Productivity

There must be something about the month of May. When the sun starts peeking through, temperatures rise up just slightly, a change starts to come over the northwest. More flowers pop through, more pollen covering my pretty black car every day, making it futile to take it for a wash. And yet, despite the sun, it still rains all the time, which keeps Seattlites mostly indoors.

This weekend was no exception. Sunshine came in brief bursts, and clouds loomed over us constantly threatening to dump a torrent of rain. I found myself in my dad's shop working on a project which I had originally planned to have completed a month ago.

The delay was mostly due to the fact that I am not comfortable working in the shop alone while cutting large pieces of wood. So I had to wait until my dad and mine's schedules lined up so we could work at the same time. My friday afternoon was spent cutting the basic pieces of wood out and dry fitting the daddos. Saturday was spent putting the pieces of my new DVD stand together and debating the finer points of carpentry with my dad. Sunday was putting the finishing touches on. Iron on veneer edging, filling the holes and sanding before i put the very beautiful stain on.

I choose a red mahogany stain and I'm giving it lots of time to soak in for a darker, richer hue. And starting next weekend I'll be making a TV stand to match.

I was very lucky to receive a carpentry education very young. My dad, a do-it-yourself-er for life, hardly ever called in a professional. We ripped out plumbing, electrical, walls, floors, ceilings. As a matter of fact, in my parents home of 22 years, i don't think there is a single room where i haven't at some point seen the guts of the house. He also built a good amount of our furniture, and that was something that I was avid to learn how to do.

Most of my carpentry skills have been developed because I know what quality furniture is like and when i walk through the halls of Walmart, Ikea, and other "cheap furniture" places, i become frustrated or disgusted. I hate particle board with a vengeance and outright refuse to buy anything made of the stuff. Anything that is truly quality furniture, is absurdly out of my price range.

Thus I am extremely proud of my creation. Made from some "not-so-scrap" scrap material my dad graciously let me use, it is beautiful, functional, sturdy, and well made. I can't wait for it to grace my home.

In other news:
I found where the gremlins have been hiding my stuff. ALL of it was still located back at my parents garage including that elusive curtain rod. I'm just not sure how 3 people and myself, could be so sure that it had made it into my apartment, when it never left the garage. Hmmmm.... sneaky devils.