Great Auk Kayak

I'm in the process of building my first cedar strip kayak, which I bought from Chesapeake Light Craft.  It's a fun process, but requires a lot of patience.  I was hoping to finish it this season, but likely not.  I'll probably make the paddle this winter, and if I'm ambitious, a kayak for my wife.

This is the hopefully how it will look when I'm done.


Unpacking and setting up the forms.


Glueing up some long strips.  Adding the sheer strips.  Adding the first strips.


Just before adding the cheater strips to fill in the gaps at the bow and stern.


Cheater strips all filled and starting to strip the bottom.




Cutting and planing the keel line so the other half could be added and match symmetrically.

Walnut TV Stand - continuous grain sides, top, and fronts.

We were using our our old coffee table as our TV stand, so I built a new one to match the style of the round end table.  The 2 middle drawers and 2 outer doors are push to open, so it doesn't have any pulls to disrupt the grain.  It was designed for the space and the components. 

No end grain is visible on the sides so it shows a continuous grain from side to top to side. (That's my future kayak, in the works, in the background.)

Here are a few pictures of the unfinished version. This is also the first piece with my new logo, which my wife created.  I need to practice with the brand.  Getting a uniform brand can be tricky. 

Walnut Side Table

We needed a small side table between our 2 chairs, so I took a design we saw at Room and Board and modified it a bit.  It was a challenging piece with the angles, curves and routing the curves, but it turned out great.  Google Sketchup really helped with figuring out the angles and being able to print a template for the bottom shelf.

Mom's New Kitchen

Mom bought a new house last summer, and the kitchen was seriously outdated.  
So for Christmas, I along with a friend tore out the old cabinets and installed all new cherry cabinets and stainless steel appliances. She also had a quartz countertop installed.

All that remains is to finish painting, install the door panels on the upper cabinets and peninsula, install some under cabinet lighting under the corner cabinet, and a nice tile backsplash in the corner between the frig and stove.  
Here are the before pictures.

Espresso Stained TV Stand - Commission

My father-in-law and his wife wanted a custom TV stand, so we came up with the following design.

The doors are inset, so flush with the outside edges.  I used red oak, which has such a deep grain, it takes a dark espresso stain very well.

Double wide scratcher with post

I can't forget our cat, who sometimes receives projects made from scrap wood and materials.

Our cat is kind of large, so since he likes to sit and sleep on his scratcher (probably due to all the cat nip my wife adds to it) his big butt needed a double wide, and I included his scratching post, which I made for him when he was a kitten. 

And yes, the post is made out of PVC with toilet flanges on the top and bottom.