Believe it or not, I was actually hoping that after we finished our Vilas bungalow remodel, I would get a few weeks to breathe a little and catch up on some creative projects yet unfinished in our shop. And, by breathe a little, I mean that I wanted to get some extra fishing in with my son and daughter, enjoy a little more family time, and in general get a head start on enjoying the upcoming summer. Well, thanks to our growing family of customers, we’ve had no time for that extra fishing, no free time to enjoy our summers, and, really, no time to breathe. We are lucky enough to be able to say all of this, and mean it. Thanks again to all of you who have worked with us to make our days full!

We’re also lucky to be able to talk about the fact that even though many of us are cutting back, many are still working out ways to improve their homes. Through 2011, we’ve seen quite an uptick in the number of smaller projects that folks are choosing to do. Spring 2011 brought a dinette bench seat, matching dining table, and island for one home, all in Hickory. It made for a wonderful update to a country home in west-central Wisconsin. Early summer brought some clients from the Hilldale area of Madison, seeking some extra cabinetry to be built under a curving bar area that was unused. Curving radiused doors in American Cherry now gracefully adorn their condo home, and add some very useful storage. The hottest days of summer took us to Lake Mills and another country home which needed a kitchen update. Not a full kitchen remodel, though. The set of cabinetry that this client had wasn’t worth throwing out, but rather it was worth adding onto. Can we build new, updated cabinetry to match the existing, make them to hold new appliances, and somehow make it look thoroughly contemporary? Well, I sweated through the finish matching, but it all worked. Thanks to Jodie at InnerView for bringing us in to work on that one.

Well, what’s next on our list? Fall 2011 doesn’t show any signs of slowing down for us. Another second floor’s worth of refinished Southern-Yellow Pine doors and trim is getting it’s final coat tomorrow. A reworked media cabinet will soon hold another wide screen TV in Columbus. How about a wine table, complete with sinewy Cherry legs, curving to match the shape of a wine glass? That one will get it’s start soon. And another first and probably last for the shop, a memorial box for a pet, done up in high Arts & Crafts style.

I tell my friends all of the time about how lucky I am to be working at something I love, and there are so many good people out there who have made that possible. Thank you!

Andy

I would like to thank everyone who has continued to support Black & Sons Furniture Makers through a challenging start to 2011!  We had a great experience at the NARI Home Show in February, with many earnest and interested visitors to Booth 616, and we continue to receive inquiries as a result of our presence there.  We owe a great deal to our fellow NARI members, as well, as they continue to offer us opportunities to work together to improve Madison-area homes.

We are thankful to be busy with several rewarding projects.  Our current big one is a second-floor remodel of a charming Madison, Wisconsin, Vilas-neighborhood bungalow.  At the time of our first meeting, our customers were expecting their first child, and wanted to rid themselves of the lead paint that “adorned” their woodwork.  From there, the project grew into a full-blown lead-abatement and update of the second-floor interior.  Everything came out, woodwork and windows were saved, and we undertook the task of updating the electrical services on that floor, adding new blown-cellulose insulation to the walls and attic, and recovering the walls with new drywall.  We are currently overseeing the new paint, while we dedicate our shop to the repair, sanding, and refinishing of the Southern-Yellow Pine doors, windows, and woodwork.  All of the woodwork will get a satiny clear coat, so many repairs and patches are needed.  The windows will even get their glass and ballast cords replaced.  Floors get refinished at the start of May, soon after which we should be ready to give the project a wrap.

The project has gone quite smoothly, and that is partly due to the hard work and professionalism of several of our NARI “brother” remodeling specialists.  Smoothly, that is, with one big exception.  Our goal was to be completed and have the spaces ready for move-in before the arrival of what has turned out to be a very impatient child.  With little warning, the new “bundle of joy” arrived about a week ago, almost five weeks early!  What a wonderful excuse for us to be done a little late!

Projects like these remind us of why we got into this line of work in the first place, and why we continue.  These are family spaces that we improve and make beautiful.  This new little person will grow up romping around in this house, with its beautiful wood floors, freshly finished second floor, and with no lead paint for his mother to worry about!  I can’t wait to see how the baby’s room turns out!

Many thanks to these customers of ours for their faith and trust in us!  We wish them many years of health and happiness as a family!

Andy

Black & Sons would like to invite our customers and friends to the Madison NARI Home Expo at the Marriott West from February 4-6. Whether your home improvement project is large or small, you will find all of the answers and products you need. Most importantly, you will find the right contractor to help you get your project done right.
Black & Sons Furniture Makers is proud of it’s catalog of work over the past ten years, and we are always ready to talk with customers. We will be at Booth 616 in the first row in the main expo room, ready to meet with you. From a single custom furniture piece to an entire home addition project, we are equipped and experienced to help you.

It’s sometimes during the everyday moments that I find myself inspired, or maybe I should say re-inspired, to keep on doing what I do.  I was just taking my lunch, and I opened the latest issue of Yankee magazine, one of my new favorites.  I usually just have time to skim for great photos, and all of the photos are beautiful, but one caught my eye, and drew me in to read.  It was a focus article on Jon Wilson, the founder of the WoodenBoat empire.  Mr. Wilson was standing in front of a shed, with the door swung open and a small bit of his sailboat visible behind him.  With fresh memories of my family’s visit to Maine this past summer and our stroll down to the waterfront of the WoodenBoat school, I had to read what this man had to say.

Turns out, the focus wasn’t about wood, or brass, or oarlocks, but rather about Mr. Wilson’s newest venture in life.  Instead of fixing broken boats, he now mends people, people who have committed terrible crimes and their victims.  The subjects of his work may have changed, but in his lifelong quest to better himself and better his world, Mr. Wilson has always been governed by one simple mantra: “Something broken can always be mended.”

Perfect.  Perfect, especially, for what we do here at Black & Sons.  There isn’t a piece of furniture that we can’t mend.  There isn’t a home that we can’t re-build, or remodel, if it’s “broken.”  Jon Wilson was first speaking about wooden boats, of course, and his passion for helping people runs a bit deeper than woodworking maybe, but the sentiment resonates for anything, especially in this day and age.  There is nothing more supportive of a local community, or its economy, than fixing your neighbor’s home.  There is nothing more economical than re-building something that can be re-built.  There is nothing more “green,” if you will.

Thanks, Mr. Wilson.  Maybe on this winter day, I just needed a little spark.

First, on behalf of everyone in the Black Family, and everyone involved in our shop, may I wish you a heartfelt happy holiday season.  May the blessings of this great time of year be many for you and yours!  And, we want to take the time to say thanks to all of the great people who have supported our small family company, not only during 2010, but for the past 10 years and beyond!  We don’t get to do what we love without patient, flexible, and enthusiastic customers like you.  Thank you!

As we look forward to 2011, and hopefully move past some very challenging economic days, we also want to offer our own words of encouragement to our fellow contractors.  Keep your standards high, continue to produce homes and products of high and lasting value, and together, we will endure and be stronger for it.

And, to our customers and potential customers, I would also like to offer some words of encouragement, especially if you are thinking about a possible home improvement project in 2011.  Lately, we’ve encountered more and more of the attitude that may have contributed to the current “treadmill” of recessive thinking that seems to be plaguing us.  With everyone in doubt, it seems that the only purchases people want to make are the cheapest possible choices.  As my wife has so succinctly put it, “Nobody wins the race to the bottom.”  The shops that win the low project bids can’t possibly support a profitable business doing this.  And how can the customer win in the long run, purchasing a cheap product that may be full of short-cuts?  This type of economic model cannot be sustainable, for you or for your neighbor.

As we look forward, I would strongly encourage our customers, as I always have, to seek out local artisans to support with their home improvement dollars.  We need to support each other if we want to succeed, even if “succeeding” means that each of us are just comfortable and not more wealthy than our neighbor.  Please look for “Made in the USA” labels, look for locally-produced Christmas gifts, and look for local contractors and cabinet shops when you are thinking about your next home improvement project.

Together, let’s have a prosperous 2011.

Black & Sons is pleased to announce some recent awards for our involvement in two unique Madison, Wisconsin remodeling projects.  Both awards were given to us by the local chapter of NARI, of which we are a member, and they were awarded as Team Entries in Contractor Excellence.

The first is for our contribution of two period-style medicine cabinets for a two-bathroom remodel in a Claude & Starck home on Madison’s near-east side, owned by a notable Madison family.  We have been very fortunate to have had a long-time working relationship with the design/build company that handled this remodel, Architectural Building Arts. They are a remodeling firm from Madison that specializes in historic renovations and otherwise challenging projects.  We thank ABA once again for the opportunity to be challenged!

The second award was earned through our collaboration with Robert Nelson and Heartwood Construction of Middleton, Wisconsin.  Robert asked us to build some period-style Arts & Crafts cabinetry for a historic renovation of a wonderful home in the Vilas neighborhood of Madison.  The designer asked for some rather involved and unique cabinetry solutions, and we were happy to rise to that challenge here as well!  Some of that kitchen can be viewed in the photo at the upper right corner of this page.

We are grateful for the recognition by NARI, and for the opportunity to work with both of these great remodeling companies.  We are also very happy to concentrate on what we love to do, build beautiful things out of wood in our comfortable shop.  Great relationships with reputable contractors, and NARI, allow us to do just that.  Thank you ABA and Heartwood!

We should also note here that both of these projects have been entered in the National NARI Contractor of the Year design contest for 2010.  Contractor entries from the Madison, Wisconsin NARI Chapter consistently do well at the national level, and there have been numerous Regional and National award winners from our area.  Black & Sons can count among our own awards a Midwest Regional Contractor of the Year win for 2008, in Kitchen Remodeling.  We are proud to support our fellow contractors at this level, and we will learn of our results in January of 2011.  Stay tuned!

Well, we were able to chalk up another first for the shop recently.  A dogsled repair!  A Madison-area musher brought in his wooden dogsled for a new handlebar and a strut.  I was amazed at how lightly constructed his sled is, and how flexible the original builder had made it.  Every piece is designed and fastened to the next as to be connected, yet independent.  And, after hearing how much abuse the sled goes through, those pieces need to be able to move around.  Lots of mortise-and-tenon joints, and lots of nylon lashings holding the pieces together.  Well, that and some hockey tape over some of the injuries!

Anyway, I love one-of-a-kind stuff, where you need to create a new jig, and test the limits of a certain type of wood.  Ash is the perfect choice, of course, for a dogsled.  Easy to bend, either with steam or over a mold with thin laminations.  After a few attempts with the vacuum bag, though, we eventually settled for the old-fashioned method of clamping the layers around a form, which made for a very tight glue-up.  I also figured that, instead of steam-bending a single piece of Ash, the bent-lamination with layers of Franklin Tite-bond III would make for a much stronger and longer-lasting handlebar.  The sled owner’s first race is on December 4 in Fond du Lac, so we’ll be tested real soon.  Look for pics of the sled in action on our Recent Projects page; the owner has promised to bring his dogs out to the Black Family Farm to work them out on the fields.  Bring on the snow!

Well, a visit to the coast of Maine by any self-respecting woodworker and his family (that’s me) would not be considered complete without a visit to the hallowed grounds of Wooden Boat.  We rolled into Brooklin on a foggy Maine morning, and eventually succeeded in finding this out-of-the-way shrine to the craft of wooden boat building.

I was not disappointed.  Beautifully crafted buildings on well-tended grounds invite you to stroll down to the shore, the boathouse, and the pier.  Dozens of sailboats, dinghys, and kayaks bobbed out in the harbor, ready for a trial run by a new customer.

The new Wooden Boat store had a complete selection of their plans, kits, and boat models.  My son may just get me to buy a set of plans for that fishing boat he so desperately wants.

But the real reason for the visit was to step into the shop.  I wanted to see some boat builders in action.  Here was my only small disappointment of the day.  No boats in the shop that week.  But, there was a full class of students for a week-long course in building a “Salute Cannon.”  About twenty-five people enrolled for the course, and they had turned their brass blanks into some really fine cannons, complete with a rolling Walnut base.  Not being especially well-educated in naval traditions, it took us a day or two to understand how these cannon were used.  Sailboats entering or leaving their harbor would sometimes salute other sailing vessels as we watched from our deck on shore.  It was amazing how such a large boom came from such small weapons.

Anyway, I just may get to return to Maine next year, to take a course in building that small boat we all dream about.  My wife wouldn’t need much of an excuse to come along!

My family and I just returned from a really wonderful vacation to the coast of Maine.  It was nothing but scenic small towns and shops, trees, and the ocean.  The kids spent all of their free time digging around on the beach.  A great getaway!

My wife and I enjoyed the wide range of cool artist shops, too.  Around every bend in the road there seemed to be another independent artisan of some type.  Potters, weavers, photographers, paper-makers; they are all out there.  Being a cabinetmaker, I had to stop at a few woodworkers’ showrooms when I could.  One such shop really stuck out, and my visit with its owner may prove to be quite fruitful for me.  Geoffrey Warner is a gifted furniture maker and designer, who spent some of his early woodworking years under the tutelage of the Dutch master Tage Frid.  He welcomed us to his quaint and airy cedar shingle-clad shop and showroom near Stonington, Maine.  His designs are organic and beautiful, and quite comfortable and functional.  Every piece was exquisitely crafted.

After a short look around, I told him that I was also in his line of work, and that I get inspired by visits to artists.  Our discussion soon turned to business.  Mr. Warner has had quite a bit of success of late running workshops for amateur woodworkers.  In particular, his weekend shops for building his “Owl Stool” have been quite successful.  Wanting to make and market pieces that more of his neighbors could either buy or build themselves, he has created a very simple, very sturdy, and very comfortable stool design.  And, with this one piece, he has managed to create an inviting class for now over 50 workshop attendees in the past year.

With my appearance at his door, and our talk that day, the idea of a sister workshop for his design and class was brought up.  We discussed the idea of a kind of franchise for the “Owl Stool Workshop.”  If Geoffrey Warner can attract weekend warriors to his shop in Maine, then why can’t Black & Sons attract some venturing souls to ours?  It’s an idea we will be exploring together in the coming weeks.  Stay tuned!

Thanks again to anyone and everyone who visits our website and this blog!  As always, feel free to leave me questions about woodworking, cabinetmaking, remodeling, and all things wood!

I wanted to write a little bit about our recent Walnut harvest at the Black family farm.  We had a Walnut in the yard that had a split trunk, and the time had come to bring it down, for safety reasons.  It’s always a tough call to make, for me.  I believe that trees should have as long a life as possible, so we don’t cut lightly on the farm.

Fortunately, this tree had grown two very solid trunks after the split, and we thought they would yield some fairly clean lumber.  We weren’t disappointed.  Steve Beecraft, a new acquaintance of ours and a veteran in the milling business, brought his WoodMizer over earlier this summer, and started peeling away the layers.  As a lover of wood, a milling day is like Christmas!  Every slab is a new present, something to be marveled.  And, they just kept coming.  After all the dust settled, we had over 1500 board feet to stack.

And, that’s where we are.  Three beautiful stacks of American Walnut, air-drying in the shed.  Some of the boards are over 24″ wide.  All of it was cut at 5/4″ in the rough.  Hopefully, by this time next year, we should be ready for the kiln.  And, then, let the furniture ideas come!

We can add these stacks to the 1500 board feet of Cherry already in the shop stacks.  We were fortunate to be involved with a horse-team cutting on the farm of a friend in Rio, Wisconsin about 1-1/2 years ago.  Mr. Beecraft was doing the milling on that weekend, as well, and we came home with some pretty interesting slabs.  Nakashima style tables, anyone?

Talk soon!  Andy