A WoodWork in Progress

My wife is a professional photographer. As a result, she really enjoys printing and framing her favourite photos of the family. Since moving into our new home, she has had a desire to fill the walls with prints, and has been making lots of holes in the walls doing so. Her tastes in which pictures need to be featured changes often, which results in more holes. One day, while I was browsing the DIY plans at Ana-White's website , I saw some picture shelves that were in a photo there. Showed it to my wife and that was that. She needed some. It would allow her to put up her pictures and change them and their positions without making new holes in the walls. I didn't use any plans from Ana White, but the design was simple enough that it wasn't needed. This wouldn't be a complicated build. It was was composed of straight boards stuck together and finished with paint or stain. That should have been simple and headache free. It was not. By the end, I wanted to toss them into my f...

After completing the edge-grain cutting board, I decided to try something more complicated. End-grain cutting boards are more difficult, because there is more room for error, and the slightest misalignment will show up very clearly, and usually only after the glue has dried. Much of the process is the same as with an edge-grain, so I thought I could do it. I had learned a lot on the previous project, so I headed back to the WoodSource store to get some nice hardwood. This wood would need to be twice as thick as the previous boards, because I had a goal of making a checkerboard pattern with squares, and a thicker board. I didn't want the squares to be small, so my wood needed to be about 2" thick. I chose Padauk and Purple Heart. I bought Brazilian Walnut also, which can be used for another project later. At this stage, my equipment was still a bit limited. I had: circular saw drill and driver sliding compound mitre saw router Cutting boards are really dependent on the wood bei...

As I flip through Facebook, the woodworking forums are very active with people making cutting boards, particularly in the months leading up to Christmas. Handmade cutting boards are a great, attractive gift that can be tailored to the wood you have available and the size of board you want to give. I had a thought to make one, and if it was successful, I would give it as a gift to my in-laws. After all, it was my father-in-law that gave me the router that I have been using. It would be my first attempt at using hardwoods and making anything attractive like that, so I needed a backup plan - if the result was ugly, I would keep it in my own kitchen and the in-laws would get a gift card or a candle! This would require a lot of everything. I needed lessons on how to make cutting boards. I needed some hardwood from the specialty wood shop. I needed a way to level-out the boards once they were glued, and a way to make a juice-groove around the board. I also needed the right kind of wood glue ...

After doing so many projects, I had accumulated quite a collection of scraps, cut-off and spare pieces. They were basically piled up along the side of the garage, and laid over my stack of fire wood. This wasn't sustainable, and it really sucked when something tumbled behind the boards. It was also not a good way to keep the boards clean on their edges. I needed a storage solution. As with many of my projects, I had seen posts on woodworking Facebook groups showing the lumber carts others had made. Most were fixed to the wall, or were mobile but quite large. I needed something mobile, and smaller. My organization of the garage is different in the summer and winter, which is why mobility was important. I found the plans for one I liked, which I thought I could customize for my dimensions. https://youtu.be/rRL5KEqTteE I needed that cart to be a bit shorter, so instead of 4 vertical sections, I would have only 3. The initial challenge for me was the size of the plywood board...

When I was working downtown, my wife would usually be the one responsible for cleaning the kitchen. I would leave early in the morning and return around 6pm. During that time, she had taken care of most of the dishes. The onset of covid-19 in the Spring of 2020, and my employer instilling a work-from-home policy meant I wasn't spending 8hrs at the office, plus another 2hrs on transportation each day. I was home, and I was able to help out around the house more. I was doing the dishes more, and dealing with the poor organization of the cupboard space. When I would put the dishes away, I would always struggle with finding a way to stack the pots, cookie sheets, mixing bowls and the waffle maker - all of which went into the same messy space. My wife had been dealing with it, but not complaining. I forgot to take a 'Before' picture, so this is the neighbouring cupboard, with the contents intended for the drawers. This is missing all the pot lids, cookie sheets, muffin tins, sev...