NOREEN: Sound of pounding hammers is music to the ears

The music of pounding hammers and nail guns is all too rare these days, but on Monday a six-man band made a sweet sound while framing a new home just east of Colorado Springs.

"We started this home last Wednesday," said Victor Amezcua-Toscano, owner of Toscano's Construction. "Before that we didn't have anything for three weeks."

About 100 yards away an earth-mover gouged out a hole for the foundation of the next home on Muhly Court in the Wilshire Ranch project. Toscano's framers will have that job, too.

"It's the first time in a year that I've had houses lined up one after the other," he said.

That will provide the crew with five days of work. After that, they may be going to Laramie, Wyo., to build six-plexes.

"It's supposed to be one after the other, but I'll believe it when I see it," said Toscano, who observed that the last year has been the toughest for the Colorado Springs-area construction business in the 13 years he's been pounding nails.

In March there were just 71 building permit applications single-family homes in El Paso County, according to the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department (http://www.pprbd.org/ or see my blog today). That leaves a lot of idle tool belts.

"It's not even about competition now," Toscano said. "It's just about surviving. Right now it's so hard to find a house to build. Guys are calling me, asking if I've got work for them."

Toscano, who ran six frame crews at a time a few years ago, sadly has to tell them no.

Normally April is the time of year things begin to pick up in the construction business and hope springs eternal. Even though times are tough, Toscano, 31, remained optimistic, smiling as he talked while sitting behind the wheel of his truck.

He thinks things are slowly turning around.

"I'm a guy with a lot of faith," he said. "I've got a stack of bills, but I'm going to take care of them."

Toscano is a devout Catholic. Our Lady of Guadalupe rides shotgun with him, just below the dashboard.

In his prayers, he said, "All I ask for is health and work. I will do the rest."

Which makes Victor Amezcua-Toscano just like the rest of us, whether we pray or not. Give us a job and the health to get the job done.

Toscano walked back over the muddy ground to his task at hand; back toward the symphony produced as busy hands with hammers erected walls. It was the sound of a house going up, the cha-ching of money being made. It was a very good, hopeful sound.
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