It's coming together

This post should help fill in some of the gaps of our progress in the four months since we moved in. We immediately began making changes. Some expected and some unexpected.



This was annoying -- the cabinet uppers had been drilled into the drain from the upstairs bathroom...

...but once past that issue Brian was able to install cantilevered kitchen shelving.

We paused one weekend to update our tired mailbox.


And here more in-progress photos:





The place is far from finished, but here's more or less how it looks now:


All in all, we can't complain. Although the weather's been oddly warm, the snow tires are on and we're geared up for winter. The chickens are doing well. We have four new goats. We've had some visitors. We still get in to Burlington from time to time. And Erin's wrapped up her degree, so hopefully there will be even more time for hiking and other outdoor pursuits soon!

Woodworking

One of the joys of the move to Vermont has been the stability and time to get into a hobby I've been longing for for ages. It started in early 2015 with a course at a local craft school and turned a few rough-sawn planks of maple into a nice little coffee table for the living room.

Everything was paused during the chaotic summer. November saw things slow enough to a point where I could rent workshop space and actually have time to make it worthwhile. I haven't taken on any large projects yet (nor have I had much dedicated time in the shop) but I've been practicing hand-chiseled joinery on a series of small items that we could use anyway.

Here's a soap making box with half-blind dovetails:
 

And here's my new maple toolbox, with dovetails and a mortise-and-tenon handle (with a walnut strip down the middle):

Krenov-style plane

It was both a joy and an honor to work with Dale, an incredibly talented local craftsman who Erin and I met while on vacation in Vermont in 2013. I've swung by his shop a few times since then; we share an appreciation for the philosophy of James Krenov, which led to building my own Krenov-style plane from scratch under Dale's wing.

Here's the final product, following 2-3 days of work spread over a few weekends.



The starting materials: a chunk of hornbeam and a Hock plane iron. I'll let photos describe the rest.