[CAD Software – Pen and Paper – Power Tools – Hand Tools – Wood – Stone – Metal – Earth]

Creations of my own design made using power tools, elbow grease, and materials bought and scrounged.

Every Spring I take on a new project, which more often than not involves some sort of woodwork. The following list includes these as well as any relevant work I have completed:

I created slide-out bookshelves in an unfinished attic space from leftover 3’×6′ convention panels to add storage for a makeshift office while retaining the under-eave space for larger items; the wheels were completely hidden; I altered the air distribution box to accommodate a vent duct running to the room so it would be heated space, and added sheet insulation between the rafters. All of this was in anticipation of finishing the space, but we moved out before it was completed. The next owners had a room that lacked only fiberglass insulation and sheetrock to add square footage to the house.

The floor of our sunroom was unsteady due to a broken OSB floorboard, so I took up all the linoleum, removed the bad board (and some others that were looking rough), cut new OSB to size and replaced those, then laid bamboo planks to re-cover the floor, and finally replaced all the molding and added a floor guard where the kitchen floor began.

I designed and built a split-level treehouse with a fireman pole, a hidden storage compartment, sealed aluminum roof, and safety rails at waist height.

A modular square-foot garden layout with individually removable panels to prevent access by animals while allowing easy access from any side.

A “gun cabinet” made from cedar planking to hold four Adventure Force Villainator Nerf-compatible Tommy guns and eight drums with 40 darts each; magnetic latches and a hasp to accept a lock; the cedar planks are tongue-in-groove, and when the box closes, it is cut precisely such that the edges fit together on the tongue-in-groove, which allowed almost no tolerance for mistakes. Due to the nature of the drums, the darts would fall out in transit without covers, so I made tensioned drum covers to keep the ammunition in place.

A little free library of my own design for a girl scout troop, which included an actual shingled roof with applicable underlayering; plexiglass spring-closing magnetically latching inverted hinge doors (because of the roof) so people can see in and the door never gets left open accidentally; solar LED string lights under the roof; and I was in charge of supervising the digging of the post hole and laying of the concrete by the girl scouts.

After tearing up a slate patio after moving into this house, I had a literal ton of slate stones leftover, so I broke them all by hand and hauled them around to make a dry-stack wall around all of the flowerbeds and tree rings in the front yard.

I helped a friend mill one of the largest oaks I’ve ever seen, keeping some of the lumber for my trouble; it has been sitting in my shed for over a year, and will be next Spring’s project.

In 2017, I assisted a friend with the following renovations to his new home (but did not take photos):

• Installing a Trex (or similar) deck in two sections, including stairs, on the back of the house.
• Installing tensioned cable rails on the deck and stairs
• Demolishing a dock, including pylon removal by hand when the truck could not
• Lining the driveway with stone to prevent erosion
• Digging a trench for and running cable underground and installing a streetlight on a pole for the front yard
• Marking out a sidewalk, digging 4” down, and laying out stepping stones followed by pea gravel and grading it level
• Covering an entire driveway with pea gravel and grading it
• Adding drywall to a vestibule and hall (walls and ceiling) using a drywal lift; patching and painting
• Installing a rough stone facade on the base of the shed by adhering flat lake stones to a drying concrete surface and maintaining pressure until it had set