Money

For the past couple days I’ve been going through piles of receipts and invoices. Making stacks of paper and then shoving those stacks into labeled envelopes for my accountant. I don’t usually leave this until the end of April. Most years I have this financial imperative finished sometime in early March. I’m not entirely sure what happened this year. I’m not worried…it’s going to get done.

It’s interesting looking at this physical representation of my job. Where the money came from. What the money was for. How the money was spent. Last year was a particularly good year. That’s not in reference to my net income (I’ve made more money at other times in my life) but rather to the jobs I was able to do. They were interesting, challenging, and above all rewarding in a creative sense. I feel good about the work I was allowed and the pieces I produced.

Money is necessary if I want to live in this overinflated city and I appreciate a paycheck as much as the next guy but there are much more important things.

More shelving for the Waldorf Studio

Catch Up In Stereo

Over the past couple of months building the tables, booths, and banquets for the restaurant has been all consuming and has forced other projects aside. Over the past few days I've had space to do some catching up. One project that has been on my mind is a stereo cabinet I was contracted to build for the Barbarella Hair Salon location at the Waldorf Hotel (elsewhere referred to as my "home"). Today finished the laminating (there's a bit more detail filing left to do) and touched up the varnish so this sleek piece of eye candy can be installed tomorrow! It's nice to cross something off my lengthy list.

Doing Bacchus Proud

Leading a bacchanalian lifestyle?
Wine cellar overflowing?
Need somewhere to put the cases of Montrachet, 1978 you bought at  Sotheby's?
Maybe you just have a lot of drunken friends in your living room who refuse to leave.
Here is a wine wine rack that is a statement.
It's a lifestyle.
It says, "I go through a lot of wine!"

Cushioned

As the space takes form before the restaurant opens next week apprehension over last details begins to set in. The final variable in the booths and banquets were the cushions and my concerns over the sizes I specified for the upholsterer was beginning to grow. Going to the restaurant this afternoon and seeing all the cushions in place fitting nicely allowed me room to breath and created space for me to obsess about other projects that now require attention. I can move on.

Beautifully design by Scott Cohen and Funhouse built

The Cedar Sea

I found irony in having my two associates Max and Moose, both island boys (Max from Australia and Moose from Montserrat), surrounded by a sea of the cedar tables I built for the new Nuba restaurant. It opens soon on West Broadway in Vancouver.

Saving Daylight

For years while working in film I would get to work before the sun had broken the eastern horizon and get home long after it had descended in the west. I would spend the majority of my day in cavernous warehouse shops often without windows or in dark studios. I lived my life under artificial light.

Today I awoke to bright sunshine coming through my window and worked with the shop's garage bay door wide open. I stopped on my way home for a late lunch and ate it at an outside table wishing I owned sunglasses. Surviving winter instills a feeling of victory. Actually seeing the sun and feeling too warm in a sweater become sensations of triumph. I am thankful to be allowed these small but important moments.

It's gonna be okay

It’s going to be okay.

I used to get worked into a state of unbridled stress. Trying to manage under deadlines and working 12 hour days and then forgetting to eat. These days (though I still do my share of overtime) I know that whatever it is, it will get done. There’s never been instance in the past when something hasn’t gotten done. There is always a solution and stress diminishes my ability to see just what that solution might be. It compounds problems and I make mistakes. Usually really stupid mistakes involving addition or subtraction.

So with a deadline fast approaching—a restaurant opening—I am doing my best to take care of myself. I believe my health is directly reflected in the work I do. Above all I know it’s going to be okay…

The base of a cedar banquet

East Van Table Factory and Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott’s words, “Bird by bird”, resonated and repeated in my head today as I continued gluing up and sanding the three dozen tables I’m building for the latest Scott Cohen designed restaurant.

Bird by Bird

Table by Table

I could get philosophical about all this but that would only complicate a simple job.

….and tomorrow Table by Table…

Table by

table by

table (Final two glued up!)

Waldorf Diaries--The Genius of Pushpins

My job is creative in nature. I find creative solutions to design and construction problems. It is still, however, very much a job and I need creative outlets outside of the shop environment. The reason I moved into the Waldorf Hotel was to simplify my life in order to focus attention on a particular project and over all this has been successful. Over the past month or two, however, I’ve found myself working in the shop much more than in my hotel room and I’m beginning to feel the imbalance.

Though I had not planned on going into the shop today I stopped in long enough to build a quick bulletin board. I took it back to the hotel, put the first Neu! album on repeat, and began laying out some of my notes for the project. I gathered up the pieces of paper from all the flat surfaces in my small space and with a fresh package of pushpins I organized them where I could see them. Now I feel connected and less overwhelmed by the scope of what I’ve gotten myself into. I have a visual representation of progress and the rabbit hole appears to have a map.

A start...

The Staircase Install

Once something is built it will either fit or it won't so worrying about it is pointless. I woke up this morning feeling calm and focused knowing I had done everything I was capable of to make the morning staircase installation as smooth as possible. I had six guys showing up to help me lift it into position and with their help it was a painless operation. Much easier than I had anticipated. I'm really trying not seem surprised.

Stephen Hamm, one of my industrious associates

The cardboard on the outside face is to protect the veneer until it's clear coated

Mortised stair treads

Top view to the bottom platform that is going to get covered in Italian marble