August 12, 2009 - The Sign

On the morning of Wednesday, August 11, my wife mentioned that Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s wake will be at Our Lady of Victory Church, directly across the street from our lot, Thursday afternoon.  Part of our reason for buying the lot and building the house is that it should be good for my business. It is in a nice area and there are people around with money and taste. Maybe some of them will need an architect. I was planning on putting a sign up, but didn’t have my final rendering back yet. Anticipating the thousands of people who would be passing by the next day, I wondered if I could have a sign made and put up in one day. SignIt Signs in Hyannis said they could. I wanted a perspective image of the house on the sign, so I finished the 3D SketchUp model of the house that I had been working on.

SketchUp is a fantastic 3D program that is relatively simple to use. Several years ago Google (I trust that you don’t need that email address) bought SketchUp and gives the basic version away for free. The basic version probably does at least 80% of what my purchased version does. SketchUp models can then be inserted into Google Earth.

The sign was ready the next morning and, again, Brian Cobb was ready to help out. He picked up the sign, planted it on the site and sent me a cell phone photo before noon.  This isn't his cell phone photo.  This is one I took with the siding and window color samples.

I thought I was opportunistic, but the Centerville Pie Company was way ahead of me.