About
My name is Malcolm A. White. I live in Portland, Oregon. I have a passion for construction related topics. I am especially interested in the design and construction of small buildings which could also include small houses.
I ordinarily work in the semi-conductor industry where I am involved in the design of integrated circuits (micro-chips). I started in that industry in 1970 so you can see that I have been around for a while. Actually I am 63 years of age. I have been married to the same woman for almost 43 years now. We have 4 grown children and 9 grandchildren with one on the way so far. I did take a break from the semi-conductor industry for about 2 years during which I was in charge of the design department at a company in Vancouver, Washington that built pre-fabricated wood frame houses and buildings. My job was to translate designs into the necessary detail drawings that could be used in the factory. The designs that I started with came in all sorts of forms from sketches on napkins to architect prepared drawings.
I am largely self-taught in both residential design and construction. I have done a lot of remodeling of my own houses over the years. I have also done a number of free-lance remodeling designs for other people. Sometimes I would also hire out on a part time basis to help people build the additions that I designed for them. I have also designed a few complete houses. In 1977 I took a 5 month leave of absence from my semiconductor related job to design and build our own home in Mountain View, California. It was about 3400 square feet of Monterrey Spanish style home that had 6 bedrooms, 4-1/2 bathrooms, a sewing room and a separate study. We have lived in the house where we are now for over 22 years. The house is 73 years old and has needed a lot of updating. In the last couple of years alone we have installed a new roof, replaced all of the windows with double pane ones, rebuilt our main bathroom and built a cedar deck and a brick patio.
I have also been working on restoring a 1973 31′ Airstream travel trailer for about 7 years now. I have been able to get a lot of momentum going in the last couple of months and we finally took it out this summer on its maiden voyage. But that is an entirely different topic that might just merit its own blog…
