Ah, finally the end of my Arts and Crafts coffee table project for my daughter’s wedding present.

It is made from walnut and mahogany.

I did the poly topcoating last weekend and made the table top fasteners, but wanted to make sure the top was good and cured before adding the fasteners.

It was the first time I had tried the water based poly top coating made by General Finishes. I went with a semi gloss and I was impressed with how easily it went on and how quickly it dried.

This morning I had some time to slip down in the shop and drill out the wooden fasteners and screw them to the table top.

So here it is. I had fun on this project and got to try some new things, which is a goal for me on just about every project I do.

Thanks for looking.

Some presents that had been in various stages of completion, but needed to be finished this weekend before Christmas could overtake me.

Not perfect in any way, my projects never get close to that, but a fun learning experience and I think my girls will like.

#1 Butternut Jewelry box with maple tray and cedar dividers and bottom.

#2 Tiger Maple Jewelry box with maple tray and cedar dividers and bottom.

#3 Walnut Jewelry Box with walnut tray, cedar dividers, butternut drawer front.

Still taking some baby steps in making furniture.

This table is for our screen porch and is made out of scraps of white oak and walnut.

Finished with amber shellac and then several coats of medium gloss spar urethane for moisture protection.

This table is a baby step for me in learning some finer woodworking. Old hat to most of you, but for me it is really my first attempt at a piece of furniture.

White oak table that is simple in design, but I learned how to laminate the legs, mortise and tenon the skirt or apron if that’s the correct term.

Also got to use my new router and router table, so lots of learning curves crammed into one small table.

Above all it is square and stands level with no rock in the legs, which is harder to achieve than it sounds!!

Golden oak stain with three coats of semi-gloss spar urethane, since it is destined to go outside on our screen porch.

Thanks for looking.

Finally have completed my 10×12 storage shed. It’s taken me the summer working on weekends to do it, but I was in no rush.

This was the first time I had done any structure framing, besides building a deck, so it was a good learning experience, especially the rafters, birdsmouth cuts, ridge, roofing and shingling. It was also my first time using a framing nailer, and when working by yourself I found this to be an indispensable tool. Also toe nailing has always been my least favorite nailing, and with the Paslode nailer I bought for this project it was a breeze.

It’s not a large shed but it holds all the garden tools nicely, and gets them out of my garage workshop so that I can expand my workspace, which was the whole point in building it. Now I can rearrange my shop this fall and winter and set it up better.

The shed still has some minor trim under the eaves that I will add at some point, as well as building a potting table for my wife, and maybe some type of lattice to hide the foundation blocks, but for the main part it is done and time for the next project!!

My wife had always wanted to tile this fireplace, and I thought I liked it the way it was. Once we started into it, she did the tiling and I sanded the old heart of pine dark finish off and ran the router around the coves to clean them up and re stained it.

Then built the columns and routed some trim. It was a fun project to both work on.

This was my first interior piece that was a lot of work, but my wife was sure happy to have the large cabinets to store platters and silverware etc.