Cutting Board Follow Up and Super Secret Projects

“Nothing is work unless you’d rather be doing something else.”

-George Halas

There are few things more simple or beautiful than doing what you enjoy with the people you enjoy; to labor fruitfully in good company is a sweet, soul-gladdening thing. It’s good like a fat drug addict finding a burger smothered in queso and crack. It’s good like a deaf nerd receiving Spock ear transplants. It’s good like an unemployed narcoleptic finding an opening at the mattress factory. It’s good. And when that “good company” is your wife, it’s even better.

Patty and I got a little shop time last night to finish some projects and to start some new ones, all of which I’m excited about. We had a great time and a few laughs, and Kensli got an hour or two of high-quality grandparent time: win, win, win.

Cutting Board Cabinet

So first, as promised, I wanted to show you the finished cutting board cabinet in place at the house, along with a quick review of how it turned out.

Now that it’s in place with Patty’s help, we took a good look at it and asked ourselves if this project met the needs we set out to satisfy. We wanted to add some storage for cooking utensils, baking sheets, and odds and ends. The drawer and door and large top allow for lots of storage, so that column gets a check. We wanted it to be the same height and depth of the oven, and the depth turned out right on the money: it’s flush with the oven door. The height, however, is a few inches shy. When I started designing this in SketchUp back in March, I had planned it to be the same height by putting recessed feet at the bottom. However, now that we have it in place, I think it should stay just a little short; see Patty’s red utensil jar? If it were flush, there would be nothing to keep it or other items from sliding over to the burners, so a little barrier to keep things separated from super-hot coils is a good thing.

You can also see from the SketchUp model that I wanted this to have more shelves, but as I was putting it together, I had two really good pieces of advice. First, my grandpa said, “So you’re gonna bend all the way down there every time you’re looking for spices?” Since I’m fat and lazy, his words struck a chord in me, and I thought, “How about just one really high shelf?” I mean, who wants to burn more calories while you’re cooking? That defeats the whole purpose! So after I suggested it to Patty, she said it would be cool to have the single higher shelf and a larger opening at the bottom, that way we could magnetize the bottom part so Kensli could play with her magnet letters when she got bigger. Brilliant. And after some Pinteresting, we saw people attaching flat dollar-store baking sheets and using them as magnet boards: problem solved.

I kinda had an “Oh, crap” moment when Patty began filling the side shelf: it didn’t have enough space for anything – no cookbooks, no picture frames, nothing.  So here’s a contest for you readers: send me your ideas on how we could utilize this side space, and the best idea gets a grand prize! Like, the chance to come over and cook for us using the shiny new cutting board cabinet! And maybe a few first prizes where the winners can just bring food by and drop it off! No purchase necessary, void where prohibited.

Other Projects

In an effort to beef up my skills and go from handyman to handy superman, I’ve been really practicing my hand tool methods; I recently bought some very old and beat up hand planes at a used tool store in Lubbock and have been whipping them back into shape. I also got my hands on some new chisels, but since they’re very nice and took up some of my limited woodworking funds, I didn’t want to beat the heck out of them with a metal hammer. So with a little leftover maple and some immaturity, I put on my superhero costumes and whipped out this Thor-inspired hammer for my chisels. Pretty nifty if you like hand tools…and superheroes.

Top Secret - Don't Read This! 

Now it’s time for the big reveal of my super secret extra special project. If you’ve read past posts, my first real project was a Japanese-flavor shelf for Patty out of padouk and bird’s eye maple.

Well, our two year anniversary is next month, so I’ve been designing an Asian-inspired jewelry cabinet for my bride. This is my most ambitious and detailed project so far, and I’ve been designing and experimenting for over a month now, but I’m still juiced and nervous! Now I’ve got the materials, the plans, the drawings, and the fire in my belly to get to work. There are some secret details and seventeen herbs and spices that I can’t reveal now because I want to surprise Patty. But rest assured, once she gets it, I’ll share it here. Since this has a set completion date, I sincerely hope I can present you the final project by July 25^th…because our anniversary is the 24^th.

Here are some pics of the model I’ve been building. The two front doors will open out to reveal four small drawers for bracelets, earrings, and the like. The drawer fronts will be padouk, with the rest of the drawers and main cabinet carcass will be maple. The legs and door handles will be ebonized walnut (I look forward to posting on how that turns out!). Below is a shot of the rough-cut padouk and maple for one of the drawers.

Since my rapping career has really taken off, I feel obliged to deck my baby momma with jewels and bling, and now Patty can give her busted up hand-me-downs to Kim Kardashian or Princess Kate and keep her premium gems in this heirloom jewelry box! Where my shorties at?! Stay tuned for updates, and send in your ideas for the empty side of the cutting board cabinet!