Joe,
Strong,True and Brave words in that first paragraph!!
I don't think there ARE correct words to say when it comes to us all....Just being there for someone is enough!
Got an email from a very good friend in Oz finally describing HIS Dad's end, and comparatively...I've got it easy.
Luckily Dad got me into CNC 5+ years ago because I knew wood fairly well, after designing/building(general'ing with a crew of 3 VERY good carpenters for 3 years)this Wheelchair house I plan on dying in:)
Those 5 years brought us much closer together as he learned Wood,and I learned CNC production, so we could get a business in the Black and give second machine and company away.
Saw and talked to him more in those five years than the previous 40, and we got to know each others opinions and attitudes well, and agreed to disagree:)
You're right:) Gram and Gramp passed onto Dad "If it ain't bleeding...you Can't cry"....Luckily Dad and I outgrew that
Thank you Joe!!!
Now onto Wood:)
I didn't know Diddly, until I stopped studying Architecture when I found out anything under 5,000sf, didn't NEED an Architect, and designed everything except my trusses. Hard part was to tell my carpenters "It takes as long as it takes" and "Do the best you can" and get them out of current house production mode....Kinda Frank Lloyd Wright'ish with LOTS of hidden Joinery...near the end, Paul asked me what kind of joint to use under a glass block section...I said "What kind of joint Haven't we used?" and he said "Well, we haven't used a Butt Joint."...so Butt Joint it was...the only interior one in the house
My first visit to pick out some boards at a hardwood supplier was a confusing NIGHTMARE for me:)
But I studied and learned until even the salesmen knew to give me a call when some "squirrelly" wood came in.
Forgot about the blood glass side door transom,
..front door the same except two pieces the same size as the lower clear glass door...lovely Southern exposure, and backlit was beautiful!!
Whole row of Sea Captains houses on Summer St., Kennebunk...and all trying to out do the others...Sea Captains brought back stuff slightly ahead of their times:)
Victorian was built in 1875, and had been unlived in since the 80+ yr recluse and his Jamaican(?) female servant died 8 yrs before we bought it....ceilings sagging/dry rot and roof leaks.
MOST impressed by the Art of plastering back then, BUT if I never see horsehair plaster and lath again...it'll be too soon!!
DID like the weather notes on the back of the trim I tore carefully down...and a LOT of notes written on the carriage house beams!! And encouraged my carpenters to do the same.
Climbed a ladder once to inspect some joinery unexpectedly, and ran across Doug's message "Perfectionists SU*K"
Be a blast for someone in the future to see the notes:)
Don't really care for what the owners since have done...House is "haunted"s supposedly, and 5 owners since we sold in late 80's may prove it:)
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandho ... 724#photo0
NOW, if you REALLY want to see some woodwork, check out John's Wife's family's private residence In Camden(Dad has HIGH respect for all that family did for the town during Depression!)
Look at the OLD woodwork....there's a fireplace and a reading "Landing from Heaven";
https://www.norumbegainn.com/gallery/
John was lucky enough to stay there...I only admired it the Many times I walked/rode by:)
1903......Before blood glass became common..cherish it!!
Thanks again for the True words, and seeing a new material I'll be scrounging around for a small piece for a night light here in house(value my night vision here in the country), but at new moon, wheelchair tends to crash into stuff at high speed before coffee consumed and feet suffer
Looks like a serendipitous thread all around!!!
And don't have words to say what it meant to me.
Don't know about the "strong man" though......working like heck to look with the eyes of a child:)
scott