The bookcase is finally completed and set in its corner of the dining room where I work. I’ve placed on it a mix of things I need every day and things I need to see every day. On the bottom shelf is a blanket made for me by Rachel. Also, my ten key that’s been my accounting companion for over twenty years.
Build things, not content.
I’m nearing completion on the bookcase. (So, so slow.) At this point I just need to apply some wood filler in a couple of spots and then stain it. Things I’ve learned: It’s hard to align and glue large pieces together by yourself, so it’s really handy when you have a kind and patient wife to help you out. Also, to talk you down because it happened at the end of a long day and I was convinced the whole thing was a pile of crap fit only for burning.
Proof of concept for some shoe boxes I’m making for Rachel.
Finally completed the stool (using this Steve Ramsey video). The build was delayed first by illness and then because I decided to redo the legs. I picked up a shop vac this week but my problem now is finding an adaptor to connect it to the dust collection port on my table saw. It’s proving more difficult than I would have imagined. Next up: a small bookcase.
Over the weekend I completed one side of the trellis on the grape arbor. I’ll put up another on the opposite side. The rabbet is exposed on the ends at the top and bottom; I’ll put some wood putty there before Rachel paints it. Another thing: if you’re going to put up trellis like this and you have a table saw, don’t buy the frame pieces they sell with the trellis.
Dana O’Driscoll writes about “The Way of Wood”—about humanity’s interaction with wood, the loss of that interaction, and ways to find our way back to it.
I finished a wooden mallet today with some scrap leather on the ends. It’s very amateurish but I am an amateur.
