Thank you for the compliments, I would like to say that I was not trying to fish for them, and was really saying "perhaps I don't do the same quality work as Paul", because quite honestly, from one craftsman to another, your stuff is awesome Paul! BTW, FHB, FWW, and Shop Notes are 3 of my favorite magazines, and have been for years. I do wonder sometimes, if there would be different sentiment toward me if people didn't know how old/young I am. In fact I have wondered that ever since I was building hot rods at 17, and starting a family at 19. That may just be something I need to get over though, but people seem to treat you differently when you are young an ambitious. The things that I share on here are just that, things to share, that perhaps someone can learn or gain inspiration from them.
I am not trying to simply argue with you Don, but as one of the more poor members of society (officially considered "ultra-low income" by city of Knoxville), I do know what it is like to only have $100 to buy a TV cabinet with. I also know, that in this world of consumerism, there is always second hand stuff to be had for cheap or free, that may be fine as is, or with sprucing up could be much better than the $100 Big Box store particle board. One other thing I know, is that if there is an "extra" $100 to spend on that POS this month, the same people can generally spend an additional $100 the next 2 or three months after that saving up for something of higher quality. But that isn't what we are about in America anymore. Now we spend as little as possible, for something fake, that will "get us by" until we "can afford better". The problem is that once we can "afford better", we have generally decided that the quality of the first item is sufficient, and so we just afford bigger but the same quality. That is the biggest reason I was drawn to this site three years ago. People here are generally more concerned with the quality of their lives, homes, and workmanship, than they are with the quantity.
Maybe I feel like I am 70 years old sometimes, because I was raised in a family that was poor enough that we had to build the things we wanted. My mother was the only one to make enough to have "extra" money, but she saved and lent that so that other people could realize some of the things that they couldn't afford. The "revolution" of which I speak does not simply mean that the craftsman should value their craftsmanship, but that the people hiring them must be content with less. Less, but better. Give me any example of things that you "need" to buy on a limited budget that dictates low quality, made-in-another-country-by-children, off-gassing, low wage inspiring, crack head hiring, destitute exploiting "stuff" (all it really is, stuff), and I will give you just as many examples of how you can get by without it, or make do with what you have, or even get rid of the thing needing a cabinet and being just as happy.
Maybe I am just too different. My family (wife and four kids), live in an 800 square foot house, in the ghetto. We moved into the ghetto to try to help people realize that they are free. That they don't have to have everything society says they have to have. That they can be humble and live well at the same time. That happiness depends not upon who you are, or what you have, but solely upon what you think. That you can grow your own food without being a farmer or a hippie, and you can have a TV with no cable and be ok. That you don't have to buy enough Christmas presents to require a second mortgage. We make, or find the things that we need most of the time, sometimes we buy, but if we can't afford things of high quality we do without. We eat mostly organic and local (when in season) food, cooked from scratch in our house, because we feel it is better not to accept the "extras" society, the FDA, and monsanto say we need. Extras such as pesticides, preservatives, dyes, artificial sweeteners, and the like. We prefer to experience life the way God intends for us to experience it, with all the struggles and triumphs, because without one you can't appreciate the other. Not to mask it with a temporary feeling of gratification that comes with buying just to have, because we have been down that road too.
I have much more that is on my mind, but I just looked at how long this is already. Glen, if you would like to move this to a new thread, maybe in the political rant section, feel free to do so. Again, it is too much thread drift, but kinda what this thread is all about. When I said earlier that I love seeing everybody's work here, it is for all of these reasons. It is because whether it is rustic or refined, folks have found the joy in owning something that you can't find in a store, or anybody else's house. It is because it is the way things used to be, before we as people decided that government and ad exects knew better what we needed or wanted than we do ourselves! It is because in this thread, and in this forum, we can all connect on a level of DIY, without Ty. We don't need Bob Villa telling us how to swing a hammer, when Norm can actually SHOW us how.
Darnit! Sorry, I did it again!
