For thousands of years, the "Farmers Market" concept has been the way that we have done business.  Buying locally is how we have survived through the generations.  As the world appears to have gotten smaller, these concepts seem to have somehow gotten lost.
Recently, a frustrated subcontractor contacted me about how he had been beat out of a large project in our area by an out-of-town contractor. He voiced what we have all too frequently been seeing, local markets being invaded by low-priced (often times desperate) competition from anywhere and everywhere.
While this has been common practice in commercial construction for years, the problem is becoming more frequent and severe. What good is it for our legislature to fight for projects, or to provide tax incentives, to be built here if our local construction industry doesn't end up getting the work? The impact is dramatic when you consider the food chain of architecture to engineering firms, then to general contractor and subcontractors, and finally to the vendors and the jobs that are associated with each phase. Using that perspective, is "green" about soliciting the cheapest price from anywhere in the nation, or is it about buying locally - providing jobs and using local resources?
In residential construction, the problem becomes even more troubling. Our market has been flooded with every builder, subcontractor and handyman that has heard WNC has promise. Building in the mountains is difficult and experience is important. Too often, I hear of homeowners hiring a builder (or subcontractor) based solely on their price (or estimated price) regardless of their experience in the local market. A perfect example was a couple of years ago when I was building a home near a creek. A builder (recently here from out-of-state) was building a nearby home and hit a natural spring during excavation of the site. He, nor his grader, knew what to do, so the builder drove over to my job and offered to employ my grader. I see this all the time in estimating projects. Without enough experience (in your own market), you cannot reliably price a project.
If you live in WNC, you enjoy its beauty and uniqueness. You can't live here and not want to be a good steward of the environment around you. While retail may be a world-wide competitive market, residential construction should not be. Being "green", and building "green", means using our local resources. For us, that is using experienced builders, trades, and products from here and that contribute to our own local economy. Any way you slice it, buying local is the original "green".

 

Guastavino Lane

Phase 3, Settings of Black Mountain

 

 

 

 

Road construction has resumed on Guastavino Lane in Phase 3 of the SOBM!  Most of you were aware that construction and infrastructure had been temporarily suspended in this phase.  But work has now resumed.  Surveyors have staked, bulldozers have been working, and the Utility companies are planning installations!