03/16/2026
Things mights look a little different so I wanted to tell you about it instead of it being a surprise.
I started making because my wife wanted a farmhouse table and I wasn’t ready to drop big cash on what I could do with a small investment.
This turned into a healthy collection of pallets that I incorporated into other big pieces (barn doors, buffets, built ins for our own home). And then kid #1 arrived.
I was searching for something I could do where I could pause it in a moments notice and get inside to help with the baby. Unfortunately running the table saw and doing glue ups was not looking like a long term plan anymore.
This was early COVID times so a lot of local woodworking classes were shut down and people weren’t getting out much. I was looking around online and found who happened to be a local guy. Keep in mind I am a social worker with an infant so both my time and money were held at a premium to me but I knew I wanted to start turning. I reached out via a cold call e-mail and offered to sweep his floors and clean his shop if he would teach me some wood turning basics. I’ve never asked what his response was but I’m guessing he laughed when he said “sure, come by next week.”
And that’s what I did, swept and cleaned and learned a little. Eavesdropping on other people asking questions and then back to sweeping. Eventually I picked up a lathe, slowly got rid of all the pallets and haven’t looked back since. I still see Nick pretty often, usually with kid #1 and kid #2 right beside me. I still ask questions, still need advice and still want that unfiltered opinion about my work.
My work has changed, my perspective has changed but the fun is still there. I have a lot of ideas and who knows if they’ll ever actually exist but I’ll document what I can along the way and we can see what happens together.
BuiltByGuy laid the foundation for me to grow into Turn & Grain. It is the first chapter in the story my girls will be told when I show them all this stuff I’ve made.
You can always see my projects here or check in on where I’ll have newer work coming out.
