Museo Nazionale dell’Ebraismo Italiano e della Shoah

This building looks amazing. I just had to post it here.

Check out the post on Arch Daily: Museo Nazionale dell’Ebraismo Italiano e della Shoah

drawing board

Here’s the latest project from the wood shop. A drawing board/all-purpose work table. I made one a while back for myself out of some scrap cedar we had from the wedding to put my drawing board on. Kristen’s sister Jenni, a Graphic Designer, put in an order for one recently. I made this one out of a maple veneered plywood, with pine for the saw horse style legs. The top has a nice surface of translucent Vyco on it. It’s a simple little project that has seen much use!

the writing desk

Click here for a larger image: Writing Desk

As my wife is a writer, it came to my [our] attention that she currently does not have a desk for writing, or a desk at all for that matter. I set out to remedy that problem.

For all writer’s must have a place to write.

I returned to the shop and put the new planer to the test, reworking some old oak tongue and groove flooring we had. It was the perfect length and width for this project.

I glued the top, and cut mortise and tenons for the sides and legs. I also made a taper jig to get a nice soft taper for the legs. The drawer was also a fun as I tried something I had not done before: the half-blind dovetail, by hand. It came out out a little rough but is nice, and is definitely a strong joint.

So now that she has a desk… let the writing begin. Here’s to her first novel, book of poetry, short story or whatever else her mind dreams!

the platform bed

So, it only took me a little over 6 months, but my promise to make our first bed has been kept,

It is now complete!!

Check out a few more pictures on Flickr: The Platform Bed

What a project to undertake. It’s a rather simple design, but has taken a while to come together. Especially only having the weekends to work on it for a while. Not having any work lately has allowed me to get it finished up.

Another part that took a while was finding the wood. I wanted to use rough sawn lumber, for a finished, rustic look. So after scouring craigslist for weeks I finally found a guy who had cleaned out a saw mill that had closed.

Kris and I went late one evening on the spur of the moment and it ended up getting dark by the time we got there, so I tried to pick out these huge planks of rough sawn lumber in the headlights of my car. After planing it down we discovered that we ended up with a mix of pine and oak.

Only when we bought this wood I forgot to calculate for enough to make the head board. So, the frame has been together for a while now, but I just recently found another guy to buy more wood from, some beautiful white oak, and was able to finish the head board.

All in all it was a fun project, but I’m glad to say that it’s finally done. Whew.

Postmodern Architecture

this post is just too brilliant not to recognize. wow.

Postmodern Architecture

From an address by Ravi Zacharias:

I remember lecturing at Ohio State University, one of the largest universities in this country. I was minutes away from beginning my lecture, and my host was driving me past a new building called the Wexner Center for the Performing Arts.

He said, “This is America’s first postmodern building.”

I was startled for a moment and I said, “What is a postmodern building?”

He said, “Well, the architect said that he designed this building with no design in mind. When the architect was asked, ‘Why?’ he said, ‘If life itself is capricious, why should our buildings have any design and any meaning?’ So he has pillars that have no purpose. He has stairways that go nowhere. He has a senseless building built and somebody has paid for it.”

I said, “So his argument was that if life has no purpose and design, why should the building have any design?”

He said, “That is correct.”

I said, “Did he do the same with the foundation?”

All of a sudden there was silence.

You see, you and I can fool with the infrastructure as much as we would like, but we dare not fool with the foundation because it will call our bluff in a hurry.

(Via Justin Taylor.)

the new shelf

so we needed a shelf for our bathroom. there’s hardly any storage in there, so our hallway was doing the job of holding most of the items that didn’t have a place.

and seeing as i still had some of the cedar wood leftover from the piece i built to go on the stage at our wedding, i knew it would work perfect.

after putting the first coat of poly on the bed yesterday i turned my attention to the shelf. it was a quick little job. i used the table saw to cut a groove for the acrylic door to sit in and then i mitered the corners and finally joined everything with a biscuit jointer.

it turned out nice and does the job.

china book: the beginning

we have finally begun the undertaking. a project we’ve talked about for so long now:

THE CHINA BOOK
(insert ominous music)

how very exciting!

this evening we printed off about 200 thumbnails of images that we’re considering for the book. we grouped them into categories (landscapes, people, buildings, still life) to help sift through the rubble. and from there we’ll narrow each category down until we get a reasonable number for the book.

after this we’ll begin the writing, layout, printing, binding, etc., etc.

we’ll keep you informed. stay tuned.

and we are now taking pre-orders…. please contact for pricing info.

in progress

i’ve been quite busy since i started working a few months ago but i have found time here and there to work on the next project: a bed.

i don’t have any process pictures, so you’ll have to wait for the final images of it. but as a preview, it’s a platform bed that i made out of some rough sawn lumber i came across on craigslist. the guy i bought it from had bought all the wood from an old sawmill that closed down.

it’s been a fun project, but definitely takes some time. check back soon for more pictures.

athenaeum inspired card holder

i’m not exactly sure how i came across this piece, but i found it on the anthropologie website. my wife is a huge fan of their home decor and especially their clothing. i’m actually jealous they don’t have men’s clothing because i love their style as well.

anyway, i decided to try to build my own desktop card holder. i’ve been in search of something to hold letters, cards, envelops, papers and any other odds and ends that clutter up the desk and this seemed to be the perfect piece.

so, i bought a sheet of metal from lowe’s and was able to cut everything i needed out of that one piece. i had some leftover scrap cedar from an earlier project that i used for the wood. it turned out really nice. might look into painting it a darker color, but it works great for now.

create

I like to have small projects going all the time. This one was started as a demolition job. My sister and her husband were getting new closets installed. I was enlisted to tear out all the old shelving. A few wide pine boards remained.

I cut the boards to two lenths, mitred the corners and made an L-shaped building block. These were left free of each other to allow for different configurations when setting them up; depending on the space desired to fill. I sanded them down fairly well, and then we painted them and put a few coats on polyurethane on them to give the surface a little protection.

It turned out to be a fun project and gave us some much needed shelf space and a nice little end table for the couch.

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