East Bay Home and Gardens

East Bay Then and Now: Campus Janitor Beats Professors in Popularity Race

By Daniella Thompson
Thursday October 01, 2009
James Tait’s small house at 2022 Delaware St. at right and the larger house later built by his widow at 2026 Delaware at left.
In its 136 years, the University of California’s Berkeley campus has seen many buildings come and go. Among them, North Hall was the only one to have merited a demolition ceremony attended by the UC president and 700 alumni. -more-

About the House: The Foreman Problem

By Matt Cantor
Thursday October 01, 2009
Contracting is called contracting because it’s about writing contracts. It’s about sales, which are contractual. Contractors aren’t builders, they are people who write and perfect (that’s the legal term for bringing to completion) contracts. We’ve come to think of contractors as people who wear tool belts, but for anyone who has ever hired a contractor only to find them inexplicably absent for the duration of the job, this understanding of a contractor’s role in building can prevent woe and direct you through a morass of remodeling problems. -more-