Lisette Garland used to play with Barbie dolls as a child. Yet she wasn't
interested in dressing them up and doing their hair. She made furniture for
them. With a long line of carpenters in her family, you could say that the
trade is in Garland's blood.
"I started out with a two-year vocational program for cabinetmaking. When
I found out there was no apprenticeship program for that, I decided to become
a shipwright. But just as I was finishing my apprenticeship in that, the fishing
crisis hit, so I started again with carpentry," she says.
Despite the setbacks, Garland is committed to working with wood.
"I've always been interested in working with wood, and with my hands. I
like the physical activity and using my brain at the same time," says Garland.
"I worked as a finance clerk for a while when I was in the classroom part
of my training, but after the first few hours of phones ringing, I just couldn't
take it."
In addition to working on cabinets and helping to build wooden ships, Garland
has worked on scaffolding for big companies.
"[There is] lots of carrying, lifting, climbing -- you can't be afraid
of heights. Sometimes it means getting into some really odd places at times."
Right now, Garland is focusing on a way to help her spend more time working
at the job she loves. She's taking a course on energy-efficient renovations,
for which there's a growing market across North America.
"People are saying carpentry will be slow for the next 10 years -- except
for energy-efficient renovations," says Garland. "It's becoming part of the
carpentry trade.
"There are a couple of contractors I've met through the course, and they've
said they'll probably have some work for me in this area when I'm done [my
apprenticeship]."
Garland definitely wants to stick with carpentry. "You have to hang in
there and keep an open mind. There are lots of older carpenters on the job
that can give an apprentice a hard time, but a lot of them know the trade
inside out and backwards, and you can learn from them."
When it comes to the future, Garland would like to have her own business,
where she'd be able to train other women apprentices. "What better way to
get women into trades than to train them ourselves?"
In the meantime, Garland is happy to be working in the trade she loves.
"I'm happiest when I'm working."
Doug Kaldec, a carpenter in Utah, is also happiest when he is working.
He prefers to construct outdoor specialty work, such as fences, trellises,
lawn furniture, pet houses, sheds, barns and garages.
"That's because people are, for the most part, a bit less fussy about their
out-buildings than what is inside their houses. I have more opportunity to
inject my own creativity into a given project than if it was inside their
house," says Kaldec.
Even though outdoor structures are Kaldec's specialty, he does other kinds
of carpentry work. "The type of carpentry I do is based mainly on the whims
of my customers," he says.
But like Garland, when work is slow he'll do any kind of carpentry. "If
I don't have enough work, I build whatever they want me to."
Working directly for clients takes lots of patience. Customers are liable
to change their minds about what they want, or ask for features that are difficult
to achieve.
On a typical day, Kaldec arrives at the job site and unloads his tools
and the materials he needs to start work.
"The customer usually comes out and tells me about how they've changed
their minds about this or that. I invest some time trying to talk them out
of changing their minds."
If conversation doesn't work, Kaldec makes a few mental calculations and
tells the customer how much changing their minds will cost. "That usually
does the trick, and they get around to seeing how the original plan is probably
best after all."
But Kaldec doesn't always try to change their minds. Sometimes the customer
makes a valid point and the plan must be rethought. He always listens to ideas
because he wants to build the best possible structure -- he takes pride in
everything he builds.
"The best part of this job is when you pass something you built and it
looks good, and you know lots of other people notice it, too."