Building Question: Mennonites

I am from a Mennonite background and I do not hold it against anyone who differentiates between Mennonite and the regular Christian comunity.

The Mennonites have brought it on themselves. The fact is that from a young age they are indoctrenated in the belief that they are a seperate comunity of believers. They themselves lump the rest of society, regardless of belief as the "english"

My Dad used to rail against the practice to no avail. It was amazing the hostility that would emerge when he tried to seperate a fellow Mennonite from his heritage. Here is some scripture he would use to try to show how unwise he thought it that they used the term Mennonite. This is probably relevent for many denominations.


1 Corinthians:
10 I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11 My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephasa”; still another, “I follow Christ.”

13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized intob the name of Paul? 14 I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. 16 (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

I have delt with the local Menonite's for years and have never had a bad deal with them. Eggs, milk, goats, lumber, bulk produce/food, harness and blacksmith stuff, I shop at their store, 1 of the older ladies made me some medicine that cured and dried some poison rash I had. Have had them tell me to take this animal over the one I was liking because it would be better for my use, even though they would make more money on my choice.
The ladies used to bake fresh pies, for our hog roasts I order+ get them 10 at a time, baked that morning (long as it ain't sunday).
Now outside people (English) have taken to hiring them as labor, to put together furniture-sheds etc and label it Amish built. (which is not a total lie, but the only reason a Dutchman would have that junk in his house is for kindling).
Here's a funny picture;
They have a townwide yardsale once a year, I'm 6'3" about 350lbs (at the time) long hair and beard tattooed down to my knuckles. Most in town avoid even making eye contact with me, they think I'm the Wildman that lives on the mountain with a huge pack of dogs and walks barefoot in the snow. Don (owns the sawmill where some work) brings all the ladies to town in a van, for the yard sale. Well I'm surrounded by 10-12 bonnets on Main St. just laughing talking having a nice day. You can just tell the townie's are tryin to figure "how do they, know him"
Rock

We have had Mennonites put roofs on our house and barn, had them put a new foundation in a HUGE old barn, and then the cement floor and had them build a new barn. Both roofs were awesome. Done quickly and at excellent prices with top quality materials. The foundation was a disaster due to the inexperience of the young kid starting out on his own, but he and his relatives all came over and made it right, even better than right. We ended up with a GREAT foundation wall at an excellent price once they fixed it. The new barn was very well done and at a cost that made more than one friend and relative extremely jealous. Guess you could say that we've been quite pleased with all the work we've had done even with some problems. We are now on a waiting list to have our kitchen done by Mennonites too - custom built at 1/4 the price of Lowes. Here's that barn just after it was completed.

I'm certain that there exist Ms & As that "cash in" on the reputation. My wife and I had Amish build our cabin. Our interactions with them are only positive.Their fee was reasonable, their work defined perfection. Solomon (my main contractor) built the entire place in 28 days. You could have eaten off the floor at the end of every day, he was so meticulous. He was open to any modifications I asked for, and I trusted him entirely. When my wife and I put down the finished floor, we saw how absolutely square and plumb everything was. I measured every "course" of floorboards with a square and they were on the money throughout the entire structure.

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"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow the fields of those who don't."-Thomas Jefferson

A Mennonite WILL use the least expensive material.....My friend is a Mennonite and does just the opposite of what I just told you a Mennonite Will DO!?! Hmm....

Hey.

In regard to the posts above:

Mennonites are good on their word...no funny business. Most of the trades workers in my area charge $15 an hour and work like two men...always high quality. The Amish are the ones who call outsiders "English". Shunning is not a characteristic of the Mennonites and they even have a large portion of Black membership in higher populated areas. Some of the Mennonites in my area speak next to no High German. I am welcome to attend the local Mennonite Church service anytime I want. As to least expensive material...they shop for the best price like most smart shoppers, but they don't use inferior quality materials. The wood they use is cut locally by one of their own in rural areas.

RF

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It's not good enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required. - Winston Churchill

I think it is difficult to draw a precise conclusion about 'all' the individuals in a subset of people by the general reputation of the group. That is, though you'll be generally correct, there are exceptions to the rule (both great and not so).

We had a father and son team (Mennonites) that worked on our house and barn. They were cheap and kind, worked consistently, and did all work to a 100% standard, but they were S L O W. This attention to detail was deeply appreciated in the new Master Bathroom where their finish work was second to none, but did not mesh well with getting a pole building up outdoors where a 90% job and 50% faster would have sufficed (and been far preferable).

R

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When faced with issues in life, where do you look for the problem; out the window, or in the mirror?

I agree with WindowOrMirror - better to investigate the local company - get references, than to simply accept a generalization based on the whole.

My experience with the local Amish - one company in particular, was mixed. I had them build - then later, rebuild my house (propane explosion). Overall, I'd rate them pretty good - they did good work - as long as you were clear with what you wanted. Fast - if you could get them there. Often they had 3 or 4 jobs running, and since I was close to where they lived, they often let my project sit for times when they didn't want venture far, which resulted in times when we might see them one day out of a week - or two.

Honest - from what I could tell. Fair - now, that's little different. (Remember, I'm only talking about one Amish company). Had a couple of issues with that - one- we had them do all the oak trim work in our house, and it was a lot. Problem was that I asked for continous updates on price because I wanted to make sure that we had enough (coming to the end of our construction loan). The lead guy would promise that he'd have the bill ready for us - then have some excuse why he didn't. Until finally, he laid it on me - it was as much as framing the house! Needless to say that put us in a major crunch. 2nd - they manipulated an agreement we'd had to basically take $10-15k worth of windows from our jobsite.

So, while I won't be using THAT company again, I wouldn't be afraid to use other Amish groups in the area.

Like the looks of this barn...What are the dimensions? Is there a big door in the back or on the other side? Is this from a company? If so which one? Ballpark price if that's not being too nosey?

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"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow the fields of those who don't."-Thomas Jefferson

We are in S Central Ky and are looking into having the Amish put our log home up and dry it in. Their prices are much better than the competition and they're more reliable. They work hard and we've been very pleased with what we've seen and heard. The main referral came from the loan officer at the bank where we're financing. Looks good and we're proceeding with excitement! We use them whenever we have a project like this.....

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^()^
http://tubbsfarmstead.com/

It is 24 x 32 and cost us $10,000 including the cement floor. 2 smaller sliding doors on either end of the upstairs and one large slider downstairs on the back side (close to 12' long, 7' high). It has metal roofing. They had a local sawmill cut the rough-cut lumber. There are a half dozen Mennonite sawmills within an hour of us and the Mennonite roofing place isn't too far either. My DH built the cupola. We can get good prices at a lot of these places and I suspect they can do even better as contractors.

hmmmmm
wonder if the menonite folks by scottsville kentucky coul dbuild a reasonable barn..we can make into ahouse...............

Well they don't have phones, so you have to be willing to put up with a bit of inconvenience, but I have found it well worth it. If you turn off the main highway (100 I think) into scottsville, you'll pass a produce stand on the left (which is not run by the mennonites that live there by the way)... take the next road to the right. Go to one of the produce stands down there and ask how to get to howard's store. It is not marked and I couldn't begin to tell you how to get there except it is right across the street from the sourgum mill. Howard will know who to direct your question to. Just tell him what you want, and he will tell you who can do it. If you ask at the yellow gas station at the off ramp of 100, they should be able to tell you how to get there. Wish I could remember road names, sorry.
Cindyc.

The "General Store" is out hwy. 100, turn onto Perrytown Road, it's at the intersection of Perrytown Road and Strawberry Lane. I wonder if this is Howard's? They just moved into a new building a few months ago. Right down the road is John's Cannery, sign says "Tomato Juice Cocktail".

Just as a note: I did not intend for my question to be over the top. The weight of the issue, for me, was the different building strategies and abilities that they may bring to the project, based on the religious principles in regards to separation, which to a degree must change some of the strategies and tools (equipment) they used.

I do business with the Mennonite community monthly, and enjoy and have been quite pleased. I am in the dark on their building strategies, abilities, and reputation though, in the sense that they DO do things somewhat different as best I can tell.

No harm meant. Forgive me for all my short comings of which there are many.

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1Cor 15:1-4 ...I declare unto you the gospel... how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

Just as a side note: I have been interested in mission work in Belize for some time now, but thus far there has not been a door to open for me there.

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1Cor 15:1-4 ...I declare unto you the gospel... how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

That is a great pic. That is a very similar structure to what we are desiring to build. Do yo uhave link to the truss design? THanks.

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1Cor 15:1-4 ...I declare unto you the gospel... how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

Yea! *that's* it! Perry town road! Howards used to be down the next road on the right after you turn on perrytown, but I moved almost a year ago now, so I guess Howards could have moved to a new location. Anyway, that gets you to the area. Hwy 100 to Perrytown road.
Thanks Stephen,
Cindyc.

I have only observed three types of mennonites. Old Order, the conservative mennonites(drive cars) and the mennonites by name,(mennonite church usa for example)

You got to watch some outfits, they like to say things like "amish built" and the only thing that is amish about them is the name. Generally speaking.

I sell building materials for a living. Lots of business with mennonites. I've never seen any of them yet settle for what I would consider sub standard material. When they need something they buy the best quality suited to the job. They absolutely will not buy something they don't need however. I often get asked for at work, because I'm willing to work within those lines. Other sales people at work get walked right by, because they worry more about thier commissions, than what the customer needs.

I've seen plenty of non mennonite contractors buy the cheapest they can get by with. Then they charge the highest price they can.

As others have said, ask for refferences. Then go look at thier work. I do this with any tradesman I hire.

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