I walked into a client's house and saw my own work from 5 years ago falling apart

I was out in the suburbs of Portland last month doing a small repair job for a new customer. As soon as I walked into their kitchen I recognized the cabinets I had built for the previous owner back in 2019. The doors were sagging bad and the drawer slides were all busted. The owner said they bought the place a year ago and thought the cabinets were just cheap builder grade stuff. I felt my stomach drop when I saw my own joinery failing because I had used pocket screws and glue on the face frames instead of proper dowels. That interaction stuck with me because it made me realize how much my methods have changed since then. Now I always think about who might see my work years down the road. Anyone else ever come face to face with their old projects and cringe at what you used to do?

1 comments

1 Comment

lunashah1mo ago

Did you catch that This Old House episode where Tom Silva talked about the same thing? He said he still checks on jobs he did decades ago and cringes at the old shortcuts. I read an interview with a custom builder who said he started stamping dates inside his work so he could track how his methods hold up over time. That pocket screw thing is tough, we all thought it was the hot fix back then but it really doesn't last in a humid kitchen.