I'm sure you're capable, you just haven't had to adapt. Here, guys build year 'round, but there are certain considerations that they have to keep in mind. Getting a house closed up before Snow flies is helpful. At least, get the roof on. Most everything here is built on a full basement because you have to go 48 inches for footings...its not much more money to just do the full basement. There are very few houses even built on slabs. Pouring concrete below freezing is possible...just gotta make sure the concrete guys know what they are doing, and bake some extra cure time into the schedule.
Basements get a bad rap sometimes but they are really the perfect residential building solution if done well and truthfully American houses were Never built on slabs or crawlspaces originally...Crawlspace construction really was never even deliberately planned it was just a byproduct of elevated homes that later got mechanical systems that needed to be protected- And you haven’t lived until plumbing fails under a slab.
One problem we have is builders do things so many different ways they don’t become great at any of them.
But the lack of technical knowledge is another conversation.
I had an interesting afternoon... I did a job for years ago for a family that the mother has dementia and she has full-time nurses and the family lives out of state. The job was a little bit out of the service area and there was some pressure because of the condition of the Elderly homeowner and a lot of dynamics with a different caretakers who did not want the Remodel to take place even though it would make their job easier- There were a couple of things on my end that did not go well and one of those was we could not get a painter to listen and do the things that the contract stipulated ...And firing the painter or anybody these days is not easy when you don’t have a replacement. Anyway the job is beyond out of warranty, And this is the work that we did not even perform. But I am there only contact and the only person I can count on To help take care of the property.
There is one nurse who is the rock in the whole situation and she contacted me that the drains had backed up - We did not do the drain system but they just don’t have any connections and nobody would even return her calls ....Once I got my truck going again I went down there and opened up the system at the clean out and took a shot but the most that I could go was 40 feet with what I had...She is OK until the morning with the system open at the clean out and I’ve got my full-time plumber there first thing tomorrow. I’ll tell you what- everybody needs to respect plumbers. I probably will not be able to eat a Baby Ruth bar again for a year.
I believe everybody needs something to feel good about in order to get up and keep going forward in life and I get The deepest satisfaction from knowing that I did something that made someone’s life a little better....And help them have confidence that things would be OK.
I got scolded by a boss one time because he said I wanted every customer to be completely taken care of and things to be just near perfect.
He eventually went out of business.
Being self-employed is in no way a joy ride but if there is one thing that you can do is that you can operate based on your gut instinct and convictions....( of course in construction most of those convictions are felony convictions
)
I will not be bashful -my goal with my business is to build a legendary reputation- We have succeeded with that and we have to work every day to continue to succeed- We seldom even bid against other contractors, We charge five to $10,000 just to get on our schedule and develop a job- And we have people beating our door down. Most of the credit goes to me waking up at 26 years old and making some better decisions and a lot of people from all over the United States being willing to give me good advice, And a group of faithful people that show up every day and help me do this.
i also retired at 55. didn't really want to but was offered enough to make it feasible because of the chiner flu. I ended up getting 50k and 150k in a medical spending account, plus my 2k a month pension which was frozen since 2005. I was lucky because i owed nobody a dime and had pumped up my 401k my whole career. I try to teach young people to put everything they can in their 401k and when they get a raise to add to it and when their older they'll have nothing to worry about. these days if a kid is willing to work they can make a killing, but most wont work. there not willing to start at the bottom, glad to get their foot in the door and work their way up in a business they think they should be CEO on their1st day 
. I remember talking to my mother (who passed away in 2005) and asking her what is going to happen when nobody will work and nobody is paying taxes because their not working ? seems like were close to finding out 
