From a long line of carpenters, starting with my grandfather, Ray Lilja. Grandpa, or Pop pop as he was known to the kids, was in the carpenters and joiners union in Brooklyn New York for over fifty years.
A family tradition was for the men in the family to help build a house for his children when they married. I was old enough to assist in the construction of my youngest uncle's home and learned a lot in the process.
Jimmy (my uncle) decided to pour 24" walls and support the structure on a single, massive I-Beam running the length of the house. We built a 4 bedroom home with a field stone fireplace and a 2 car garage.
During the framing stage we installed modular fiberglass bath enclosures. We also installed a computerized 5 zone heating system with the forced hot air furnace.
Anderson windows were used throughout and the basement was finished with the umber that we cleared from the building site.
Later in life I became a NYC Housing Inspector, attending Cornell's Carpenter's School in Manhattan and becoming an EPA Certified lead paint inspector. I went on to work in that capacity for HPD in New York for several years.