Wood to the Wise

When we found out Heather was pregnant, my brother asked if there was anything in particular he could make for us. You see, my older brother, Dan, is quite the woodworker. He made rocking horses for my nephews and even built a full-on swing set/fort for his own kids’ backyard. Last year, he helped me make a bathroom cabinet for Heather. So, when he asked about making something, I thought it would be cool if we could build it together. Originally, Heather wanted us to make a changing table, but we both decided that if we could build a crib, it would be more of an heirloom. We looked at a few styles and Dan poked around for plans and designs and we met halfway.

I want to make it perfectly clear that Dan is the wood smith, here. I’m the helper elf, more of an O.R. nurse than anything. When it comes down to the important cutting and especially the math, it’s all him. I can work a mean sander, and I even had some design ideas that we implemented, but he’s the boss in this factory.

What’s interesting about when you embark on a project of this size, is how hard it is to see the final product. I mean, you have all this lumber sitting there and it’s going to end up as a crib. Some people, like my brother, can see it. I’m learning.

But you have to start at the beginning. In this case, it was several feet of boards and a couple of big, plywood sheets. We spent a day planing the wood down to the right size before we cut it into the basic shapes that would form the frame of the crib. Then we would start to shape the wood into the more decorative pieces so we didn’t just have a box with a mattress in it. We had some curved pieces in mind, which required us to cut and even bend the wood away from its regular straightness. A few trips through the band saw and some extra work on a belt sander were required to get as close to perfect as we could get. The key to this whole thing for me is to be patient and not fight the wood. Not to make any overly aggressive moves, but to gently guide it into the shape desired. With Dan’s final touches we were able to get a couple of curved decorative pieces created which allowed us to see the first part of our crib coming to life.

Once we had the basic pieces shaped and put together, it was time for the hardware. We needed to make our crib easy to take apart and move. We needed to make the gate of the crib slide up and down. And we needed to make sure it did all this and still keep its stability and shape. I won’t lie, it took a few miss-lined drill holes and stripped bolts before it came into place. It would have been nice to get it perfect on the first shot, but there’s nothing wrong with messing up, then trying again. The next thing I knew, I was tightening the last bolt then stepped back to see the result. I must say I am pretty darned proud. We still have to paint it, but to see that crib in the workshop, all put together, made from our own hands was a pretty cool thing. It took a lot of time and effort to put it all together. And there is no way any of this could have been done without the help of my brother. But that’s what makes it so special.

When I got home, Finley was asleep in her bassinet. And I felt proud all over again. Here is our little creation. Mine and Heather’s. Neither one of us are too experienced at this, but if we remain patient and don’t fight it, we should do okay. There will be moments when it will be extremely difficult. But as long as we make sure we do this, together, we can move on from mistakes. We can’t see the final result of our little girl, yet. But I do know that with a lot of time and effort and a little imagination she will grow up to be the best thing we’ve ever worked on. And I’ll have a lot less sawdust in my clothes.