TALIESIN WEST-FRANK L. WRIGHT

Today I went to Taliesin West which is Frank Lloyd Wright's home and compound. This was a compound that was set up in the 1930's for Wright to work on some projects in the south western part of our country. It eventually became Wright's winter home until he died and his studio/school. The compound is still a working school and architectural design studio. It is located in a desert preserve. The buildings, the setting, and the people are creatively inspiring. I hope my picture speak for themselves.

Arizona

I am working in Arizona this week at the home of a client. I am including a picture of street we are working on. All the building are stucco with tile roofs. There isn't much grass to speak of but since it is the desert I am seeing lots of cactus & palm trees as well as alot of other unfamiliar vegetation. The days are about 60-70 degrees with bright sunshine and no humidity and the night are so cool you need a sweater or coat. Just my kind of weather. The area we are in is called the valley. The population is growing at a rate of 300 to 500 people per day. This is a very different economy than Michigan which hasn't been able to get out of it's economic slump for over 5 years now.

Doors

Doors are an important part of the face of any house. The two pictures I am including in my blog today are of two door projects I have been involved in. The one picture is of a new wooden oak storm/screen door I built for a house. The second picture is of an old door that I restored and than installed on a house in Heritage Hill Historic district.

This week I am working in Scottsdale, Arizona for a client. This is a very different environment than northern Michigan. I hope to have a few blogs on the project I am working on as well as some pictures. My treat this week will be to fit in a visit to Frank L. Wright's Taliesin West. I will definitely blog about that.

Antique Hardware

Antique hardware is a specialty I have gotten into because of my many years of work on old houses. Often, a knob is missing, a lock set is broken or perhaps someone just wants old cabinet latches on new kitchen cabinets to match the existing hardware they have in their house. So over the years I have collect many unusual and beautiful pieces of hardware. I find old lock sets easy to work on and repair. In the time we live in so much is designed to be thrown away yet, most old hardware can be cleaned and repair to live another life. So even now when I see old door sitting by the trash I can't resist taking the time to see if there is some vintage hardware on them that can be salvaged. The beauty of the old cast and stamped hardware is easy to fall in love with.

I am always buying and selling hardware. So if you have an old can of hardware in your basement give me a call I would love to talk to you.

Kitchens

The kitchen often represents one of the most challenging room in a house to renovate. Often the work has to be done with the owner's living in the house and this can pose problems for both the owner and the builder. The design and layout of the kitchen become very important because the kitchen needs to reflect what the owner's needs are as well as relate well to the rest of the house.

The kitchen you see in this picture was no exception. This 1880 Heritage Hill house had a lot of character that the owner wanted to see reflected in the kitchen. As you can see from the picture I believe that we meet all of the owner expectations with the new cabinets , trim, and columns that we designed to match the existing architectural elements in the house.

This was a fun kitchen to work on and still remains one of my favorite kitchens that I have worked on in the last few years.

Millwork

One of the reasons I have enjoyed my business is that it has given me an excuse to have a professional shop with lots of fun and fascinating tools.

Early on in my business I discovered that much of the work with the houses I worked on involved custom wood trim. So I purchased a small machine that allows me to duplicate vintage trim such as crown, baseboard and casing. Over the years I have collects many knives for this machine and now find that I have a large inventory of blade options for this machine. So I am able to rum trim for jobs I am doing as well as for clients or other contractors.

Included are a few pictures of some crown I ran yesterday for a contractor as well as a picture of my inventory of blades.

New Blog- Welcome

Welcome to my new blog. I have been in business 12 to 15 years and am just now discovering this great new thing called blogging.

I hope you use this blog to promote my business and to keep people up to date on what is happening with my business. I will be posting jobs as well as interesting personal projects I am working on. So I encourage you to check me out often.

My business was born out of my love for old houses. The first two houses I owned and lived in here in Grand Rapids Heritage Hill Historic District are really what drove me to begin doing this as a business. So it seems only fitting that I included pictures of those house. The larger house with a very fine carriage house is the house I use on my logo. In fact the carriage house was a structure I designed and built to match the existing house.