rted on the grand expansion. Again Jefferson was the general contractor and designer for the first year and a half of the project. He had his whole house torn down in the front and the back. The front portico was demolished so that he could enlarge the outer walls to give extensive room for expansion. Thomas Jefferson oversaw all of this action with close diligence and care. Over time Jefferson realized that there was not quite enough skilled help to complete the expansion. He became frustrated and upset with his home. Jefferson was quoted in a letter saying “this is nothing but a brick kelm, for nothing is better than better before.” At this time Jefferson hired three trained men from all over the country to help complete the task of constructing his master house. These men have been considered the only reason that Jefferson was able to move into his new expanded home before his own retirement. They were in charge of teaching the slaves and servants how to do proper construction techniques. But their main jobs were to do the elaborate work that was necessary for the house to truly look and feel its greatness.Now if Thomas Jefferson was a wealthy man then he would have probably hired more trained men to do some of the work on Monticello. But since he was always short on funding due to all of his extravagant ideas he was forced to use his slaves as manpower. In the long run though, Jefferson might have been just as successful if not more by using hired workers. That is because his slaves were taken away from their daily duties of tending to the fields and the crops, which were also a form of income to the Jefferson family. Without Jefferson’s genius though none of these grand ideas would have been instituted and what we now call Monticello would have never been constructed. In the end Jefferson got the project done and was very pleased with the final product so there should not be any quarrel since we st...
