Four More Years! Update Part 1: A New Hope (Fall 2020-Spring 2021)

Well it’s been 4 years since my last post.  The good news is it hasn't been due to a lack of interest in the trades.  Quite the opposite. Times have been busy and so have I. I will try and summarize the past few years of my quest for knowledge in wood in smaller, more bite size posts.  Here we go!

For some time during my last post working at Aiki, I was looking forward to my year review. I had came on to the team at a fairly lower pay than most with my skillset in the trades. At that time I was more concerned with the work culture matching my character. However, as time went and skills grew, I began to feel frustrated in my rate of pay staying stagnant. I stewed over it for months and eventually came to Luke asking for a raise. When he could only offer a dollar raise, I was disappointed and felt maybe my chances at better pay could be found with another company. I had applied to a local contractor in Lynden which was closer to where we lived at the time. He liked my resume, and offered a job after my interview at pay that was 4 dollars more an hour than what I was making at Aiki. I wanted to give Aiki a chance to match his offer before I made a decision. Unfortunately Luke's hands were tied and he couldn't match it or even come close. It was sad because I really liked working with Luke and David and didn't want to leave. But times were tough and I felt like I was being taken advantage of as cheap labor. I felt it was time to move on as a more experienced apprentice.

This was when things started to get real tough. Two days into my work with the new contractor, I could see we were completely incompatible. It was clear to me that he came from a history of abuse and I wanted no part of it. I left and bounced around trying to find employment during the fall of 2020. I worked as a landscaper briefly for two weeks. Applied to be in retail at hardware stores but struggled to a land position. Then a friend helped land me a gig as a maintenance technician for an apartment complex. That was a literal shit show. Primarily scooping dog poop and taking out trash, occasionally changing water heaters or repairing units. I hated it, and was fired in the middle of winter after having an argument with resident over trash. In short, I was not happy and was very sad I left Aiki in search for better pay.

Around February, a good friend, Forest, I had known from the MakerSpace in Bellingham, could see I was struggling and wanted to help. He works as a contractor from a family of contractors. He wanted to hire me but it is difficult to pay for employees as a small business in Washington. Instead of hiring me, he offered to counsel/mentor me into building my own business and paying me as a sub-contractor. At first I was skeptical it could work. I was still "green" as they say in the trades, learning as an apprentice and I knew little to nothing of what it takes to start and run a small business on my own. However, his offer to pay $35-$40 per hour, was very enticing. I agreed to work on getting my license, insurance and bond, and to work as his sub. He agreed to act as a guide to self-employment and to throw jobs my way as he could. The following are some pictures of us working together to build a new deck for one of Forest's clients, who happened to be very close to my parent's house, up Alabama Hill in Bellingham.

Forest was very pleases to see my hand tool skills to be up to par to help flush the edges of the decking from where the circular saw couldn't reach. I was happy to have an excuse to bust out my fancy Japanese plane and hand saw.

Within a week Forest and I had completed the deck to a happy client.

There was a lot to learn starting a business.  For one was the order to which you applied for things.  Getting a website domain, an email account, business license, LLC with Secretary of State, EIN from the IRS,  business insurance and a bond for being a general contractor, then finally getting a license from Labor and Industries.  I insured myself as a general though I had little experience with hiring subs or knowing anything about permits and codes.  My reason was I didn't want to pigeon hole myself in one thing, say fences/gates.  I wanted to be open to many jobs that may come my way.  Handymen in WA are limited to $2000 per job at a time.  Generals can go as high as they can get.  My job was to make sure I stay within my scope of experience and not bite off jobs bigger then I can chew.  

I named my business Custom Wood Connections, grabbed the domain name quickly, and slowly but surely became officially an LLC by March 3, 2021.  Over the next few weeks I worked on my logo and designing my website.  My Mom's Gate project was a big inspiration for the first designs but after having worked out with a friend at the MakerSpace, I landed on something more simple yet elegant.  I used the Japanese "enso" symbol.  It is an old Zen meaning of revelation of a world of Spirit without beginning and end.  To me, it has always been a beautiful representation of line in design that comes from an Eastern background.  The name of my business was not only to embody custom designed projects tailored to my clients wishes, as well as my passion for connecting wooden structures with compression fit joinery --but to also suggest I connect people with my passion for all things woodworking.  Below are some of the first sketches and the final logo I put on some cool business cards.  A company named Cards of Wood were able to print on nice thin laminate pieces of Western Red Cedar.  

Thanks must be made to Jason Davies, my first official client, who helped design the logo.  As repayment, I took on a small gate project for his backyard at a lowered price.  It was a fun project and he was very pleased with the results.  

Another benefit of starting my own business was the ability to spend more time on finishing my moms garden gate and fence project.  

It was funny how I gave my mom a detailed list of materials I would need to purchase to finish her fence, the cost for gas and food stops to get the lumber, but I forgot to account the time it would take to get to Tacoma and back to Bellingham.  The whole damn day.  It was exhausting but well worth the trip to acquire a large order of Alaskan Yellow Cedar from the Cedar Outlet.  I was very glad my girlfriend, Mara, was able to help navigate through the stressful drive through Tacoma and back.  

Before I sign off, I'd like to continue my tradition of giving thanks to those who had a big impression on me and my passion for woodworking.  This chapter I felt it was appropriate to thank Forest Stone, the man who gave me the courage to start my own business in carpentry.   Forest has been a great friend and strong pillar in helping me get experience as a general contractor.   Because of him I was confident in proposing to Mara.  I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, it was more a matter of could I see a future to provide for her as financially stable.  Forest showed me how, "This is the Way".   I am very blessed to say she said yes and soon we will be celebrating our 2nd year married.  I promise more pictures to come of my adventures with Forest and wedding pictures of Mara and I, but for now I will end with this.  

Summary of Late Summer to Fall 2020

 

How to begin summarize these past 7-8 months?  Lots to catch up on.  

The Merchants, clients of the house I was working on, expressed interest in the table and shelves I built for the Aiki office.  They asked if I would consider building them a dining table or small coffee table in future?  I introduced them to my wood source for slabs, Fred in Ferndale, and gave them a tour of various potential projects we could work on.  Nothing was set in stone, but ideas sprouted and contacts were shared.  Hopefully this will be a great project in winter when things slow down again.  Here are some photos of excellent walnut Fred showed me.  

Sometime in mid August, Mara and I took a drive to Seattle to get help from Dale on cutting, and folding sheets of copper to form the ridge cap on the gate.  Dale showed me how it all works on his ingenious 10ft break and shear.  Very compact, lightweight and efficient.  Not at all what I was expecting for typical metal folding equipment.   

It was an elegant and simple design for a beginner like me.  

When the copper pieces came home I was stoked at the fit on the cedar ridge cap form.  I knew the next challenge would be how to fasten it all at the top of the gate.  The previous platform for the A frame ladders would be too precarious for this part.  So I researched the best I could on scaffold rentals.  I wished I could use some like Dale hadfor the Chinese gate.  Unfortunately, those come from Japan and hard to come by in the States.  Regular scaffolds that are rented from Hardware Sales wouldn't work with the changing slopes and tight spaces around the gate.  My solution was to rent from a commercial scaffold rental company that had a particular modular structure that would work for the job.  It was expensive, heavy to move to and from the house, but safe enough to work on up high to fasten the delicate copper ridge cap.  

Almost didn't order enough of the right pieces and too much of the wrong ones.  Fortunately, I did manage to erect a structure that got us close enough to do the job.  

Here is a picture standing on top of the scaffolds looking down on the shingled roof.  

Making some final cuts and folds before fastening the ridge cap.  

I really liked the way Dale helped design the way we attached the ridge cap to minimize the amount of screws and copper nails showing.  This pictures shows how the folded tabs secure the bottom ridge cap.  

One last final shine scrubbing off any finger prints before disassembling the scaffold.  We were really proud of the way it came out.  

Back in August I learned more about how to set flooring in the Merchant House.  It was interesting to see how we had to start in the middle of a room for this particular job instead of on a wall in order for everything to come out right.  I liked flooring but my knees didn't after a few days of it.  

Cabinets also had to go into the kitchen, office, and bathrooms.  It was challenging getting the upper cabinets spaced evenly across the office but we made it work.  Laser levelers are a must!  Way easier and less messy than traditional level methods.  

In early-mid September, Mara and I finally got to go on a much needed mini weekend vacation to Port Townsend. I wanted to see the Port Townsend School of Woodworking.  Below are some pictures of tour we got of their amazing facility.  Really impressed.

Some shavings from Dale's class from the week before.  You could tell it was him from the cedar aroma.  

One way I convinced Mara to come to this town was the well renowned wood store, Eden Saw. Mara was on the look out for Koa wood to build a custom urn for Ilse, her dog that passed away in early August.  We were having a hard time finding it in Bellingham but were told Eden Saw would have it.  The only had one little piece for $100 that didn't look great.  But their slab selection was incredible.  

Feeling a little disappointed with the false raves about Eden Saw, Mara and I stubbled into a small wood gallery in downtown Port Townsend, called Forest Gems. They had a fantastic collection of small cut of pieces of highly figured maple, walnut, redwood, and Koa for reasonable prices.  Unfortunately, Mara and I had already spent through most of our budget by then and couldn't afford to buy the pieces we wanted.  We will return to this store for sure next time we stop by Port Townsend with a bigger budget.  Its really neat how I got Mara into collecting wood.  I might have made monster wood hoarder. 

Coming back from my trip, base trim had to be cut and nailed in place.  I was happy that Luke wanted us to cope the inside miters.  It was a great time for me to show off my skills I learned from the Wood Tech Center in Seattle. For those unfamiliar with coping, it is a technique used in trim to prevent the inside miter from opening up.  It allows you to get a tighter fit but takes more time to cut and assemble.  I was proud Aiki preferred coping rather than just cutting sloppy miters.  

This late summer was also a good chance for my mom's retaining wall.  "Winter is coming" was a popular saying in the back of our minds and we knew we had to be quick.  After a lot of discussion and research we went with granite boulders from North Star that we hand picked for delivery.  It was delivered in the dump truck as seen below.  

Mara and her dad Dan came out to help with the project.  I really had a blast teaching Mara how to use the Dingo and letting her go at it.  She did a great job and really enjoyed it. 

For now that's all I can manage to update but there is still much more to come.  Before I sign off I'd like to recognize another great mentor and very good friend of mine, John Burt.  John and I met through his son, Alex, who is also a very good friend.   When I worked with Alex at the YMCA back in 2007, we became close friends and I had shared my passion for woodworking.  Alex immediately recommended I get in touch with his dad who worked as a craftsman in San Jose, CA.  We instantly bonded and talked about all things woodworking for hours, days weeks and now years after.  Having read and admired George Nakashima's book, The Soul of a Tree, John opened the door to one of the deepest rabbit holes in my life, Japanese Carpentry.  John was the one who introduced me to Jay Van Arsdale and the Daiku Dojo.  He was the one who taught me the great journey of learning how to sharpen, one you will never finish.  John was the one who gave me my first hand plane and chisel.  I attribute most of my cherished memories of woodworking to this wizard of the trades.  He is an encyclopedia of knowledge of all things wood and metal.  I am very lucky to have met him and even luckier to say we are still good friends.