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Category Archives: Home Improvement
A New Door, a New Bed, a New Daughter
My summer ended with big woodworking plans for the coming year. (Most people’s year begins on January first, but being a professor, I think as much in school years as in calendar years, so my year effectively begins in mid-August.) … Continue reading
Posted in Furniture, Home Improvement, Kids, Wood and Woodwork
Tagged adopting, adoption, bed, bed frame, bedroom, daughter, floor scraping, half door, loft bed, mortise and tenon, refinishing
6 Comments
Major Lumber Storage Project Finished
This winter, I took a couple days to completely rebuild my lumber storage area. My house is built into the side of a hill, and one of the previous occupants had constructed a makeshift workspace underneath one end of the … Continue reading
Posted in Home Improvement
Tagged crawlspace, crawlspace use, get organized, lumber storage, organization
1 Comment
Building a Half-Door (with What I Had On Hand)
As tomorrow is the 12th day of Christmas, and the next day we celebrate the gifts of the Magi to the infant Jesus, I thought I’d show off my big gift to my wife this Christmas: a door. My wife’s … Continue reading
Posted in Build-Alongs, Home Improvement, Wood and Woodwork
Tagged blind mortise, design opportunity, door frame, drawbore, frame and panel, inlay, mortise, plywood, rabbet, router plane, through mortise
3 Comments
Really Vernacular Furniture
Over at Lost Art Press, Chris Schwarz has been talking about “vernacular furniture,” or “furniture of necessity,” which is furniture that, while hand-made, is cheap and simple to construct using a small tool kit. Much as we woodworkers admire the … Continue reading
Yes, You Can Compost Wood Waste
This compost, which has been sifted through a 1/2″ screen mesh, is made from about half leaves and half wood shavings with minimal “green matter” (kitchen waste). I just dumped the material in the bin and forgot about it, and … Continue reading
Posted in Gardening, Home Improvement
Tagged compost, compost wood waste, how to compost, make compost, wood shavings, wood waste
7 Comments
Lee Valley Reel Mower: A Review
While not directly related to woodworking, lawn care often requires judicious use of hand tools. Now that spring is approaching, I am dusting off my lawn care equipment, the most-used of which is my reel push mower, a hand tool … Continue reading
The Compost Bin: Where Three Hobbies Meet
As I was unloading some finished compost into a flowerbed the other day, I reflected on the one part of my house that all three of my hobbies have in common: the compost bin. Gardening, cooking, and woodworking all meet … Continue reading
Posted in Gardening, Home Improvement
Tagged compost, compost wood shavings, compost wood waste
2 Comments
Screen Door, Round Two
A year ago I built myself two wooden screen doors to replace some rickety old metal ones on my house. After a year of the kids pushing on the screen to get out and our crashing into the door with … Continue reading
Posted in Home Improvement
Tagged build a screen door, make a screen door, pet screen, wooden screen door
1 Comment
Screen Doors: An In-and-Out Job
One of my favorite parts of working wood is being able to make what I need. When we bought our current house, it came with several very shabby metal screen doors. After attempting to repair the closer on one and … Continue reading
Posted in Home Improvement
1 Comment
