Dovetail Spotlight: Hans Osterstrom
From Laborer to Project Engineer - Career Twists and Turns, Wisdom From the Field
Hans Osterstrom - Project Engineer at our House in the Woods
“I always knew I wanted to work with my hands,” gestures Hans Osterstrom, a project engineer at one of our sites on Whidbey Island. But that wasn’t always the plan. Originally, he planned to pursue field carpentry as far as he could go. And it looked like that was happening, he was a foreman until a few months ago. “Best laid plans,” he says. “Sometimes life throws something at you, and you have to roll with the punches.”
At the beginning of his career, following school, he secured a job as a motorcycle technician. Soon after, however, a motorcycle accident sidelined his plans. “I woke up in the hospital on the day I was supposed to start my new job.” After months of rehab, he found a carpentry gig through a friend of a friend. “Roofing, that was my first taste of carpentry. I loved it.” He saved up, bought tools and a truck, and dove into carpentry.
Through a contact at his first roofing job, Hans joined Dovetail in 2012. “I started at a residence. As a laborer. Paul Caton was the super,” he says. “The ceiling at that house is still one I talk about. It has a cool pitched barrel ceiling. I learned a lot from the people on that job: Pat Egan, Jeff Parmenter, and Paul of course.” After about a year on the job, his superintendent calls up one of the owners of Dovetail. “I’m on a ladder and Paul throws me his cell phone. I answer the phone and it’s Scott. He says, ‘I hear you’ve been crushing it.” After receiving a promotion and a raise, Hans beamed, “My trajectory is solid. I’m getting where I want to be.”
He steadily grew his experience and responsibilities, moving next to the Artist in Residence House, then City Cabin, and then a commercial job, Meat & Bread where he became a finish carpenter. Hans explains, “that was my first taste of ‘you’re the finish carpenter on this site.’ I love reporting to people - to have someone to go to - but you find out how well you can swim when you’re thrown into the deep end. It was really fun.”
Hans left Dovetail after four years to help a friend start a cabinet shop. He performed all the cabinet installs. “We quickly grew and hired laborers, who became a revolving door. Constantly training people is a real drain on a small business.” He moved on to become a subcontractor and finish carpenter. “That’s when I learned what all the top dogs at Dovetail have been saying for years. There’s a reason they are at Dovetail: it's a great place to work; the caliber of work is phenomenal; it’s ambitious. It made me realize that even if the owner is good, if it’s not run right, it’s not a good place to work.”
He decided to return to Dovetail after a two-year hiatus. “I came back with a big old grin – feeling like I’m back home. The way I’ve been treated at Dovetail, the opportunities I’ve been given at, my friends at Dovetail, it was just so nice to be back.”
Hans joined the team to finish the push at the Perch residence, and then moved to the Homecoming Beach House. He recognized that there was a hole, and the superintendent needed a foreman. “I saw an opportunity for the challenge I was yearning for. Maybe bit off more than I could chew, but it was a great learning opportunity. I don’t regret anything. Every step of my career I’ve been so excited for the next challenge. And Dovetail has definitely given me a leash to find and overcome those challenges. That experience helped me establish my boundaries and I learned a lot about myself from that job. It also cemented my skill level with other superintendents who thought, ‘hey, he’s been a foreman, he knows what he’s doing.’”
The next project brought him to Lavender Farm, on one of the islands. When Hans arrived, the slab was freshly cured. “That was ground up. Me, Chris Mega, Justin Sabala, and Liz Tapler framed the whole thing. Even though I wasn’t a foreman, I felt like I had a voice. Ray Stevens and Matt Lawson were great listeners to concerns I could find. And there were great teaching opportunities for Eddie Chan and Shannon Wallack. It was a really cool team.”
On the horizon, Hans knew another big island project was coming down the pike. This time, he called Scott. Hans said he was moving to this island so he could be part of the project and Scott was supportive. The stars aligned and he and his wife bought a house. “Now I live where I always dreamed – in the woods, as remote as possible, but still working for Dovetail. And this project is such a long duration that there’s so much personal growth in all the people here. By the end of this job, we’ll have folks who started here five years ago, and their entire career will be on this project. It’s really heartwarming to see there are people with a growing passion for what we do.”
Just when you see a clear path forward, life has a tendency to throw a wrench in your plans. About a year ago, Hans began experiencing pain in his feet. Standing and walking all day seemed to exacerbate the pain. He discovered he wouldn’t be able to wear his bags and perform as a carpenter and foreman anymore. “That brought me down quite a bit. Because I’ve been on this consistent trajectory and then your head goes into some sad places – what do I do next? All I know is construction. And not only is this all I know, but this is all I want to do. I want to work with my hands.” He found ways to whittle down time in the field and began picking up tasks on the computer. But that didn’t eliminate the pain and he was still in the field the majority of his days.
At his annual review Hans explained his health condition wouldn’t allow him to perform in his role anymore. He was prepared to walk away from his chosen path. But the team rallied around him. “Rather than say goodbye, they said, well, you’re already dipping your toes into the computer side of the operation. Let’s get you more wet and see how you deal with it. They gave me a chance and it was a great segue into the back end of our world. I ‘m still on site every day. I’m still walking around, directing, still helping teach. On occasion I even throw my bags on. The more I did on the computer, the more responsibility I was given. Being in a hybrid roll gave me breathing room to slowly learn about the project engineering role. Here we are again, new position, new challenge, let’s see where this goes. Never once in my life did I think I’d want to sit at a computer.”
After several months in his new role, Hans contemplates his position. With extensive experience as carpenter and foreman, “in some ways I have a leg up. I can foresee complications with details that are drawn because I can picture myself building this. And if I don’t have an answer for how to tackle it, I can say, hey guys, RFI, we’ve got a problem. That’s where my leg up is – I can really see these issues rather being told these issues.”
Hans explains that his role is a bit ambiguously defined. “No one has ever sat me down and said, what a project engineer is supposed to do. But, if I can lean on my building experience, then I can bring something new to the table. I don’t want to be caged in by expectations. I want to be given a long leash – if I want to knuckle down on these lift-and-slide pockets because there’s a problem, let me figure it out. Coming from a building perspective, I think I have a leg up in that sense.”
Ultimately, Hans says, “I don’t care what title you give me, I’m here to do whatever needs to be done. That mindset helped a lot throughout my carpentry experience. I can be afraid of a task, but I’m not going to not do it. I love Dovetail’s culture of servant leadership. It needs to be reiterated at the site level, as well. That’s part of the reason I’m still here.”