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 →

Last week, I saw on Instagram that Henry James was "going dark" after 5.15.2020. I'd noticed a while back that they had moved locations but thought, from a distance, that maybe they were transitioning with ownership or strategy. What is most surprising to me right now, though, is that I haven't really seen any commentary or … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey Analysis: A Brief Aside on the State of the Trade →

Last time, I looked at what I consider the basic demographics of the framebuilding businesses included in my sample - things like the age of the businesses, employees, sales channels, etc. Now I'd like to turn to what those builders are producing and what this tells us about the U.S. handbuilt segment and its output … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey Analysis: Segment Output →

I'll turn next to what I think of as the business demographics of framebuilders - recognizing that these category headings don't have super distinct boundaries. Here I'll focus on different aspects of framebuilders' businesses, leaving more detailed analysis of production and output types/categories, along with consideration of selling prices and such, to later posts. Tables below … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey Analysis: Business Demographics →

I've intended to keep with the analysis here, especially after a big bump in readers following my last post. Two things have come along: - Quickly shifting to online teaching as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has been quite time consuming. - Figuring out how to move a bunch of tables I constructed in … Continue reading Quick Update →

Beginning the actual analysis of the survey data, I'll start with what I think of as the individual and household demographics of the builders themselves. Who is included in these analyses? Of the total 123 respondents, I want to filter out those who are: completely retired and totally inactive those who are not yet in … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey Analysis: Individual Demographics →

To get things rolling with my bite-size chunks of survey data analysis, I'll begin with a description of the survey itself and the distribution and sampling. The survey (which was approved by my university's IRB and run through Qualtrics software) was open from 3.25.2019 through 1.20.2020 - about 10 months total. I sent four waves … Continue reading Framebuilder Survey Analysis: Distribution Overview →

Close to a year here with no posting. The challenge for me in using a blog on this type of project, I've come to realize, is translating bits of work-in-progress into stand-alone blog posts. Frankly, it can be hard enough to keep plugging along on academic writing on its own....let alone also trying to convert/translate … Continue reading Getting Back To It! →