Coming at it with anything less than reverence and respect, I think, is a mistake.

I mean, in terms of the specific stuff, you know, you got to understand how it works, right?

These houses have stood up because you kiln dry it every winter, right?

So if you start messing with it, you better make sure you know what's going on.

Welcome to the Fine Home Building Pro Talk podcast, a regular discussion with building industry

professionals. This is the second half of our two-part interview with builder Dan Colbert

of Portland, Maine.

You can find the Fine Home Building Pro Talk podcast and the original Fine Homebuilding podcast at Fine Homebuilding.com slash podcast, where you can also leave feedback and ask questions.

So what about the new homes you build?

Is there a sweet spot of those?

Or the big little, simple shapes like you were talking about?

So it's hard for me to have a statistical sample.

But certainly, you know, we try to do relatively small, 2000 and under, simple.

You know, if they don't have, if they're not interested in pushing energy efficiency, then I'm not going to do it, right?

I don't have any particular, I don't have any great attachment to new construction.

And in fact, I've got very mixed feelings about new construction in general.

So I don't have any, you know, I don't have a huge desire to build new houses.

I mean, it's fun and it's, and in some ways it's more fun than renovation.

But from a social utility standpoint, you know, it's hard to justify a general.

So unless it's something that I feel like, you know, let's like, you get the picture get the picture. It's got to be aligned with our

values. I mean, I feel like mostly new construction. I feel like every new house is a missed

opportunity of some sort or another. So you just were touched on it briefly is like you don't

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