John Highstreet's Carpentry

Random Work

 The project called for a variety of built-ins, and I was fortunate enough to have a lot of freedom in interpreting the designs in order to best fabricate them to fit. But, before I begin work - a quick story...

Dogs terrify me.

This scary beast wouldn't let me out of my van,

and the cell service in the area is so horrible, that I couldn't call animal control.

Then I remembered that I had a secret tool that would enable me to get to work...

Ok, so I like dogs, this is Ginger, a beautiful Boxer who, as her namesake implies, is a very gentle beast indeed.

 Below are three of the five pre-primed cabinets; 30" deep laundry shelves inside a 36" deep closet space, deceptively simply looking until installation... A boot and coat cubby with storage above. The beginning of an Entertainment Center, really.

                    

                                                                                                                                          

 Each project had it's challenges, getting things to fit is one thing, getting it to look as if it's always been there, another. Placement and depth were critical on each one, never mind balance, ergonomics and function, oh and aesthetics... The sill height and the top of the recycling station match, and cutting out the recycling bins below made use of a couple router bits with some tricky jig saw work.

    A recycling center should be the mainstay of every mudroom, and here is a version with full extension drawers that can hold up to 100 pounds of recyclable material each. (bins not pictured).

       The Entertainment Center let loose a lot of creativity, the moldings pictured were made from scratch. Here is where the drawer fronts are scribed to fit inside the cabinets.

   The greatest joy in doing this kind of work is the finish, when the paint has been applied and everything looks clean (and, well, finished). Two very capable people did the painting, Tom and Tessa. Their attention to detail is outstanding, making my work that much      more  enjoyable.

        The Entertainment console will be finished by next week and I'll post the pictures then.  I have a you tube tutorial on drawer slide installation that is informative and also a good sleeping aid... http://www.youtube.com/user/jshighstreet#p/u/19/0E7SqMQSxGg

Hey, it's next week already! (weird to express time in spaces...) Anyway, the finish pics of the Entertainment Center. The first shot was interrupted by you-know-who...

 

Waiting for the knob things to come in (special order?), but here is what it looks like finished. It will look even nicer with a 56" flat screen T.V sitting on top...

 

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A quick built-in, in which I'm finishing up this week.