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A little help from my friends
comments (0) November 20th, 2007 in Blogs
Kevin Ireton, editor-at-large
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Being an editor at Fine Homebuilding has its pluses and minuses. Among the pluses is the fact is that you get to meet the best craftsmen in the country and visit the houses they build. The downside is that doing so can make your own home pale by comparison, not to mention complicate any project you tackle by filling your with head ideas that require the best craftsmen in the country to execute properly. But if you work here long enough, and if you’re lucky, as I have most certainly been, you can occasionally rope some of those craftsmen into working on your house. Because we celebrate Thanksgiving this week, I’d like to take this occasion to thank to some of the people who have helped me out over the years.
When I met Scott Ernst he was living in his van. Actually, it was a panel truck that he had bought from the U. S. Postal Service. An itinerant craftsman, he kept his tools in the back half and slept in the front. Although he has since moved on to woodworking and a real home just outside of Santa Fe, his specialty at the time was brick patios with mosaic designs in them. He wrote an article for Fine Homebuilding that I edited, and we became friends (as so often happens around here). One weekend Scott came up to visit my wife and me in Connecticut, and he asked if there were any projects he could help with. We immediately decided we needed a patio. He arrived Friday night, and we got most of the work done by Sunday night. But when Cynthia and I left for work Monday morning, Scott hung around to finish up…and to sign his work.
Before joining Fine Homebuilding’s staff in 1994, Roe Osborn had worked as a carpenter, a boat builder and a timber framer. So when I decided to frame part of an addition with timbers, Roe offered to help─he’s that kind of guy. The day after Thanksgiving 1996, Roe spent the day in my basement showing me how to lay out and cut the exotic joints. He also taught me the value of chamfers. But more than anything, he got me over my fear of cutting into reclaimed 8x12 southern yellow pine timbers that couldn’t be replaced at The Home Depot if I screwed up.
When contributing editor Scott McBride got a job building French doors for a house in Virginia, he thought it might make a good article for the magazine. We asked him to make one extra door and send the pieces up to our offices to help with photography and illustrations. After we published the article, we wondered what to do with the leftover parts…but not for long. I took them home, glued them together and used the door for our walk-out basement, which is Cynthia’s pottery and jewelry studio.
Before I visited woodworker Phil Sollman and his artist wife Jeanne Stevens Sollman at their home in central Pennsylvania for the first time, I knew I was in for something special, so I invited Cynthia (then my girlfriend) to come along. We’ve all been good friends ever since and have enjoyed many subsequent visits (in fact got Cynthia and I got married in Phil and Jeanne’s back yard). Phil laid a bluestone floor in the main living area of his house, and Cynthia and I always admired it. We decided to do the same thing in our new living room, so Phil was gracious enough to come out and help get us started. The corner that he did looks better than any of the others.
Speaking of getting married, when Cynthia and I returned from our elopement in Pennsylvania and announced it to our friends, Chuck Miller and Scott Gibson decided to team up on a wedding gift. They built the cherry liquor cabinet in out living room. Scott did the cabinetmaking, and Chuck the carving, including a pair of entwined eels that serve as a ledger board. I’ve never been certain if the fish carved in the doors are a result of Chuck’s love for the ocean or a suggestion that I drink like a fish. Scott, who is a consummate furniture maker, also built the panel-back Stickley couch (sometimes called a settle) that graces our living room.
If I had simply met each of these wonderful craftsmen, I would have considered myself a lucky man. The fact that I can sit at home of an evening, gaze upon their great work and be reminded of our friendship is an embarrassment of good fortune. It’s also a reminder that for me building is so much more than a job. For me, it’s personal.
posted in: Blogs, remodeling
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About this blog
As the editor of Fine Homebuilding, I spend my weekdays trying to produce a magazine that will satisfy 300,000 of the most demanding builders, both professional and amateur. As the owner of a 200-year old Cape in Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills, I spend weekends working on my house.
Each activity invariably informs, and complicates, the other. In this blog, I’ll offer observations from both worlds -- publishing and building -- with the hope of providing some useful or at least entertaining insights.
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