Here is a chair that I recently built for a very happy client in Roslindale. It is a recliner modeled after a Dutch ergonomic chair.

Sometimes, a bathroom is just too small:

Can you believe it? There is only about 16 inches from the wall to the sink! So… after a week’s work:

That sink is out of the way, and the bathroom is much more accessible:

And there is a beautiful rounded shower, too!

By the way, that sink is still there. I just moved it! -

Here’s a relatively low-cost and quick update to a house that the owner is preparing to put on the market. A new mahogany reface of the front steps and a new front entry door added ‘curb appeal’ to a formerly shabby looking front face:

Another view of the steps:

Here is another low-cost renovation with mahogany. We kept the old framing but replaced the deck and railings, to bring new life to this outdoor living space:

The client has a beautiful flower garden in the back yard, so I installed stainless steel wires instead of wood balusters on the back wall. I also made stainless steel bird feeder hangers.

The deck is embedded among beautiful trees and shrubs:

Here’s a little closeup of the inlaid copper and purpleheart. The finish is a rubbed shellac, approaching a French polish but I didn’t go to 6000 grit with the rubbing. I left it a little matte.

I gave away this to a rich man who made millions managing liquidation sales. What was I thinking? But then he donated $1,000 to my favorite village in Nepal, so it worked out about right. It was the karma of the table, you might say.

Next time, I want to make an eye-shaped version of the same table. In the pupil of the eye (which would be purpleheart) would be the copper Aum. The tensegrity base would be an X shape instead of H shape. And I’ll do a complete French polish to a mirror sheen.

Here’s a bench that I built for the front of Del Fino restaurant in Roslindale. Unfortunately, a few months after I built it, they left it out overnight and it got stolen. It must be sitting in somebody’s back yard now. It’s no good for a level floor. I wonder if the kidnapper realized that.

The height tapers to the right, so the benchtop sits level on the slope of the sidewalk. The slats also become slightly smaller to the right, so I call it a “xylophone bench”. Really, I guess it should be called a “marimba bench” and I plan to make the next marimba bench actually tuned and playable. That would be more fun. This bench is quarter sawn white (”tiger”) oak with bloodwood plugs on the slats.

(By the way, in Jamaica Plain there is a great pair of marimba benches in the Forest Hills Cemetery, just near the bell tower at the entrance. Go and play them sometime! Then ask me to build you one!)

Here is a bookcase that I built for a German couple who have a lot of books. It one of a four-bookcase set, each one custom-sized for a specific location in their home.

Here are the other three in an unfinished (naked) state. They’re made from 1″ ash-faced plywood with 1/2″ solid edge-banding. The widest shelves are bowed upward about 1/16″ with a spline on the bottom, to prevent them from sagging. Bowing them upward allows the spring to carry the weight, instead of making a super-solid (and thicker) beam. This is my own design, which I make using a curved gluing cawl.

The shelves are adjustable on hidden shelf supports. I sort of copied some Danish shelves for the style.

I cut all four bookcases from three sheets of plywood:

I really like ash as a wood to work with. I think I will build something of solid ash soon.

For architect Bill Boehm, I did some interesting work in a basement. Some storage cubbies with sliding doors:

That’s the 3D sketch I drew to discuss the design details. Here are some of the cubbies, above a blackboard that I installed on the wall for his kids:

And an interesting stair detail:

I like his style. Here is his website.

Here’s a kitchen after gutting it (well, I did hang that cabinet and install the new microwave before I thought to take a photo):

And here it is after a bit of work:

Those are just Home Depot cabinets, but they don’t look too bad. I’d be happy to have that kitchen.

Another thing I made is my truck cap:

I’ve learned to make simple utility shelves very quickly and cheaply. If your basement is too cluttered maybe these would help:

I’ve built them for several people and they hold a lot. They can also be free-standing.

Sometimes I like to do purely structural work, especially for the sake of music. Here is a girder I installed to shore up the floor of the room above for a grand piano. A grand piano weighs around 1/2 ton, supported on three feet. Normal rooms are sized to carry about 40 pounds per square foot. I upgraded this room to carry 100 pounds per square foot with this girder.

Theory:

… and practice:

This is a bicycle generator I built as a prototype to fill a need for electricity on a mountaintop in Nepal. We ended up using solar panels on the mountaintop, but this was fun anyway:

It’s a DC motor from a Toro weed-wacker. I was able to pedal 15 volts from it.

Now and then a painting job is fun with friends: