The Broken Toe

Hey everyone one! I’m back. How was my title? Did it hook you in like a good writer tries to do? I know you were all waiting patiently for the next blog post. I have a lot of excuses as to why it took me so long but the best I could come up with was my broken toe. Let me tell you all about my broken toe.

It was the dead of summer (my birthday, actually). I woke at dawn to catch the latest episode of Paw Patrol while my wife headed off to work. After an episode (or 10), the kids and I made our way to our back deck to watch the sun wake up. Shortly after, I packed them up for our morning adventure. I poured my 5^th cup of coffee into my mug and headed out to the garage. With the kids on my lap, I turned the key and fired up the lawnmower. We were on our way for a quick 8 km ride around the Stratford loop. The ride went great. Not a word spoken between the three of us as they sat still watching the beautifully landscaped lawns pass us by, followed my lots of friendly smiles and waves as my kids thought they were in a parade. The sun was beating down on us as I pulled the lawnmower into the driveway and parked her. I was lucky to get home. The tank was emptier than my beer fridge. We gathered around the kitchen table as I prepared a mid-morning snack- raisins, cheese sticks and two cups full of chocolate chips. Tucker couldn’t wait any longer and needed to satisfy his appetite. I caught him out of the corner of my good eye (I can only really see out of one). He was heading for the dog dish. “Shit!” I thought to myself, hearing the voice of my wife whisper “those things are choking hazards”.  I sprinted toward the dish. It was a photo finish but Tucker won, but not before my foot slammed into the sharp 90-degree corner. Snap! Three toes went left, two went right. I yelled profanities my children shouldn’t hear till they are at least 5. A quick trip to the hospital and a walking boot later and I was back in business, shingling a barn I was building. My toe hasn’t been the same since. I had to go up a shoe size on my left foot. That’s all I have to say about that.

Where was I? Oh, right. I don’t have one particular build to talk about so how about I’ll post pictures about what I’ve been building. I am improving my woodworking skills, so that is a positive. I have put in a lot of hard work to get better. All of my extra time goes into growing and learning to be the best craftsmen I can possibly be. I’ve also been learning more about me and growing as a person, which is never a bad thing. It’s good for my head (I seem to have a busy head). We all need something to be passionate about. Okay, lets get to it.

So, I built these wall to wall bookshelves. I don’t know where to begin with these bastards. Lets just say I built them in 4 different pieces, carried them up 3 or 4 flights of stairs with help from my bud, Meals MacDougall. We got them all the way up but they would not fit through the bedroom door. Son of a gun. Back down the stairs we went, loaded them back in my trailer (as tears poured down my face) and hauled them back into the shop. I pondered what to do with them and burning them was a really good option, but I ended up cutting them in half. I was actually pretty proud of myself for this. You can’t even tell they are in 8 pieces! Critical thinking for the win! I ended up repainting them several more times. I loaded them back into the trailer, brought them back up 3 or 4 flights of stairs (with each bookcase cut in half), put them back together and painted them one final time. At the end of the day they turned out looking pretty great. I love them and I learned a lot and my client was very understanding and sweet.

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I built a pool shed. First time for everything! I think it turned out looking pretty great. It’s close to the pool, which is new (and so is the house), so I wanted it to look as good as it could, being a shed and all. I’m pretty sure they like it. They are terrific people and I am happy to reconnect with them. They also have two great babysitters, so that’s a bonus. I broke my toe halfway through so it slowed me down but I finished it before the snow.

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I ended up building my kids/me a treehouse This is The Birch Perch. This is only stage one but it was a lot of fun hanging out here during the days with the Everly and Tucker. I had a lot of fun in it at night, too. It was a quick walk home, thankfully. In the summer, the canopy from the leaves and branches make it a pretty cool space, not to mention the sunsets. It will be even better this summer. Oh, guess what?!?! My wife is pregnant with a baby GIRL in her belly!! She is due in early June!! If you’ve ever met my wife you know what an amazing person she is. You also probably wonder how I scored such a babe. That’s still up for debate. But we are so pumped for another little rascal to join our family and movie nights in the trees.

I built this end table to go along with the bed I built. I love this piece. They ended up renovating their bathroom, too, so I built some floating shelves for them.

Long story short about the table — I built it and thought I’d be able to sell it on Facebook. Turns out my prices are higher than they once were but so are my skills and time 😉 I ended up taking the top off and whitewashed it and made it into a sign for my son’s room. I will have to build another wall to support it though. It is really heavy to hang on a wall, considering it was once a kitchen table top…oops. And I made our new neighbour a sign, too. She’s very cute. Her mom’s terrific and her Dad’s….meh. He’s okay.

I built some bunk beds for two sweet boys. This is the second set of bunk beds I’ve built. The stairs replaced the ladder. I’m pretty happy with how they came out. I built this headboard for another terrific person!! My most favourite VP ever!!! Bonus points?!

Here we have a couple of toy boxes. They turned out really nice (in my opinion). They have a soft close hinge so you can’t lose any fingers. I hope these kids will have them forever.

Okay. Wow. That was a big one. If you made it to the end, thank you. I’m probably forgetting someone’s build in there. My phone broke somewhere in the mix, too, so I lost the majority of my photos. Thanks for tuning in. My goal is to be more active on my blog. I’m currently building two beds (well, one is finished and delivered). I’m finishing up the second one for the same client so I will post about them next. It is taking me 4 times longer to build things, but they are turning out pretty great. It’s all in the details. Well, that’s all I have to say today. I’m going to go but maybe I’ll do a shop tour and show you where all my profits go. I couldn’t do this without the support from you all, so thank you.

Your friend

Brett