I’m working on building a screen house for some folks, and it occurred to me, not for the first time, that I am an overbuilder. Where most folks would use 3/8 sheathing, I use 1/2 inch. When 2×6 joists would be adequate, I spec 2×8. I hate it when structures have bounce in them.
Things used to be built to last for an indefinite amount of time. I think they still should be.
“When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for; and let us think, as we lay stone on stone, that a time is to come when those stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, ‘See! This our father did for us.‘ ” – John Ruskin (1819-1900)