About a year ago my family and I began making plans for building a new home. My husband and I had never built a home of our own, but we wanted some say in the lay out of the house and in the details of the house that would make it feel like a home for us. We began consulting an architect and we had plans that we loved within a month. Next came the long process of watching carpenters and builders at work making our dreams become a reality.

I was amazed as I would stop by the worksite on a regular basis to see the progress that the carpenters and builders were making. I had never known anyone that was a carpenter by profession before, so I quite honestly didn't know what hard work they did each and every day. In fact, I took the building of homes and businesses for granted until I saw what hard work was put into my own home. During those long months of building I grew to have more appreciation for carpenters than I ever expected to.

I admire carpenters simply because of how hard their days of work really are. There is no part of me that could handle being outdoors all day regardless of changes in the weather. The carpenters were at work on our home when it was ninety degrees and sunny and when it was forty degrees and rainy coldly. I am so impressed by their work ethic. I spent several hours at the site on various days and never heard any complaining from the carpenters. It was like they were made to work this hard and their bodies actually thrived off of it.

I so admire carpenters because they help make peoples' dreams into reality. They are the ones that look at the house plans and begin forming the house from the ground up. Their magic makes the walls go up and the ceiling go on. They literally build homes for families to live in, and I think that is a noble and honorable profession for anyone.

So the next time you drive by a construction site and see carpenters and builders hard at work, be assured that they really are working hard and that they are good at what they do. They are making homes and businesses for the rest of us, so the least we could do is learn to appreciate their skills and to be thankful for the nice and comfortable homes and offices we get to live in each day.