My Personal Story

We immigrated to this wonderful country in early 1979 from a place where labor was cheap and where you can summon a craftsman to your home to do woodworking for you at practically minimum wage. Needless to say, doing woodworking was farthest from my mind when we arrived here. We lived in a furnished apartment for over a year and then we were able to purchase and moved into our first home in the summer of 1981. Not having owned any furniture - everything was rented - we moved into our new home with nothing but suitcases and a washer/dryer set. We've been in the house three months and our neighbors thought we haven't moved yet because they didn't see any moving van come to deliver our furniture.

Our small income, the reality of a mortgage, car payment and raising a family (we have two sons) didn't leave much for anything else, even money to furnish the house. From a store that sold only unfinished furniture we bought a butcher block kitchen table made of beech and some chairs so we had a place to take our meals. The table was well constructed but I had to sand it and put finish on it. We still have it today. We bought mattresses (but no box springs so we can save about 30%) and set them directly on the carpet so that we had something to sleep on.

We carried on for sometime with the bare essentials and as we continued to window shop for furniture we were met with the discouraging prospect of paying and owing a lot for these other pieces of the American dream. We just couldn't afford the additional burden.

One day, my wife and I went to a home show where I was mesmerized by a 5-in-one woodworking tool being demonstrated with a tantalizing offer of a one year payment plan. I told my wife, "we need to get this and I'll start making furniture for the house". My wife trusted me although she hasn't even seen me make furniture before . So, we signed the papers and a couple of weeks later I had the tool. I still have it today.

First order of business was to construct the beds. We only had mattresses so I had to design a platform bed that required no box springs. Our present beds in all three bedrooms (our second home now) are a third generation from the originals. Each was made a little differently but the platforms are all based on the torsion box. Click pictures to enlarge.

So that's how I got into woodworking. Not initially for the joy or pleasure of getting into a hobby but out of pure necessity. But over the years I have come to enjoy it and I'm glad I did, especially when the retirement train blew its whistle. The amount of time that comes with retirement is easily filled with projects that now I am able to write about with simple unadulterated pleasure.

To view all pictures of all the beds, please click here.