Why do you do it?

I once heard that people ask kids what they want to do when they grow up because they are looking for ideas. Have you ever asked yourself where your work fits into the grand scheme of things? I'll tell you here what we are all about, and I would love for you to post a comment as to what you are all about.

Good design tickles my sense of aesthetic, but what I really love about it is how it serves the greater good. Housing is a basic human need, and the need to meet it sustainably builds every year. The most important aspect of "Green Building" isn't VOC's, "carbon footprint" or LEED points. It is timeless design.

The remodeling construction market is purportedly 3 times the size of the new construction market, and I would be willing to bet most of those houses are functionally fine. But, they are ugly, dated and funky smelling. However, the oldest stained concrete project I know of is the Awahnee Hotel, and it looks as good as ever:

http://www.yosemitepark.com/Accommodations_TheAhwahnee_PhotoGallery.aspx

Moreover, stained concrete is the cleanest most serviceable type of flooring I know of. Even hardwood, though equally timeless, can collect "schmutz" through the gaps. So in my mind, the greatest gift I can give the world is to devise the ultimate concrete overlay that can be installed in older homes and ages as gracefully as a well placed slab of real concrete. This doesn't exist outside of my workshop yet, and I want to make sure it's everything it needs to be before I really roll it out. But that's what I am working on and why.

What are you up to? Is it what you were born to do? What would you do if you couldn't fail?