“Confessions of a Roofer Learning to Code (Now With 30% More Mastic)”

A field note from the edge of construction and code

I’m not a software engineer. I’m a roofer. A third-generation estimator. A consultant trying to bridge the world I’ve spent my life in with the one I believe is coming next.

Lately, that’s meant bouncing between ChatGPT, Cursor, and now Loveable. Recently, what's kept me up at night is API keys for Google Earth and the same AI-enhanced roof takeoff. If I were grading myself, I’d fail. And yet… I keep coming back.

Because even if the code breaks, or I miss a logic step, or the tool loops me back to square one—there’s something alive in this pursuit.

It’s the pursuit of understanding, of building something that tries to serve the actual people out in the field—the ones getting rained on or the ones squinting at a digitizer board, like I used to watch my father do.

He still reminds me: KISS—Keep It Simple, Stupid.
It echoes through every line of code I don’t yet fully understand, every UI I’m trying to design for people like him. People like me.

I’m not trying to replace the draftsman, the craftsman, or the software engineer.

I want to honor them.
I want to help build the tool that saves their wrists, saves their minds, and gives them back time to think, design, and teach.

Because I’ve seen what burnout does, I’ve felt what it's like to try and push out a bid that's changed on addendum #7 with no extension at midnight or keep a roof watertight after a hurricane. And I believe we deserve better systems—not just faster ones.

Why share this?

I don’t want this to be another polished founder story; I want it to be a permission slip.

If you’re in construction and curious about tech, but keep manually entering the same date repeatedly trying to “get it,” you’re not alone. If you’ve felt like an imposter in the world of code, but your gut says it matters—you’re probably the kind of person who needs to keep going.

This isn’t about setting the world on fire in version one. It’s about being honest, iterative, and human. And in that spirit, here I am—still learning. Still failing forward.

We don’t need more software.
We need tools designed with builders.

And if you are a tech nerd and need a good laugh- ill share the Git Repo soon