The tough times have local construction workers changing their lives around just to stay afloat.

You can try and frame your life how you think it's supposed to go, and Paul Chevallier, who owns Craft Tech Builders, was on the right track.

"I can frame anything, any sized homes," Chevallier said. "Every year I'd say to myself, ‘this can't last,' and then it would get busier and busier."

But sometimes the pieces don't fall into place. For Chevallier, they stopped falling into place in October.

Now, every nail, every measure and cut means more to him.

"Whatever I can get, sometimes I just tell people, I say, ‘what can you pay me?'" Chevallier said.

These days it's about 75 percent less than what he was making as a high-demand framer in exclusive neighborhoods when the market was booming.

"I started telling the guys, ‘you know, you need to save all the money you can.' I said, ‘work's not looking real good,'" Chevallier said.

He's gone from 38 to five employees and has five children at home.

"After this job I'm going to turn in my Time-Warner cable box; that'll help save some money," Chevallier said.

The owner of the Chapel Hill home Chevallier is currently renovating, Ted Kairys, called just in time.

"It's been tough, for them. It's been easy for us -- for the owners -- because we've got so many people wanting to work," Kairys said.

Chevallier said while it's mostly renovation, he is doing a little framing and getting back to his specialty.

"Picked the roof up a little bit to give them more room upstairs," Chevallier explained.

It's a step in re-building the framework the economy tore down.

"Every night I pray with my boys. We pray that, you know, God will give me work," Chevallier said.