Outdoor Living and Value

There's a lot of talk in the outdoor living industry (even the construction industry in general) about value. You'll hear things like "we don't sell our product because it's functional or even beautiful, we sell our product because it's valuable." Or "we don't want to cultivate revenue so much as value." While these are true sentiments, I would asterisk them. You see, value points us at what is good and lasting. Value indicates something transcendent- a higher worth than simply utility. So we do want to build a valuable project, but I ask myself, what makes a project valuable? What makes it lasting? In what way does this project participate in the Good, the transcendent, the lasting?

To answer directly, the value is in the person. To explain, we build decks and outdoor living spaces. We can talk all day about the best decking products, how to get the most quality for the money, and how to build an outdoor living space that will yield a fantastic return on investment, but at the end of the day, none of those things last forever. We can make them last longer, sure, and in so doing, enhance our client's standard of living, but they will never outlast the person. The value is in the person because the person lasts forever. Therefore, a project becomes valuable when it enhances the person.

Value-driven construction is construction aimed at the betterment of the person. This is why we ask questions about the use of the space, our client's hopes and goals, and our client's lifestyle. The most important part of our projects are the people.