A New Exterior

The first project I did when I started my company in 2013 was this complete exterior renovation.It included new siding, 35 new construction windows, and 5 entry doors. I had to custom bend the metal roofs over the 2 side entry doors as commercially available material wouldn’t fit the scale of the small roofs.

Small Elegant Bathroom

This bathroom is in a space that couldn’t accommodate a full length tub. The tub is 4’ 6” long. I custom built the cabinetry. The sinktop and shelf were fabricated to my specifications by Synmar.

Just A Shower Please

The acrylic tub and walls were removed and replaced with a custom shower. The original plan was to have the niche run corner to corner. A structural post that supported a beam got in the way. I used a custom stacked arrangement. The plumbing trim was not yet installed. The customer declined any grab bars.

Kitchen Reconfinguration

This kitchen was remodeled in the spring of 2010. The kitchen had two corners that could be configured for usable kitchen space. There were 2 doorways and a hall that couldn’t be changed. The client wanted a pass-through next to the doorway to the living room and a larger window on the wall to the left of the existing sink run. Beyond that, more cabinet and work space. To create an efficient kitchen with the fixed parameters, I designed the space as two “ L’s” that faced each other on the diagonal. The sink moved to the counter under the window. The range that occupied the former sink location, and the refrigerator moved to the old range location. With the refrigerator moved, I was able to add the pass-through right where she wanted it.

Fixing What’s Already There

The top row shows this kitchen in it’s original form. I built and finished all of the new cabinets in the reconfigured spaces to match the existing kitchen. The refrigerator shown in the pictures was around the corner to the right of it’s final resting place. I had to level the tops of the existing base cabinets to accommodate the new granite countertops and replace the hinges and drawer glides in all of the remaining cabinets. The tile backsplash finished off the project.

Historical Restoration and Replication ( mid 1990’s)

The original fireplace in the Federal Era house was covered over when a modern heating system was installed. Our client wanted this room restored to match the style of the other rooms on the floor. I had to restore the mantle shelf which came from another house. I handled all of the carpentry work, including drywall, fabricated the pilasters for the mantle, and the frames for the walls. The painting crew for the company I worked for did the finishes.

Tile Shower and Vanity

In this full bath remodel, the tub was replaced with a high end custom shower. A double sink vanity took the place of the original vanity. Not shown is the tile floor, new trim, and the smooth ceiling, after the popcorn was removed. If you look carefully in the picture on the top row right, you can see how the shower floor tiles were cut to fit the pitch of the shower base.

Rustic Deck

The original deck on this log house was entirely rotted. The nails used to tie the deck to the house (not the recommended fasteners) were pulling out of the band joist. I warned my client not to use the deck any more till it was rebuilt. The stained section shown in the photo at bottom row center and right was a later add on, and still in good condition. It was incorporated into the new plan.

The rooms upstairs

I’ve done numerous upgrades for the same customer as above. The two rooms pictured below needed some serious fixing. There was new trim and flooring as well as some repair work.

Stylish Deck

The deck below was a radical design change from the original. The build included replacing a sliding door with a window as well as re-configuring the deck for comfort and safety. The decking is composite, the railings are vinyl.

Lockers

The house below was built sometime in the 19th century. Houses of that era don’t come with storage that fits a modern life style. Absent a mud room, the family tended to drop their things on the living room floor upon returning from work or school. What you see below was the solution to the clutter. Each member of the family got his or her own spot to stow their gear. The window seat acts as a convenient spot to remove shoes or boots.

Front Entry

The front of the house pictured above had been “remuddled” when the wood siding was covered over with aluminum siding. PVC trim, traditional style vinyl siding, painted wood brackets, and a new door gave the front of the house a look more in line with the age of the house.

Maple Hutch

This was built in to what was once a doorway in an old log house. When the space was revealed, the client asked if I could build a hutch to fit the space. It’s all custom, including the crown and door pulls.

A Modern Kitchen Upgrade

The kitchen below was done in the spring of 2020. The top 3 pictures are of what existed when I first showed up to look at the project. In the picture, top left, you can see the filled in place on the ceiling where a wall was removed at one time. My work entailed removing the door shown in the picture, and enlarging the window over the sink. The blind cabinets in 2 of the corners got some unique treatments. I had to build the peninsula to house a bookshelf on the dining area side, and open shelving for kitchen supplies and a feeding place for the client's cat. Across the kitchen, the blind corner has a high end, 3 tiered pull out unit that slides over and pulls out to maximize storage. Eliminating the soffit above the existing cabinets allowed for use of taller wall cabinets and a bank of full height pantry cabinets, thereby massively increasing the storage space in the kitchen. Mixing painted and stained cabinets and trim gave the room a modern magazine look to the space.

Art House, Chapter 1

This is part 1 of what is easily one of the most interesting projects I've ever done. The client found me from a business card a friend had given him. When I went to look at the project, I walked into a large room with stacks of flooring, trim, tile , and tin ceiling panels, and not much else. The client then showed me the room pictured below. The windows and door were in, the ceiling was covered in plywood panels, the drywall was incomplete, there was a rough construction stair set, and the floor was nothing but plywood subfloor. The stone fireplace and hearth were as you see in the photos below. When I asked what the his concept for the space was, he said' " I want something that's really cool to look at when I get home from work." There were no plans. The art work was all on me! What a blast! This phase took 5 months to complete. What you see below is the bedroom, a short hall, and the bathroom. The materials for the project were: All trim = Mahogany. Floor, stairs, and landing = Cherry with Wenge feature strips. Ceiling and crown = Tin 24" x 24" panels with 48" crown strips. Hall floor = Wenge with Cherry feature strips. The bathroom floor = natrual stone plank . My client, who's hobby is woodworking, built the curved vanity, baseboard radiator trim, and the Mahogany pendants for the tin crown. The tub and frame are off the shelf Jacuzzi. I had to match the the manufactured solid newel posts on the stairs with a site built box newel that I had to scribe to fit around the corner of the stone fireplace. The same was true for the trim where the wall meets the fireplace on the landing.

Art House Chapter 2

The original plans for the house, which were furnished to my client, called for cathedral ceilings with trapazoidal windows at the gable end. However, the previous owner elected to abandon the original plan. When I came on board, the room was the only finished living area in the house, with bathroom in one corner and a flat ceiling. For this phase, there was an actual plan. The room was to be brought up to the original specifications, which included all new Marvin mahogany windows and a cathedral ceiling. The customer, who is an electrical engineer, gutted the room and ran the new wiring. From there, it was all me. That included adding steel rafter ties and window framing at the gable end. As usual, I handled all the drywall as well as rough and finish carpentry. The materials: Window, door, and baseboard trim: Mahogany. Box beam and radiator covers: Purple Heart and Yellow Heart ( the radiator covers were built by my client). The Floor: Brazilian Cherry and Quarter Cut White Oak with Wenge to offset the radiator boxes. The Floor is a story of it's own. While I was near the end of the 1st phase, my customer came to me with a picture of a herring bone floor similar to what I installed, and asked if I could build that. I said yes but suggested that he have the pieces manufactured by a flooring fabricator, as it would be more cost effective. The material arrived a few weeks before I installed the floor, giving it time to acclimate. When I started to install, I found that many of the pieces shrunk unevenly, necessitating the use of a hand plane, and in some cases, thin splines glued in to fit them so everything aligned as it was supposed to. However, the tricky work proved worth the cost. The floor is the star of the show. The wall color is called Purple Cloud. The best representation is in the photo bottom row, center.

Salvage Reface

The kitchen below was originaly a client DIY project in need of updating. The cherry doors and drawer fronts were made from rejects purchased by my customer for pennies on the dollar from a local cabinet shop. I simply re-sized them ( cut down or glued up into wider panels) and bored for concealed hinges. The fridge and pantry cabinet switched places, and I built a cabinet over the refrigerator with a full height end panel. I also rebuilt the 3 door cabinet over the range hood. The stacked trim at the tops of the cabinets is salvaged redwood and pine . In the photo on the top row left, there are three white end panels showing, one to the left of the window, two to the right of the door. Those couldn't be replaced. So my only option was to "grain" them using paint. (See photo top right.) I sent my customer to a nearby paint store with a door to get two colors of latex paint that were close to the two most prominent colors of the grain. I used a brush to blend the two colors as needed along with some dark umber acrylic artists' paint to create the effect. The same process was used on the cabinet to the left of the range hood. To create a more unified appearance, I eliminated the arched doorway, and re-trimmed the window over the sink. Because the kitchen didn't have a dining area, I built a movable counter to act as a dining bar and additional work space Tile countertops and backsplash completed the project.

Kitchen Face Lift

The cabinets in this kitchen were originally dark wood with a wide soffit over the top. The plan was to remove the soffits and use a flying crown on the cabinets. However, it turned out that the plumbing for an upstairs bath was housed in the soffit to the left of the window. To give the client the style she wanted, I simply dressed up the soffit with a Victorian style crown. I added a rail at the bottom of the cabinets to hide under cabinet lighting. I finished my part of the project with a tile counter and backsplash. A painter came in after my work was complete. The pictures were taken with a film camera, so I was limited with what I could do to adjust lighting and clarity.

Jewelry Case

This piece was built in the 1990's. The wood is ash with a victorian mahogany stain. The material I had was all 3/4" thick. I glued up four layers to make the 3" x 3" blocks for the cabriol legs.

Rustic Kitchen

This kitchen was the last project I did as general foreman for my former employer, before going on my own. It was completed early January, 2013. The design and build are all me. Top row left. The kitchen was a typical 1980's design with soffits all around the kitchen area. The soffits and the closet on the left of the photo were eliminated, and the doorway in the picture was moved to the left to expand the work area. The dog in the picture is standing at the approximate location of the hallway shown in the picture at bottom row right. There were three doorways into the kitchen. I managed to center the tile layout on all of them. You don't always get that lucky. I particularly liked the rustic appearance of the cabinets. They weren't the usual slick look that you get.

My House

The furiture in the following set of photos was built almost entirely from material I salvaged from demolition work on remodeling projects. I got my start into woodworking in the 1970's building speaker enclosures to use in the bands I played in. I don't think my grandfather knew he was creating a monster when he taught me how to use a table saw. I built my first piece of furniture around 1981. The pieces you see below are all in use in my own home.
Pictured here is our dining room table. The base, built in around 1981, originally had a rectangular glass top. The legs and verticle supports were squared off at the edges. The legs had an open appearance similar to the center of the base seen in the the photo directly above. The glass top broke when I neglected to place a pad under a hot dish. It sounded like a car crash. Since I had to build a new top, I modernized the base, rounding over the edges and filling in the spaces in the legs. The base is red oak and the top is red oak and ash.
On the left is a photo of the coffee table I built from salvaged yellow pine and redwood for an apartment I lived in. It fit perfectly int the space I had at the time. When my wife and I moved into our own house, it became a shin smasher in out long narrow living room. The eliptical table seen below was the solution to the problem. When I started building it, I really wasn't sure how the support system for the top would look. The design evolved into what you see here. The top is mahogany, the base is cherry, and the curved uprights are white oak. All material that would have been tossed out.
Our house was built in 1939, and typical of houses of the era, it didn't have much storage space. The kitchen is a galley that doesn't have a lot of cabinet space. So to gain what we needed we expanded into the dining room. The central unit is something I salvaged wholesale from a kitchen remodel around 2003. I was still living in an apartment, and needed a place for dishes, etc. When we moved into our house, it came along. I eventually built the the 2 flanking cabinets. Each has its own design elements, much like buildings on a main street in an old town. The cases and tops for the two flanking units are cherry plywood with solid cherry edges and face frames. The drawer fronts are lacewood and mahogany, as are the pulls and brick-a-brack. The doors on the left were blemished cherry that a friend gave me. All I had to do was strip and refinish them. The doors on the right with the unique profile, I made from solid cherry. Crown for the central cabinet, and the base trim are salvaged cherry moldings.
The liquor cabinet on the left is made of ash. I had to custom make the molding for the base. Each piece of shoe and cap is made from two pieces glued up and shaped.
A better view of the verticle wine rack.

Updating A Midcentury Modern Kitchen

The kitchen pictured in the photos below was built in 1967. The top 4 pictures are of the area as it was designed originally when the house was built. It was state of the art at the time. It was short on storage space and electrical outlets, and the lighting was just plain terrible. The louvered door in the clerestory shown top left covered an exhaust fan. In the photo second row right, a cabinet door can be seen at the far end next to the kitchen entry. It opened a cabinet that was built into the top part of a hall closet. My clients' objective was to modernize and address the shortcomings of the original design. The solution is shown in the next 8 pictures. I had to get rather creative. The base cabinets on the range run had to be spaced away from the wall to allow wiring for outlets in the tile backsplash (a project in itself) at either side of the slide in range (visible third row left). I used a white subway tile backsplash on the sink run to reflect the brick pattern on the other side of the kitchen. The biggest design challenge was how to work around the clerestory above the sink run. The tall cabinets at either end created balance. I installed wall cabinets at a lower level to allow for visual movement as well as storage space. The white subway tile backsplash reflects the pattern of the brick across the isle (third row). The tile work at the end of the range run is an original element that my clients want preserved. I had to trim it to blend into the end of the cabinets. The project also involved a great deal of drywall repair and painting work which I handled as well.
Left, the original cabinet and wall trim were removed and replaced by a pantry which bumps into the downsized hall closet (not pictured). The pantry shelves were made from material salvaged from some of the old walnut lumber core plywood cabinet doors. The client and I salvaged most of the plywood panels for reuse on personal projects. It's rare stuff and has very attractive edges. Above, custom built shelves flank the the wall cabinets over the range. A 400 cfm variable speed Zephyr hood replaces the original ceiling and clerestory fans. Below, the windows shown in the clerestory let light into the upper parts of two bathrooms on the upper level of the split level house. On the opposite wall of the clerestory there is a long bank of windows that look out over the kitchen roof which allow light into the house.