FAI

Well I’m just going to let me spirit soar and see where it takes me. I’ve told many stories of my past, this time I’m going to let the ideas take form as I type. I love wood working and I spend many weekends watching the woodworking and home improvement shows – that’s what I’m doing right now, but it’s a repeat so I decided to let It play in the background with the sound off so I can type. I can look up every now then and see what’s happening. I tried for several weeks to catch a particular broadcast of “Ask This Old House” where Tom Silva removed a load bearing wall, I had long since given up trying to find it. I had even checked their website, a frustrating unsuccessful venture, low and behold, it aired once again. I felt it had something to offer, because it seemed similar to much of the work I often encounter replacing windows and doors. I have to remove a double set of windows and replace them with an eight foot sliding patio door that makes its way on to the deck I built a couple years ago. The load bearing wall remodel seemed like it could have some tips I could use, and I was quite please after all the wait to find out in fact that he had a unique trick to deal with cutting header studs without completely removing the plaster. He notched a hole at each stud and surgically severed them, preserving the plaster and the integrity of the wall. Now that I like; it saves time and money and produces a high quality product! I’ve watched these shows for many years and it seems Tom Silva has the best tips; Norm Abram on the other hand often does things that make me cringe. I laugh when people tell me how impressed they are by his workmanship– I don’t a craftsman – I see a carpenter cutting corners who dumbs down antiques to a simplified (lifeless) copy that looses the real value or beauty of the project. His choice of woods disgusts me- plywood doesn’t belong in Victorian furniture, it reeks of cheapness. Polyurethane; his favorite finish has a place, but not on quality furniture, the plastic quality that makes it durable makes look chintzy, as if someone spilled pancake syrup on the piece, yuk. Don’t get me wrong he’s a great carpenter but his furniture making skills are what I take issue with. I dislike arts and crafts; craftsman style or homespun/country furniture with every ounce of my being, it looks crude and slapdash, and this is his forte. Where’s the sense of pride in building that?
I love refined well executed furniture – my favorite is Rococo. Rococo is a French style several hundred years old – with elaborate carving – often gilded with gold and inlayed with pearl and other fineries. This is the stuff of nobility and the finest examples in the world are in French Chateaus. This absolute finest furniture ever made – and when folks say I don’t like that – I say they are talking “sour grapes!” (translation: I dislike what I can’t have).