All in all, I feel so thankful and blessed to have a wonderful and supportive wife, a wonderful family, being a grandfather, having some success so far with my business, and having you guys for friends!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING GUYS!!

This past week, I finished up roughing in the plumbing for the room addition job I’d been working on. The drywall wouldn’t be delivered for another day so I had time to go work on another job for another customer. This second customer had orignally asked me to repair some furniture, which I did, but the conversation with them has led to a lot of other new work! Some of it is furniture and some of it is remodeling. While I was there I did a small plumbing job for them. In my last blog I mentioned that they talked about expanding their bathroom upstairs and creating a laundry room. They have decided to add and addition to the house and have asked me to do the job, as well as upgrade their plumbing from galvanized to CPVC and copper. It will be a big job for me. They are not in a hurry and will wait until I am ready, as I told them I had another job I’ve quoted across the highway from the one I’m working on right now. They still want me to build the chair I suggested, and amazingly, they want me to build a 3/4 size curio cabinet to match their existing (but very large) one. They also want four more chairs repaired…

My sister and her husband (at the other end of the state) have asked me to come up in a couple weeks and wire their new addition, design and build a pantry cabinet, and an island. I will do the wiring over a three day weekend, and build the other cabinets and take them back up.

I got all of the groundwork done for my shop, and have ordered the Amish building and it supposed to be delivered in about 2-3 weeks. I wish I had had the time to build it myself, but with the work I’m being blessed with, I want to focus all my efforts in that direction. I need to have a tree cut down and the site will be ready for them to deliver the building. I’ve held off advertsing cabinet worl yet until the building is in place.

I am talking to an accountant tomorrow at 3 and my lawyer on Friday, both for the first time. I also got the contractor registration paoperwork from the local city engineering department nearby to allow me to do contractor work in the city. I had previously enquired about whether or not I had to have a license, and the city engineering department said for residential work I could do both plumbing and electrical work without a license, but that I will have to be registered as a contractor. I called my insurance agent today and am getting both business insurance and bonding which will satisfay the city’s requirements for a contractor. The city was very helpful and made me feel encouraged.

Things are moving much faster than I imagined and my head is spinning a bit so I am trying to stay on top of things so that I keep moving in the right direction.

Tomorrow I am back at the first job to continue on the drywall work.

Still distilling it and loving it…

Thursday evening I went across the highway to scope out the job that the woman had asked me about earlier in the week. It looks like it might be about a week of work, but it may be a bit longer because of some electrical work that I may do. I’ve been working on the quotation, and based on her budget, i think I have a good shot at getting the job.

Friday I got the TransTint I ordered so I will work on the set of dining room chairs this weekend.

This morning I scoped out a job that originally was just a furniture repair. I’ll be repairing a recliner chair and a couple dinner table chairs. It turns out that they have a son in law who is a very large man and the chairs that they have for their dining room are a bit too small for him. I asked if they would like to have a custom chair built just for their son and they looked at each other and grinned and said they would love that. So what started out as a furniture repair turned into a custom furniture job.

The conversation led to what I did for a living and I told them that I had started a woodworking and remodeling business. They asked me ‘home remodeling?’ and I excitedly I said yes. They said ‘well – - we’ll we need you to do some other things for us too’ ... I’ll be redoing some plumbing to fix a low pressure hot water line in their bathroom, and replace a leaky house main water valve. It was an elderly couple in their 80’s and they have their washer and drier in the basement so I asked them if they had ever thought of moving that up to the main floor and they said yes that they had been wanting to do that for a long time. The discussion then led to where upstairs they would put it and now there is a good possibility that they want me to quote building an addition onto their house to accomodate the washing machine and drier. The best location at the present time seemed to be off of their bathroom, so they said they might want to expand their bathroom out as well since we would be doing the addition…

Prayer does work…

Still distilling and still loving it….

This is a bit different than what I have been focusing on but I have to admit I have had so much fun in the past two days it has really boosted my confidence. I am trying to maintain a reasonable pace until I get a feel for what I can really handle.

Still distilling and still loving it…

I’m still working on the stained glass for a chandelier that will be the first item I will put on my web page by the end of the year. I’ve started two other lamps and a table that will be on there as well.

I’ve been doing some drawings & estimates for a shop building. I looked at one of the local Amish building makers and they have a great deal on a building that I have been looking at. The Amish are really wonderful people and live a lifestyle that at my point in life seems to be a dream-come-true… and their furniture is amazing…

As for the building, I’m deciding whether or not to build or buy, with the end result getting everything out of my garage and into a real shop building. Fortunately, I’m not going to borrow any money, but before I spend the money I do have I want to make sure I’ve looked at all the options available to me. The first building that I really considered seriously is a 16×36 metal building with a garage door, a ramp, a walk-in door, 7 windows, Advantek T&G flooring, 2×6 floor joists on 1’ centers, one bench, two shelves, two lofts, and a barn roof. The price is about $7800. I talked to one of the Amish people ansd they said they had a bigger one (16×40) that someone decided not to get so they would sell it to me for the same price. I went home, and did a pretty detailed estimate against what they are offering. The major difference on mine is I added in insulation, which theirs does not have. My estimate wasn’t as competitive (minus labor & delivery costs of course) as I thought I could build it for. To be fair, it really wasn’t a close apples-to-apples comparison, as theirs is a metal structure with a wood interior and my design is all wood. My wife pointed out that if I build the building, I’ll be taking time away from my business efforts. So, I am leaning towards buying the building from them. They’ll deliver it assembled.

I have a house addition job starting Monday about 40 minutes away. My friend (dining room chairs) already has the structure framed, roofed and sheathed, so I will be installing siding, insulation, drywall, windows and trim. I’m hoping I can finish in about 2-3 weeks. We may not be working every day so that works for me as far as continuing on the items at home. Also, my daughter may have her first baby (my first grandchild!!!) by mid-week so that will certainly change plans :)...

I registered for an SBA marketing seminar in mid-November, and I’m meeting with a CPA/bookkeeper next week for my very first business consultation!

Still loving it….

So far I have had some quotes on jobs but nothing has materialized yet. A friend wants me to work on his 4-season room, and refinish his dining room chairs. In addition to working on my house, I have been focusing primarily on my production items, and it is becoming more and more obvious that that is where I will spend most of my time. I will take on small remodeling jobs to bring in money but until I see which way the balance is tipping I will concentrate on building the first items of sale.

I am multitasking between business, the craft, and looking for work so I have had plenty of late nights. I suppose that is everyone’s dilemma in this business as well…

STILL LOVE IT

Tomorrow I’m going to an all-day business seminar on internet marketing.

Ok, I got all of the individual pieces machined and now I am doing some fitting to see where everything stands (no pun intended :) )…

Here I am assembling the outer frame of the upper door. In the drawing I posted in the last blog, you will notice I had intended to do double doors on each side. When I started sizing the individual members, it seemed to balance a bit better and give more space if I only did one door on each side instead of two.

Still in the fitting stage with no gluing yet, I continued the rough fitting to see what needed to be done. I always find some outliers that need a bit of tweaking (I won’t go into how often that happens…). If you are going to do a lot of mortise and tenon work, I strongly suggest considering getting a mortising machine. I got a Craftsman, and it suits my needs. Up until about a year ago, I did all of my M&T work by hand. I still do a lot, but when you have a lot of repetitive work it is a life-saver.

I laid out all of the mortises together to keep everything straight. I am a proponent of story poles and measuring without ‘measuring’. For example, if I am doing trim work, I rarely will use a rule or tape measure. I prefer to ‘measure’ directly and transfer cutting measurements from the application directly to the piece that will be cut. Do a google on ‘story poles’ and you’ll see what I’m talking about. I don’t shun rules, etc., but I believe there are some jobs that are better served without them. It works for me but others may swear the opposite and that’s ok – that’s one of the things that make woodworking so interesting. Everyone has there own way of doing things.

Here I am assembling the central mullions on the rails. I debated for a long time whether to shape these or leave them straight. I did a lot of research in some of the Greene & Greene books I’ve got and I’ve come to the conclusion that sometimes less is better. They didn’t over-do the use of their design elements.

A bit of trivia for those who are interested: What two design elements that Greene & Greene used predominantly are never found together in the same piece?

Ok, back to the work….

I used masking tape to temporarily hold all the pieces together during the test fitting. Assembling pieces during rough test fitting reminds me of working on old plumbing… touch something here and ten feet away it falls apart and starts leaking… imagine if you had to worry about sap leaking every time you worked with wood….

Here are some shaped members that I will apply to the bottom and top of the door units. They’re really not ‘cloud lifts’ per se, just some shapes that I really like. I wanted to incorporate a sun theme into the door but I didn’t. Again, less is more…

The end of a good day…

Day 5

Today I start on the bottom door units. The shaped elements in these pieces will tie into the shaped members in the doors above. For these, I like to use my imagination, but something that works with the upper members. I just started drawing on a board and found the shape I liked.

Here is a little tool I made several years ago courtesy of one of my wife’s cutting knives. I took an old unused cutting knife and ground the blade down until I found the shape I liked, and then sharpened it. You can no longer carve a turkey with it, but It makes a great marking knife…

In the process of machining the pieces, there will always be pieces that need some fine tuning. Here you can see plenty of light along the edge of this board. I’ll establish a straight line along one edge of the board with the straight edge and my turkey carver. I then darken the line with a pencil. This will help visually when I plane the board’s edge.

I know, I know, it’s an ancient plane, but it works and I love to use it. I have a jointer but after listening to my planer scream for about an hour (even with ear plugs) it is a joy to use an old plane and enjoy the peace and quiet. I go back and forth from plane to straight edge until I can no longer see light.

Here I am using a Stanley #4 to flatten a side of one of the boards. I love doing this… I have the plane set up to take a very thin cut, and alternate with crisscross swipes to bring the face down to flat.

Now the board has a nice flat face and straight edge. Ten more to go….

Another wonderful tool to have is a marking gauge. This tool was used all the way back to ancient Egyptian times. Some texts and users will say to push it. Some say pull it. I find that there are different times when one work well but the other doesn’t. It’s probably me….

Cabinet #1 is set in place. Note that I don’t have the internal back installed yet, nor is the door hung with hinges yet. If I had some regular lifting help, I would have built the entire cabinet in my shop and then transported it to the room. White oak tends to be very heavy… Since I typically work alone, I try to build pieces in a simple manner. The cherry mantle I made about 20 years ago will come out soon.

The second cabinet is in place, and the cherry mantle has been removed. Next, I will mount the doors on their respective hinges, install the internal backs, and install the glass. The fireplace is somewhat offset from the center. If you notice, there is a 4” gap on the right aside of the room. I’m still thinking about how I will deal with that….

Thanks for reading!

Stay tuned…

Day 1
In this first picture, what you see is the living room with everything removed.

There are three fireplaces in my house, the others being the Greene & Greene style fireplace in our 4-season room, and another one downstairs almost directly beneath the one in the picture above. There are actually two flues, with the second one to the right of this fireplace. The room currently has red oak crown molding and baseboard trim, but I will be removing it because I will be installing trim more in line with what you would see in a Craftsman home such as a Stickley. While the main styling will be Greene & Greene, I will use some accents from the Stickley homes as this room seems to be well suited for it. Also, the ceiling will get a new color, and I will be installing ceiling beams of some design.

I have removed some lighting that was on the left side of the fireplace. I am going to build two cabinets on each side of the fireplace. I made the mantel current in place but it is a period-style piece that won’t fit with what I am going to do. Also, the fireplace screen will go as well. Also, we didn’t like the sandstone color on the walls so we will change it too. In this photo, I refinished the floor and used Fabulon 50 which a clear water-base finish. I have never used water-based finishes before and it made me a believer. It took two days to sand and then refinish the floor. I got the finish from the dealer where I rented the floor sander. We were able to walk on it by the third day.

Day 2
The next item was to paint the room in a color that will work well with a Craftsman-style approach. We chose Valspar Gold 4 Interior Stain as seen in the next photo. I put the couch back into the room because my wife was tired of climbing over it in the adjacent kitchen.

Day 3

Today I began designing & building the cabinets that will go on each side of the fireplace. I always like to do at least some type of drawing, even though the final product might be a bit different. It at least gives me a good starting point. Sometimes anyway … …

Here is a drawing of what I will be build. Before I begin an actual design, I usually do a lot of research to get some ideas. For this one, I used some elements of a G&G door found in the Gamble House. I will be making the cabinets out of quartersawn white oak.

I began by machining the raw stock for the individual parts of the doors first. I like to work from the inside out sometimes, instead of building the cabinet, and then building a door to fit. Sort of like the old argument over whether it is best to cut the tenon first or chop the mortise first…

Here are some cloud lift elements in various stages that will be used.

Thanks for reading.

More to come…