I have been in the building trade for 27years. I started bricklaying for a local building company constructing commercial properties. During the 'Thatcher'-era, people were encouraged to go self-employed, so that's what I did and having just bought our first property, every little of extra cash really helped.
At that point I was asked by a former site foreman to sub-contract on bricklaying on extensions with him and his business partner. We had a great working relationship and enjoyed many years of keeping busy, serving lots of customers, enhancing properties, but then the recession hit in the early nineties and work dried up.
We then had to part company and I had to recommence generating my own work, doing small jobs and working occasionally on building sites. Times were tough with a constant uncertainty, but it's times like this that help you in the long-term. You become more focused on what you really want to do and either make or break, I stuck with it.
Then I was asked by my first ever employers to sub-contract on new builds and commercial developments, which was a good time, but I also started to get restless and wanted to go self-employed again to build my own path going forward and started to do extra work before I could 'go it alone' again.
10 years on, I still love what I'm doing and I haven't looked back.
As well as building homes for families and constructing better environments for people to work in, I have also built my own beautiful family with Rachel my wife and our two daughters Chloe and Betsy. To make the family unit complete, there's Dillon our handsome chocolate Labrador (Did you know that they have webbed paws?)
Rachel and me!
Betsy and Chloe - They'll kill me when they see this!
Dillon, webbed paws out of shot.
This builders staple diet.
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