Tool Time

I helped to build this house - Did the trim carpentry around windows and doors, and rebuilt the soffit over the back entry door. Then I painted the whole damned thing in five colors. It was an easy commute, just up at the end of my street. I had no hand in designing the place, which is a somewhat unfortunate amalgam of Victorian and Craftsman features. The gazebo certainly has no place with the latter style, and is too large in scale and way too close to the house. Plus, the pitch of the roof is extreme, though you can't see it well here. It is a cute enough place, though. Warning to all future remodelers: put your money into good custom windows. Those depicted here are false mullioned jobbies, where the "dividers" sit behind the glass. It is what it looks like, cheap, and cannot be painted.
This is a recent project, a steel trellis. Painted it a chocolate brown. I have no picture of it completed. I didn't build it, as I've no training in welding, though I would learn if someone wanted to teach me. Then all my childhood Flashdance fantasies could be realized, um, except that I was never an exotic dancer. I spent days degreasing the steel. This phrase reminds a friend (and homeowner in question), of an episode of the Litle Rascals, "I can't come out and play," the boy from Our Gang whines, "I've got to stay home and grease Wheezer." Anyway, after cleaning it, you look a bit like an auto mechanic. Makes a girl worry a bit about her femininity.

This is me with my pops, "working" in his shop. I couldn't have been more than three, but I'm holding a screwdriver.