deck

I built a deck out on the dune. It turned out well. Not perfect — when you do the work, you always see the minor imperfections no one else notices — but overall, I was satisfied.

“That looks great,” a neighbor said. “You could start a business building decks.”

Hmm, I thought. I could:

• Home improvement spending has spiked because of higher home prices; homeowners who might have moved up have chosen to improve what they own instead.
• Finding people to do that work is tough; 90 percent of home builders report a shortage of carpenters.
• There’s definitely a