On the Edge of Beautiful: A Spouse with Mad Skills

This is my husband. He makes things. I love him.

This guy is seriously talented with power tools. He's made bookshelves, toy shelves, bunk beds, a very cool nightstand for my birthday, Adirondack chairs. All conjured from the well endowed recesses of his mind. Take, for instance, this crane. He made it as a Christmas gift for Jack - out of scrap material he had in his shop. No plans, just made it up as he went. The boom (the thing that looks like a giraffe's neck) swivels around on some fancy wheel thing. And Matt figured out a pulley system that goes up and down when the handles are turned. He also put wheels on the bottom so Jack can ride it from work site to work site. We spray painted it a nice bright construction yellow and I did the black trim and his name. Matt then attached our old Alaska license plate, as Jack was born there. Pretty awesome, no?

Jack drew up plans for a big crane months ago and asked Matt to build him one he could sit on. Of course, Jack's plans included armrests and a cupholder but life is tough sometimes, kid.

And then there's this tv stand:

Matt picked it up at a garage sale for about $35. We think it's the bottom part of a hutch. Since my blogging is still fairly mediocre, I didn't take a before picture. Just imagine it with 1950's ugly oak stain with brass colored hardware. See? Just like a picture. The dresser looks exactly the same on the outside, just different colors. Down the middle were 4 drawers, one on top and the other three on the bottom. I told Matt I wished those three drawers were gone and there was a door that opened and a shelf on the inside for the stereo and dvd player.

See what he did there? Took the fronts off all the drawers and using a combination of skill, ingenuity and probably magic, he made them into a door. Added a couple of very manly hinges. Then he removed all the drawer things on the inside and installed a shelf. So it still looks like three drawers unless you try to open one and "What!?!" Mind blown. He created a piece of furniture exactly as I wanted. Happy wife, happy life. Of course, I did a lot too. I picked out the paint color (Matt actually painted) and spray painted the hardware a lovely oiled bronze. It was a team effort. Good job, us!

This was our tv stand before - my nice entry table was forced to hold the tv and gather dust.

It belongs in the dining room, holding candles and gathering dust.

Wires everywhere, like a computer desk had thrown up. End table in the corner for no apparent reason. Sad and depressing. And probably a bit hazardous.

Now we have this lovely pop of color that makes me all cozy inside. The camera doesn't do it justice (because it's small and cheap and I don't know what I'm doing) but it's a warm cranberry color. Oh, and also imagine creative pictures on the wall - canvases, black and white, inspirational quotes. Like it should be on Pinterest. There, that's better.