Woodworking Milestones?

[Glenna Rose]

bought it from a dear friend in the 1950s. The wood on theirs is darker but all is the same. Amazing, itsn't it, how much alike things can be when they are different?

Glenna

[Glenna Rose]

Hmmmm. The first was my sewing cabinet. It was actually the first thing I took the time to properly finish and actually steel-wooled between coats of Deft, and it showed it. Additionally, it was the first thing I made just for me. I still have it though it has a couple of dings on it now. It's a shame I only could afford Douglas Fir plywood at the time; it could be an heirloom if I could have afforded a nice wood. It will last forever, however, as it is very sound and well constructed.

The second was a kitchen cabinet I made for over our kitchen windows. It had two partitions (three sections)with two doors on each section, 70" long and 20" high to fit exactly over the windows. The select white birch was so well matched that the doors almost looked stamped. When it was done, the Deft was so good that it shown like a mirror. That was the preview for my kitchen remodel. It might sound odd, but even the entire kitchen didn't produce as much satisfaction as that one cabinet. I actually joked with my husband that I wanted to be buried in it, even if it meant cutting the body into three pieces. When we left that house, I took the cabinet and installed it in the kitchen of the next house. Yes, it is now in this house. It wasn't easy finding a place for it here where it wouldn't be in the way because of its length, but it is in the hallway off the bedrooms/bathroom. It's not a place where it's properly displayed, but it's there. Interestingly enough, though I installed standards in dados, I never made shelves for it as there was no need.

Another milestone was a year or two ago when my middle son sent a friend of his to me, "My mom knows a lot, she always manages to come up with the right thing," when he needed help with a particular project.

I guess the most recent, and maybe most important, have been when my daughter-in-law started asking me to build particular things for them (and especially for the granddaughters) as well as particular sewing projects. In the earlier years, there had been a bit of an attitude (inspired by her mother) that because I was a do-it-yourselfer, I really didn't know much. Even her mother has changed her attitude after she saw the girls' Dorothy (dinosaur) costumes for Halloween 2003 and the Christmas bookshelves, both custom things of course.

An older milestone was when our male friends, who were laughing at a woman remodeling a kitchen, visited the finished project. The very positive feedback from others who they talked to about it was quite rewarding. Oddly, though I had a sense of pride/accomplishment at the finished project, it was more a necessity or ulitarian project. But then I consider all of mine ulitarian. If I didn't need them or have a use for them, it wouldn't be built.

Not a milestone, but a "you see!" was when I went to work as office manager for a remodeling company. After the first few weeks, he took me to the jobsite and said he wanted me to cut out for the sink and left to work outside. When he came back in, the sink was in place, fitting perfectly of course. He looked at me and said, "You really did remodel your kitchen, didn't you?" Geez. (For the record, he had left the drill in the truck so I had to go out and get it to drill the holes for the corners which he probably figured I wouldn't know about.) Guess he didn't believe a woman can run an office, look good, and use a saw. Oh, well. LOL

Glenna

[firstjois]

Glenna Rose wrote: [snip]

Guys sure are funny, aren't they!

Josie

[Silvan]

Ooooooooh. OUCH. Wimminz can be so cold.

Say right after you finish that quilt that's been sitting in the closet since 1994 dear. :)

[Silvan]

My wife had a cousin named Ima Ferris. She married, no joke, a man named Richard Dick. Mrs. Ima Dick, or Mrs. Dick Dick.

My grandmother's neighbor was/is named Julia Orange. Her husband, Mr. Orange, died, and she married a different man, also by the name of Orange, no relation. So she became Julia Orange Orange.

Names are funny.

[Silvan]

Who, me? My Dad? No, he grew up in the '60s. He's just miserly because he, well... I don't know, really. His family did better than average during the Depression, unlike Mom's family, which used to recycle wrapping paper and bows for years and years. I think maybe Dad just has a cheapskate bone. I know I sure do.

If they can do it, I can do it. Why should I pay them $50 an hour when I can spend $20 on a book and figure it out? Sometimes this strategy backfires, but it usually works very well. I enjoy being my own sort of JOAT for its own sake. I feel like it separates me on some level from the teeming masses of wussyboys who don't know which end of a hammer to use to open a can of paint. (The answer being, you don't use a hammer to open a can of paint. You use a butter knife. Duh.)

[Tim Douglass]

Let's not even think about starting *that* discussion. SWMBO and I have worked out a policy of mutually ignoring each other's unfinished projects. I don't complain when she spends another $100 at the yarn shop and she doesn't complain when a new tool mysteriously takes up residence in my "shop".

Tim Douglass

[Owen Lawrence]

Well slap meself on the forehead! After weeks of reading this newsgroup, I finally know what "JOAT" is. I was going to ask about it in December, but I just knew if I hung around long enough, someone would give me the clue I needed. Thanks, Silvan!

Depends on who you are, I guess. If you're my wife, you use my mirror finish sharpened chisels. You just can't buy woodworking experience like that!

- Owen -