Again I have been absent from the blogging world. With all good reason this time around. At the first of the year, I have found myself in the same position as many others in the architectural profession, searching for employment. Even though I am looking for a full time job, I am not hopeful. I know too many that are unemployed and just heard about a couple more firms that have let people go. However I am looking at this as a great opportunity not only for myself, but my family and taking this opportunity to take my passion and knowledge to the next level. As a few professionals in this video I came across last week, I am making Lemonade and am going to be transforming Symbiotic Home from a personal project, to a home performance business.
Symbiotic Home (sym-home) will be offering residential design services, as well as energy auditing, home performance contracting and LEED consulting (both at the residential and commercial level). Luckily in the state of Ohio, an architectural license is not required to practice residential design work. So until I complete my Architectural Registration Exam (ARE), design services will be limited to new homes and home renovations/additions.
In the mean time I am running what we jokingly refer to as Daddy Daycare. Staying home with my two kids to help cut our costs until I can start bringing in some real money. Last week I attended a week long training session in Cleveland to become a BPI Building Analyst, which will give me the training and certification to perform energy audits. The written exam was a piece of cake. Now the 4-6 week waiting period to find out the results of my field exam. I am confident that I passed, as I see it as a great additional service for future clients. Especially when Ohio adopts the 2009 Energy code (more about that in a later post).
Therefore in the meantime “The other side of the drawing board” is going to get incorporated into the Symbiotic Home website with a hopeful relaunch of the site in the next couple of weeks. So stay tuned for a whole new look and purpose.
