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Emerging From Design & Construction Week in  Vegas and Other Noteworthy Contributions

Between a pair of posts on luxury kitchens from SubZero Wolf, Poggenpohl and WoodMode, two other noteworthy things happened. Both posts on luxury kitchens, part of ongoing coverage of BlogTour Vegas. BlogTour Vegas sponsored Building Moxie to attend the first-ever Design & Construction Week earlier in the year.

First, I have been doing a guest experts spot on the Home Depot-owned, RedBeacon.com (now known as ProReferral.com). It’s been great. I quite like answering questions (and actually I’ve only done two – one of which was on Bathroom Vanities). They are, however, time-consuming. And in a way – a little humbling.

Second, I made an overnight trip to American Standard’s New Product Showroom in New Jersey. As evidenced by the link back there, I had been there once before, as a blogger. And while some of you might think this had something to do with American Standard’s launch of a new luxury line, called DXV, it did not. I headed up, as a pro – to install, evaluate and make recommendations for a possible re-write of the instructions for a popular set of their shower doors.

From that I got to reflect on Reading and Writing Instructions.

On Reading & Writing Instructions (with American Standard) 

If you’ve read my posts, then you probably know I am not always comfortable telling you, well, how you should go about doing something. I mean – I know for myself, and in real life – I can usually come up with, idk, a myriad of ways to accomplish any single task. Ever skin a cat? Sure.

In a way, that’s the dish here. It is more like, idk, color commentary, and leaving the play by play for someone else. That’s it – we’re Color Guys (myself, as well as Barry).

We Don’t Need No Stinky Badges

You can see some of that “color” in some of my early rants on, well, instructions. Here’s a good one >> One Way to Fix a Front Load Washer Vibration.  I mean – sometimes you just don’t read instructions. Ironically, too, that post recently yielded, as these posts sometimes do, a somewhat cryptic message.

Subject: Thank you for Frigidaire washer vibration solution. Body: Thank you. We removed the 4 shipping bolts. A miracle. Elizabeth in Tennessee.)

Instruction are sometimes Written by Engineers

I mean – Instructions – they’re a special thing, aren’t they? As a writer of instructions, you just don’t know what the individual(s) in your audience, well – knows. (Key word “individuals.”) Surprisingly, as was the case with my assignment – instructions are not always written by writers, but rather by engineers. (And in a way, that simple fact seems to help give purpose to all us how-to bloggers out here, hacking away.)

So as you can imagine, my gig was both to analyze and “edit” as I was doing. For my part, I was trying to distill things down to the most straightforward set of steps. Which anyone – from an experienced contractor to someone who might be turning a screwdriver for the first time – could follow.

Not as easy as you would think.

I guess that’s that. I really don’t want to go into too much more detail other than to say – I have delivered my “report.” And I have not heard any final word on what will come of it. In my eyes, the exercise was valuable (for both parties) and I was pretty proud of what I ultimately delivered.

And okay, if you really must know – the Curved Saver Door (AM00494.400.213_0) at Lowe’s (not longer available). I felt it was both handsome and sturdy and it was reasonably well-designed. Even if the instruction were, well – a little difficult to follow. American Standard – a company that very clearly cares.

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Thanks for reading. Next time, the last of my BlogTour Vegas coverage, the best for last you could say – a feature on the steam fixture maker – Mr Steam, a long-time BlogTour sponsor.

Great weekend and cheers. ~jb