On craftsmen
Over the last six weeks I've framed my home's basement. I'm not especially handy, and I don't have a background in construction: I didn't learn from a parent who built a spare room, for example.
I was hesitant at the start of the project and wanted to look up every situation that I ran into. Slowly, by talking to those people who had actually built spare rooms, I became more confident. I read the relevant sections of the International Building Code one afternoon. I may have earned a degree from YouTube University.
And I finished. I'm certainly not an expert but I aimed to be a craftsman.
A craftsman is by definition an expert in their field. But more importantly it means:
[M]en with some pride, who get fed up and leave when they're told to do skimpy work in a rush, no matter what you pay them.
- Terry Pratchett, Going Postal
With that in mind, I recently saw this in a vacation home:
I have no way of knowing whether the builder who thoughtfully mitered this baseboard to match the width of the shower tiles was a craftsman. But I suspect that they were.
Perhaps you wouldn't notice it. I certainly wouldn't have before I framed my basement. And that's kind of the point. Whether or not anyone else noticed, they themselves took notice. This was done by someone who did their job with some pride.