The $64,000 question

[pdlnpeabody]

I would be delighted to sell a house for $64,000 but not to purchase one for that And his attitude would have turned me off immediately - the true artist is happy to show his work and answer questions. And the true artist creates a house that has a heart. When I can afford to start throwing 5-6 figure prices at dollhouses, I'll shop for one of Jeremy's. In the meantime, I'll keep building ones that wouldn't sell for 3-figure price tags. But thanks for sharing the link - it is a beautiful house.

Gee, thanks!

Except for his comment towards mine, I think he may have been trying too hard to make the "hard sale" by talking up all the exceptional work by other artisans and came off as bragging. I know I don't do a very good job of "talking up" my houses, so I know how hard it can be. I'm just not a salesman. At least he wasn't taking credit for other people's work.

[Ravenswing]

Can someone explain to me how you have separate contractors do your floors, electric, woodwork and the windows and still claim that YOU built the house? And then have the nerve to put 64K price tag on it as though you put in the time and labor? I'd take one of Jeremy's houses over that kind of work any day. I much prefer the kinds of houses that are built through teething, diaper changing, housework, daily job, cooking meals, baby sitting, cat wrangling, dog chewing, scrimping and saving, budgeting, and bargain hunting. The kind that are built with time, attention and a love of the craft.

[KathieB]

Can someone explain to me how you have separate contractors do your floors, electric, woodwork and the windows and still claim that YOU built the house? ,,, I much prefer the kinds of houses that are built through teething, diaper changing, housework, daily job, cooking meals, baby sitting, cat wrangling, dog chewing, scrimping and saving, budgeting, and bargain hunting. The kind that are built with time, attention and a love of the craft.

Amen!

[judithfa]

Raven said:

The kind that are built with time, attention and a love of the craft

And I'd like to add: agonizing over "mistakes" and how to fix and learn from them!

B)

[pdlnpeabody]

That is one of the reasons I turned down a job from John Zweifel. I was honestly flattered that he would offer me a job, and he offered a fairly better wage than most companies in Florida, but not enough to justify relocating back to Orlando (or enough to live there) I was turned off by the fact that he talked about how "he" built the White House in Miniature and everything else that his company produces without ever mentioning that he had employees doing the work. In fact, I met several of his former employees at the 2005 Lakeland show who quit for the same reason. They seemed to still like the guy, so it seems he's a decent fellow, but they were tired of working in anonimity and wanted to be recognized for their work. I don't doubt that he has skills, he has been in the business for a long time. I just don't think he should take ALL of the credit for projects that he only had a part in, especially if that part was simply handing it off to supervisors and employees to do the work.

When I worked at Themeworks, we worked together as a team and if someone added details to work that I did or vice-versa, we didn't mind because we knew it was a team effort and the end product reflected on all of us, so improvement was appreciated. Nobody will know who built our projects, but at least the owner of Themeworks wasn't taking sole credit for it.