Why?

The ancient Babylonians kept it simple – only six laws pertaining to building from the Code of Hammurabi:

• 228. If a builder has built a house for a man, and finished it, he shall pay him a fee of two shekels of silver, for each sar built on.
• 229. If a builder has built a house for a man, and has not made his work sound, and the house he built has fallen, and caused the death of its owner, that builder shall be put to death.
• 230. If it is the owner’s son that is killed, the builder’s son shall be put to death.
• 231. If it is the slave of the owner that is killed, the builder shall give slave for slave to the owner of the house.
• 232. If he has caused the loss of goods, he shall render back whatever he has destroyed. Moreover, because he did not make sound the house he built, and it fell, at his own cost he shall rebuild the house that fell.
• 233. If a builder has built a house for a man, and has not keyed his work, and the wall has fallen, that builder shall make that wall firm at his own expense.

The codes have evolved a little bit since then. Now they cover 700+ pages of sections and subsections and charts and graphs and numbers and calculations and conditions and exceptions. And it all seems too excessive and too confusing. But you know what? Those codes save lives. We can’t build for every condition, situation, or disaster; but we’re getting better at anticipating their potential and defending against them. A lot of lives were regrettably lost in the recent catastrophe in Japan. But a lot of people survived who might not have otherwise because of the strict building codes.

"Japan’s Strict Building Codes Saved Lives" from The New York Times

(click photo to read article)

It is best to have your home look occupied. Buy a few timers and set certain lights to turn on throughout the evening. Lights typically deter burglars who are looking for dark entry areas.  Be sure to either have a friend or family member collect your mail and pick up your newspaper; or call your post office and local newspaper and have them put on hold until you return. A pile up of mail or newspapers is a sure sign of your home being unoccupied.

Your valuables are called your valuables for a reason. Whether it is sentimental or monetary, nobody wants to part with their valuables. Either take them with you or leave them in a safe or safety deposit box.

Making sure you have set up a service or a friend to care for your yard while on vacation is very crucial to protecting your home. Leaving the yard unattended can give signs of a vacant property. In this market a burglar might even think that the home may have foreclosed, and is hoping to find belongings left behind.

I hope everyone finds these reminders helpful while planning your last minute getaways. Enjoy your last weeks of fun in the sun. Just remember the old saying. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

Houses are as different as people. No matter how many times a particular model is built, one is never like any other. And I don’t just mean that no lot is ever quite is the same. Of course selections differ and the trees and how the sun hits a house will always vary. But in the sense that once you move in a house, it becomes your home. Unique to you and unlike any other.

That occurred to me as I waded through the learning curve of building a house for the first time. I, of course, was focused on the logistics of scheduling. How A comes before B, and so fourth. But once the house was complete and someone moved in, I thought about how that house is going to be the backdrop for moments in these people’s lives for years to come. Rooms won’t just be dimensions contributing to the total square footage anymore. They will become offices and baby rooms. From the moment the first piece of furniture goes through the front door, it ceases being a lot number on a neighborhood plat, and becomes where memories are made on graduation nights and anniversaries.

So I realized no matter how many times I run the same schedule on the same floor plan, to the people who move in, it is a house like no other. It’s their home, regardless of who else may eventually live there; they can always drive by and remember super bowl parties and family dinners. It became a more significant way to spend my day, not building a house for someone to buy, but a home for someone to live in.