Here’s a Look at My Day Job: Expert Handyman

I just recently got back from a month long job out of town where I did a great many varied jobs.  Many of them rather interesting.  So I thought I would give everyone a peek into the kinds of things that I do for a living.  It occurred to me that now that my phone has a camera, it’s rather easy to take pictures of the kinds of things that I do.  This stuff isn’t all from the same job.

What I’m showing is mostly the stuff that I find interesting.  I’m leaving out a lot of repair and replacement that are the most common types of handyman work.

This house has 10′ ceilings and needed a bookcase specifically for this corner.  This is all plywood and cheap pine that you can get at Home Depot,, about $100 in materials, painted the same color as the wall to help it blend in.

Front entry way, same house.  I did all of this, but subcontracted the wood flooring.  Tile in the middle of the floor, wood flooring on the perimeter, burlap wallpaper, and all of  the woodwork you see is hand done by me.  I changed the outlets along the wall to decorator types to blend in.  The walls above were painted as well.  As you can imagine, this took an insane amount of work.  If you have to ask the price then you probably can’t afford it.  Up above:

I created crown molding to match the ceiling, which was already there.  This is actually, just 2  1 x 4 redwood pieces.  One’s been ripped into two pieces to create the staggered look.   I did something like this for another room as well:

This crown molding is just 1×6 redwood with beveled edges and two channels cut into it for decoration.

And matching baseboard.

This is an antique ice box that I restored, not to its original condition, but rather to make it an interesting piece to match the house decor.  It is being used to house old videos and DVD’s.  The hardware was originally zinc plated, but this was sanded off to reveal the brass underneath.  The wood trim was left original on the inside, but everything else was spray painted, including the racks.

What you’re looking at here is a set up for a professional photographer who wanted an area to showcase his work.  I removed an ugly overhead chandelier and used the electrical from the light to create two outlets at either end of the room and then I created a couple of wood thingamajigs to hold his professional lights and the extra cord.

 

The lights shine on this site built display area:

 

 

 

This is a redwood lattice that I built into a metal gazebo that was already there. The existing structure was weak and wobbled at the slightest touch.  A strong wind could probably blow it over.  This was the solution.  I also added a plastic lattice over the top that you can’t see.  It helps with much needed shade.

For the same client I enclosed their back covered patio to make it an area safe for their indoor cats.  I also installed a cat door.  (not shown.)

 

 

I drilled a hole in the granite countertop and installed  a 5 stage water purifier.

 

Sometimes new stovetops are too big for the existing opening.  I had to cut the granite here to widen the opening and then install the new cooktop. I was also replacing an electric one with a gas model, so in addition to plumbing for gas, I did some electrical work  to change a double pole 30A circuit to a single pole 20A.

That large white unit in the corner was built specifically to house prints and framed prints for the photographer.  Common dowels separate everything on the shelves.

 

This is the map case from the middle of the previous photo.  I assembled the pieces and then the owner had me build up the base of it 7 1/2″ so that the top of it would be high enough to be a usable workspace.  On the side you can see four different shades.  My contribution is the second from the bottom.

See that glass case at the top of the ladder?  I assembled that thing up there.   I won’t lie.   It was scary.  Here’s a picture from my point of view:

I’m standing on a two foot wide shelf about 12′ off the ground.

Here’s the finished product, viewed from upstairs.  (It’s VERY securely fastened to the wall):

This is a canned goods and spice rack designed to fit exactly in a client’s closet off their kitchen.

 

I had a client hand me a big piece of wood and tell me to use it to mount their huge TV.  It was the only way to do this with the A frame structure they had.  Fortunately, they had a concrete floor, so I fastened the wood to the floor with sleeved concrete bolts.  It worked.

Well, this is what I do when I’m not sitting in front of my computer writing and researching.  This kind of  stuff is what I like best about my job.  I can just stand back and admire what I’ve done.  There’s quite a feeling of accomplishment.