“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” ― Robert Frost

Biography

31 years ago I offered my friend a trade, my labor for the experience of building his house from the dirt up (and room and board). From then on, I added new building skills until I was competent to start my own remodeling business, Extraordinary Spaces.

Alone, and later with my daughter, I took on projects no other contractor could. It was the strange ones;

• The serpentine beds raised to accomodate wheelchair gardening, with plastic enclosures, water sources, and lighting,


• The year round patio with radiant floor heating, repurposed antique French doors, recycled brick and Jagermeister bottle walls, a glass roof, a floor embedded compass rose (my sculpture of brass, LED lights, stained glass)…,


• One customer needed a wall that would admit light and air, but not sound.,


• Hidden rooms(2), Art galleries, Seismic retrofits, custom cabinetry, under-lit glass sink...

The impossible was our niche. Each one utterly unique, I had to break the job down into elements, processes, order of procedure. These skills are clearly valuable in the problem solving aspect of coding..

I am accustomed to seeing long and complex projects through to the end.

As needed, I would run a crew of up to 8 with skills from novice to journeyman, as well a coordinate subcontractors and inspectors. I am very comfortable working in collaboration.

So, why stop building? I have reached an age where the labor of creating in wood or brick, glass or brass is becoming painful, but I have no love of the office/bidding/negotiations parts of contracting. I decided to become a coder 3 years ago, when my daughter got a job right out of PDX Codeguild, my wife was next (working for Salesforce now) So when covid hit, I made the jump.

I began my coding education on line, March of 2020 with the Flatiron school intro course. That was the first time I had tried coding since a BASIC class I took in 1980. I like this new stuff better!

On advice, I tried W3 school, and a React tutorial. I got some help from my peeps, but I needed constant answers, and some direction. When l got the chance last fall, I jumped on to PDX Codeguild for their intro to coding bootcamp.

It was exactly what I needed! Alex De Michieli taught a great class! Even though, well, django, I feel confident that I can learn whatever I need to know, like I did with construction, to do whatever task I need to do.

Education

• Virginia Commonwealth University
• PDX Code Guild bootcamp for Python, JavaScript, Django

Fine Art

• Sculpture - 4'x4' leatherback turtle rose compass (installation) in clear casting resin, brass, stain glass and LED lights
• 6 acrylic "super-realistic" works appx. 30"x45"
• 12 pencil and ink portraits of famous thinkers
• 6'x3' tile mosaic of galactic sworl (installation)
• Solar solstice clock (installation) brass, acrylic rods, glass beads
• 3'x4' Leatherback turtle returning to the waves after laying eggs (commission) colored pencil

Hiking

My mind and heart are at peace in the mountains, the beaches, and the deserts. My health depends on returning to them often.