More pictures of the finished House back home. It may not look like much to you, but it's completely custom, and was a 15 year project. 

Disclaimer-Don't ask why it took 15 years. All criticisms will be met with verbal abuse and I will fart in your general direction.

My camera stinks, but the stairs are the Jewel of the house. Truly spectacular. 
Each baluster is planed on two sides and the ends custom cut. This means walking back and forth from the stairs to the shop many times for each piece. Why pay too much to have someone install something textbook when you can spend endless hours contemplating, and manufacturing at relatively no cost, and having something utterly unique?
(Small pictures can be enlarged if you click on them.)

The custom Ash railing over the entry way. It has it's flaws. It's supposed to be symbolic of the nature of humans. A fine work of art with inherent imperfections that are inevitable. Deep stuff man.

Have you ever found a chunk of wood that has grown around a chain and said to yourself, "Hey. That's pretty cool. I think I'll sand that wood up, oil it and the chain, mount it to a plaque of Mahogany, hang a lamp from the chain, and power the lamp with the natural energy of the wood." I guess it's just me then. I had to learn a lot about electricity before I could be sure that Spalted Maple would make a suitable power source.

When Dad realized I had too much time he started giving me pain in the ass projects. Surely putting a metal post deeper in the ground would not have prevented it from being pushed out. This was a much better idea.

These pictures are boring, but we made every single door and drawer by hand. Dad even made some rounded drawer fronts. Incredibly pain in the ass, but necessary to fit the enclosure. The drawers are fitted together with dovetails. The tool we used, called a jig, is similar to the one pictured. The dovetail pictured is not one of mine. Few of mine look that good. I spent a lot of time cursing. Have you ever screamed obscenities so loud that spittle flew through the air? 
All the drawer faces, and door frames are Ash. If you look close you can see Ash holes. Actually we're not in the pictures. HA! Actually there were many holes we filled. Damned Emerald Ash Borer.

This cupboard type thing is also made of ash. If you look closely at the picture of it's top you can truly see the exemplary quality I exhibited. I believe it is made out of seven pieces of wood glued together. It exists merely to have a lip hang off the top. Bite me, youd've never noticed if I hadn't told you.

Here is the Teak counter top we made. The wood is so naturally oily that is requires a special epoxy and great care in gluing. Otherwise the glue may fail in time. This project alone took a couple weeks. Precise measurements, plaining various teak boards to the same thickness, and cutting them into specific pieces. Then sanding them obsessively and oiling them. Once oiled we saw imperfections. It's was almost impossible to see them before I finished it, so I sanded off the finish, heavily sanded the flawed areas, and re-oiled it. Once the oil set in some of the imperfections were still there. I sanded  those spots again, and re-oiled it again. Due to waiting for finish to penetrate, this was a several day process. After that coat it was perfect. While showing it off to a friend I noticed one last flaw. Back to the sander and oil.  Finally, it was PERFECT and we installed it. Later that week I dropped a pan on it and dented it. The moral, there is no perfection. Quit obsessing. 
 The entire counter around the sink is one piece and was very difficult to bring in and place.

Here is a clean view of the frames made for the windows & doors, and the baseboards. They are all made by us out of White Oak. We even made the curtain rods ourselves with real crystal finials.
 I installed some vinyl baseboards from Lowes in one room. It took a few hours to cut, install, and fill nail holes. The Oak baseboards you see were done everywhere else. Those took a month of cutting, routing, sanding oiling, more cutting and installing. The little toe board at the bottom was unbelievably difficult to include. Dad gets whatever he wants. I cursed more that month than I had in my entire life cumulatively. Apparently the corners of rooms are not 90 degree angles. 

Here are a few more custom items. Dad made the lamp hanger and it is self explanatory. The blue and green Mosaic time had to be glued one piece at a time. Every single one was glued to a mesh screen before being installed. He has some better pictures of the bookcase, but all that's custom too. Naturally. The other tile project was the master bathroom shower. He didn't make that mosaic, but he did install it all, and developed pattern. The cupboards we're make from our old cupboard. It was gigantic and ugly, so we tore it apart and used the doors and any piece that was actually wood. We have a saying around the house. 
"If you want something great, buy something good and re-manufacture it."

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