Well, here it is

Coffee table is finished and set up in our family room. Just thought I would post a picture of it.

Coffee Table update

Just checking in to post a picture of phase one completion. I worked quite a bit this past weekend on getting the end assemblies completed and did just that. Here they are.

Stay tuned...a new project is underway

The shop was sort of out of commission while I was waiting for my new Jet JJ/P -12 jointer/planer combination machine was on its way to my humble abode. I had quickly sold my old Delta 6" jointer on CraigsList and was without any "jointing" capabilities, so work was sort of at a standstill up there.

Well, the machine has been delivered. I have gotten it upstairs to my shop and it is set up and running and working like a charm. The delivery of the machine held up a planned project for a couple that we are friends with, but upon letting them know that their project can get underway, I was informed that something had changed and it would be a little bit before they were ready to have it made. That freed me up to get underway with something I have long wanted to do....a new coffee table for our family room. I am making the table unusually tall and for good reason. Both my wife and I like to watch television (Law and Order and L&S SVU) while we eat our dinners. However, the current coffee table sits so low, it is a pain to bend over to eat over your plate and sitting on the floor to get closer to the plate has become a non-option. So, I am raising the table up to where it will be comfortable to eat at WHILE sitting on the couch.

Constructed of red oak with walnut features worked in, it will match the existing television armoir that I built a few years back. This is the second of a trio of furniture that I want to build to complete our family room. The third is planned for the future and will be an occasional table that will sit in the corner of the room. It will have two drawers and will serve as a place to charge our various electrical gadgets and gizmos. So, stay tuned....I'll be posting some pictures soon detailing the construction process of the coffee table.

Music boxes

I just recently finished up making a pair of these music boxes. I made one for my mother for her upcoming birthday and while I was at it, I decided to make a matching one for my wife. Red oak and walnut. I purchased the musical movement from Rockler - who I get quite a bit of my woodworking supplies from. Simple little project and I was looking forward to it since I had never built music boxed before.

Fireplace surround/cabinet

Another project that came out of the shop when I was building the bar room was this fireplace. With our home already pretty much 100% electric, I didn't want to add any more electrical useage to the house, so I opted for a ventless, propane fired fireplace and this one absolutely does the trick in heating up the bar room. I keep it low when the room is not in use, so when I go out there to prepare for entertaining, I turn up the heat with a remote that also serves as the thermostat and within ten minutes, the room is up to the desired temp and the fireplace doesn't kick on again for what could be up to hours.

The cabinet/surround was basically straight forward carpentry with some nice woodworking added in - such as the walnut dentil moulding. I did have to adhere to some code enforced measurements as far as dimensions around the firebox and how high above the firebox the top of the cabinet could be and how far out in front of the structure it could extend. With those things in mind, it was still easy to build. It came out very nice in my opinion.

Dart Board cabinet

Those of you who may have seen the YouTube video tour of my property and bar room may have noticed this dart board cabinet. I quickly highlighted it in the video tour of the bar room. In case you missed the video tour - you can see it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3rDptHlsGM

This cabinet was one of the last things that I built for the room. I wanted convenient dart storage and accomplished that with in-door storage that holds them firmly and they are always there ready for playing when you open the doors. I finished the red oak and walnut cabinet with high gloss Waterlox because I had used that for the rest of the rooms vast amount of wood and wanted it to blend in with the rest of the room and it does quite well. I added a small strip light in the top of the cabinet to assist in illuminating the dart board itself. All in all, a very nice project that was fairly simple to make.

Kitchen cabinetry

When our son Jim and his wife Mari purchased their home out near Allentown, PA, the home needed some sprucing up - as any home would. Included in that plan was replacing the horrid kitchen cabinets that were in place. I volunteered to build them, as this would get them new cabinets and save them a ton of money in the process. They REALLY needed new cabinets!

Nothing fancy - as at the time, they weren't even sure if they would be staying in the home for a long period of time. I suggested that they didn't go with something such as maple, oak or cherry since if they were going to move out in a few years, why bother. So, we went an inexpensive route and they still got some pretty darned nice cabinetry and the bonus that it was built by family. It really made a difference in their kitchens appearance.