This self-funded blog is set to renew at the end of May....and I've decided I'm not going to renew again this year--bringing this little blog "experiment" to a close! When I started this out, many years ago, I hoped that keeping a blog alongside this project would motivate me to write little bits here and … Continue reading Bringing This To a Close…. →

I am finally ready to distribute a data summary report from the Survey of U.S. Framebuilders! You can find the PDF report in a link at the bottom of this post. The report--which includes a brief introduction/overview section--should speak for itself, so let me just say a few things that speak to the broader context: … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey: Summary Report →

I was keeping it pretty steady there with the survey analysis, basically running chunks of numbers/analyses as I went. However, as I worked through the part-time builder analyses I realized that I was running up against a few limitations to this step-by-step approach: For one, it was creating a bit of an awkward comparison for … Continue reading Still Waters Run Deep: Update on Survey Analysis →

A Quick Word on the Logic of Providing Analyses for All/Full-Time/Part-Time Builders: Throughout out the project, one reaction I've routinely heard regarding who I should speak with--or who I should invite to complete the survey--is that only "full-time" or "professional" builders should be included. There are a couple basic problems with this. For one, as … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey Analysis: Part-Time Builder & Business Demographics →

Still focusing on full-time builder livelihoods, let's delve more into incomes, both from framebuilding and within the household more broadly. Let's first look at income from framebuilding alone: What is your typical recent annual income from the framebuilding business? 47 responsesMean: $32,660Median: $30,000Mode: $50,000 With median and mean being pretty close, we see a less skewed … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey Analysis: Full-Time Builder Livelihood Part II →

Picking back up--after a few months off here--with the analysis of only self-reported "full-time" builders. I will basically follow the same question ordering and structure below as I did in my earlier "livelihood" posts for the full sample, to make for an easier comparison. That said, I should repeat my same warning about making comparisons … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey Analysis: Full-Time Builder Livelihood Part I →

Just as I got going on the analysis of full-time framebuilders, things got real quiet around here! I'm still around, but a few things came up: I realized there were a couple of problematic cases that still needed "cleaning" in the data. Nothing fishy....but somehow I'd overlooked some internally-contradictory responses from a few builders, mainly … Continue reading Quick Update for Late September →

Having completed the basic analyses for all builders, I want to run back through much of the same material - but this time narrowing the focus to "full-time builders" only. Why the scare quotes? Well, what constitutes a "real", "full-time" or "professional" framebuilder is a touchy issue - one for perennial debate in forums, at … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey Analysis: Full-Time Builder & Business Demographics →

Picking back up on analyzing builder livelihoods, let's delve more into incomes, both from framebuilding and within the household more broadly. Quick reminder as a bridge from last post: right now we are talking about all of the builders in my sample. About 44% of those builders do not identify as being "full time" builders...though nearly all … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey Analysis: Livelihood Part II →

The final set of descriptive analyses will focus on builder livelihood - how builders are making a living, and what kind of a living - although this will take a few posts as I'd like to slice the data a number of different ways (e.g. later looking at full-time vs. part-time builders, looking at the … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey Analysis: Livelihood Part I →