long, probably. Options ranged from enclosing our home's carport and screened porch and converting it for darkroom use, building an addition or separate building using standard wood-frame construction techniques, sinking a chunk of change on a down payment for a small commercial building, or we didn't know what else. We even considered shipping container building, which has had some interesting links quite recently. But commercial space, even in our small town, was too expensive, wood frame construction also a bit high, and the shipping container option would not have made for very navigable spaces, considering the constraints imposed by the various darkroom functions. We tend to research all major decisions pretty exhaustively, and the challenge is to maintain momentum despite the unknowns - to know when you have enough information to make a good decision, at which point new information offers diminishing returns.

Here is what we were committed to having in the darkroom:
  • A 26" Kreonite ProMate color processor (purchased used on eBay for $500, with additional parts - so far - coming to another $250)
  • A water panel for temperature regulation and a reverse-osmosis filtration system for amending hard water
  • A color enlarger for the main darkroom, plus two additional color darkrooms that could double as black-and-white darkrooms, all set up to print up to 20x24" prints
  • A sink for black-and-white print processing (again, up to 20x24") and a print drying rack
  • A color film processor
  • Cabinet space
  • A light area with a light table and 2x8' work table as well as some storage for prints
  • An air compressor with hoses running to each enlarger

In the end, we were surprised to discover that the super-cheap barn kits from Tuffshed could be heavily modified, and their promise of a quick build (one day!) on an existing foundation was too good to ignore. The cost of the barn, including construction and a one-day build, will be about $9,000.


We will put in a foundation and get water and electricity to the site first, then have the Tuffshed contractor come and build a 16x24' shed on it. We will probably be building it close to the house, both for convenient access and to minimize the cost of the water and electrical lines.

Fortunately, we have architects in the family - my brother, Josh McNichols, and his wife, Emily Hennigs. The two of them spent hours with our specifications - all of the components we needed to have in the darkroom, what their sizes were and what relationship each part had to the rest - and it was only through their help that we became convinced that this fairly small building could actually serve our needs. Below, you can see our plans for the building, which will feature a 26" color processor with a color enlarger and two additional color darkrooms which we will build on as an addition to the main space.

For one thing, the shed has an optional loft addition, but the resulting loft has very low ceilings - it's meant for storage, not for occupancy. We learned that we could pay a few hundred bucks more and get the walls raised from 8' to 10' tall, and decided that we'd build the loft ourselves so it didn't have to rest on the top of the wall, which will allow us to toss some of that extra space upstairs. Here's a view of the loft, which will also feature a writing nook for me, and space for photo, art, and writing reference books, as well as space for temporary access for materials needed for a current book project:

The desk overlooks the light area of the photo area, and the chairs and table offer an additional space for Jenni to show work to collectors.

At left is the planned layout of the main floor (click on the image for a larger version). The area at the top of the diagram is the dark area, with the 26" processor and room to swap it out for a larger one, as well as the sink for black-and-white work and some cabinets; the light area contains a wall-mounted light table, storage, and a work table; and we will add the two additional darkrooms to the side. The horizontal dotted line represents the overhang of the loft. The ground floor, including the two attached darkrooms, is about 410 square feet; the loft is, to be vague, about 175 square feet. (I'm eyeballing this, and will get the correct info from Josh.) That makes for about 600 square feet overall.

One of the hardest things for Jenni and I to figure out before we got the real architects involved was the issue of access to the upper level. Our original plans had secondary darkrooms or flat file storage upstairs, and we would have needed a pretty straightforward staircase to get up and down easily with large prints, which consumed an obscene amount of the interior space.

We gradually worked our way to the idea that we would only be able to have a "nice ladder" going to the loft, and that the loft would be used for writing, books, and entertaining (nimble) clients; Josh and Emily suggested a "ship's ladder," which is a cross between a ladder and a staircase - at 60 degrees, it's pretty steep, and probably much like what you use to get below decks of a ship, but much more accessible than a ladder and much less space-hogging than a proper staircase.

Make has a great "weekend project" video podcast on making a pinhole camera, setting up a simple black-and-white darkroom and making contact prints.