Introduction
First off let me start by introducing myself. My name is John Gray, i'm currently 33 years old and live in Spencerport New York. I've been married to the love of my life for 7 years now and have 2 beautiful daughters (hence the title of my blog "3 girls and a woodworker"). I guess i've been into wood working for most of my life, i grew up with a dad that spent a lot of time in the workshop building things. He worked primarily with pine (becasue it was cheap) and made some wonderfull things. He was a handi-man and could fix anything one way or another. Growing up i can remember spending time in the shop with him, or even by myself, just playing with tools, learning how to use them…and just banging nails….
After high school i went into building houses. Barley making it thru high school i dind't have alot of options….but i knew my entire life i wanted to be a carpenter, so i gave it a shot. I LOVED building houses, but after a year at it and going thru a NE winter i was starting to "wake-up" and realize that i wasn't going to do this for the rest of my life….. Community College was my only choice, so i went to Finger Lake Community College for Architecture. I wanted to stay in the field or carpentry/building somehow… Fast forward 13 years a few jobs later and i'm currently an architect here in upstate NY.
When my wife and i bought our first house i knew i had to have a shop. My first house was pretty small, my head literally graced the bottoms of the floor joists in the basement as i walked around, and i had to duck under all the ductwork. BUT i began the beginning of my shop. It seemed like every chance i got i was buying tools. At the time my wife worked at Sears and therfore i got really great deals on tools. I was very happy with the "craftsman professional" line of tools. as my tool colection grew so did my need to find projects….. I was in that house for 7 years. I put 16'x16' deck on it and instaleed a 7' slider on the back wall of the house. I re-roofed the entire house with a crew of friends and did endless upgrades to the house. After 7 years and 2 daughters my oldest was about to begin kindergarten and we wanted her in a better school district so it was time to move….
My current house out in Spencerport NY is…..lets called it an empty dirty rough canvas..lol..it has endless possibilities. And this time i got a real shop. 3/4 of a basement that is roughly 20'x20'. I've began building my new shop (pix will come).
So what do i plan to do with this blog….well i've never had a blog, but i'm always taking step by step pictures of every project i do. I LOVE this site and all the other LJ projects on here. I hope to share with all of you my woodworking adventures. I'd love some C&C back…..and i'm always looking for opinions on my work and ways to better it. I hope by sharing all this with you and having all of you respond my quality of work will escalate.
Well i think that's enough rambeling for one day…..next is to start getting some projects posted that i've already built over the years and start posting some current ones as well. I look forward to hearing from all of you…..
A Fellow Lumberjock,
John Gray
First off let me start by introducing myself. My name is John Gray, i'm currently 33 years old and live in Spencerport New York. I've been married to the love of my life for 7 years now and have 2 beautiful daughters (hence the title of my blog "3 girls and a woodworker"). I guess i've been into wood working for most of my life, i grew up with a dad that spent a lot of time in the workshop building things. He worked primarily with pine (becasue it was cheap) and made some wonderfull things. He was a handi-man and could fix anything one way or another. Growing up i can remember spending time in the shop with him, or even by myself, just playing with tools, learning how to use them…and just banging nails….
After high school i went into building houses. Barley making it thru high school i dind't have alot of options….but i knew my entire life i wanted to be a carpenter, so i gave it a shot. I LOVED building houses, but after a year at it and going thru a NE winter i was starting to "wake-up" and realize that i wasn't going to do this for the rest of my life….. Community College was my only choice, so i went to Finger Lake Community College for Architecture. I wanted to stay in the field or carpentry/building somehow… Fast forward 13 years a few jobs later and i'm currently an architect here in upstate NY.
When my wife and i bought our first house i knew i had to have a shop. My first house was pretty small, my head literally graced the bottoms of the floor joists in the basement as i walked around, and i had to duck under all the ductwork. BUT i began the beginning of my shop. It seemed like every chance i got i was buying tools. At the time my wife worked at Sears and therfore i got really great deals on tools. I was very happy with the "craftsman professional" line of tools. as my tool colection grew so did my need to find projects….. I was in that house for 7 years. I put 16'x16' deck on it and instaleed a 7' slider on the back wall of the house. I re-roofed the entire house with a crew of friends and did endless upgrades to the house. After 7 years and 2 daughters my oldest was about to begin kindergarten and we wanted her in a better school district so it was time to move….
My current house out in Spencerport NY is…..lets called it an empty dirty rough canvas..lol..it has endless possibilities. And this time i got a real shop. 3/4 of a basement that is roughly 20'x20'. I've began building my new shop (pix will come).
So what do i plan to do with this blog….well i've never had a blog, but i'm always taking step by step pictures of every project i do. I LOVE this site and all the other LJ projects on here. I hope to share with all of you my woodworking adventures. I'd love some C&C back…..and i'm always looking for opinions on my work and ways to better it. I hope by sharing all this with you and having all of you respond my quality of work will escalate.
Well i think that's enough rambeling for one day…..next is to start getting some projects posted that i've already built over the years and start posting some current ones as well. I look forward to hearing from all of you…..
A Fellow Lumberjock,
John Gray