About Me

How did I get into this? (And should you?)

When I tell folks that I am taking a sabbatical after 30+ years in working in high tech, they’re usually surprised. The next thing they ask is “How did you get started on this?”

I was born and raised in Pittsburgh. After high school, I left to pursue a degree in computer science. This was all back in the days when being a geek wasn’t a badge of honor- it got you shoved into school lockers. Since then, I’ve lived and worked all over the world, including a couple of expat assignments in Australia, Singapore, and Japan. If you’ve made a mobile phone call, or watched a sporting event online, you’ve probably touched my handiwork somewhere.

As long as I can remember, I’ve had an admiration for the trades. My grandparents’ generation worked in electrical and machining, and I learned to tinker with things at an early age. When I got out on my own, I fed that need by volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, or working on houses for friends and family. Eventually I bought my first home in California, and since then I’ve always had a workshop of some sort. We currently own a 1909 Craftsman with a two car garage that never seems to get a car in it. (Kind of hard to do when there’s a table saw smack in the middle of the space!)

After working in high tech for so long, though, I’ve been itching for a change. I wanted to do something tangible, and working with my hands fits the bill. A couple of years ago, we looked at Pittsburgh and realized how much it had changed since I’d left for college, so we acquired our first rental property. When COVID hit, I decided it was as good a time as any to dive in full time. I packed up my truck and headed for my old hometown to start a new adventure. I’m hoping to combine my passion for the trades with some of the more high tech aspects of building and running businesses. We will see where it goes.

My wife and I are fond of saying “there are no permanent decisions.” What that means for us is that I’m taking this one project at a time. I still enjoy high tech, and I may go back one day, but for now, renovating old houses is good for my soul.