New Projects

Over the past several years I've spent some time working on woodworking projects for my immediate and extended families. I'm proud of all the projects to date, but especially proud to begin working on more than just built-ins. Like my friend Chris of interestingfurniture.com said today on the phone while I was making brownies, "There's just something to making furniture - it's not tied down, it works where ever you put it, it doesn't require anything more from you once you build it." I'm paraphrasing... but that was close to what he said. Since the 5th grade he always has said things (and write) much more elegantly than I!

Here are two projects I'm working on now:

A shelf for my wife's office downtown (only 1/10 of the construction done)

a countertop for a built-in breakfast nook (ready for install):

03-23-06

03-23-06_0822.jpg, originally uploaded by Jrome.

We started off with an idea...

Starting new projects, and going from 0 to 1

When Nicole and I began tearing up our kitchen, it was something we both had wanted to do for many years. Years spent renting apartments, flats, bungalows, basement units, and condos. You can't rip it out until you own. Once we owned, we tore out what we wanted. We lived with the scars for a while as we figured out what to do next.

That creative spirit was inspired. We could have lived with the old kitchen for years. But when the fridge quit at the same time Sears was having a sale, it took two minutes online to figure out that the time had come. Throw down $2500 at Sears, then spend nearly ten times that building something we'd never built before.

Fast forward to now. I have so many ideas now, I don't know where to begin again. I think I need another fridge event to trigger. Or I just need to do something. Pick up the wood and turn on the saw. Strap on the googles and gloves and the goggles and get to it.

But Ze Frank said it best yesterday, on my little girl's birthday, so I'll just let you hear it from him. Then get out there and do it.