Some time ago I received an e-mail from Kristin
McCrea. The fact that she does woodworking
for living and that she even converted an old barn into a house in which she lives now made
me curious. Besides woodworking, she is very handy with computers, having no problems with
dismantling them in order to install a new card, but having problems making them work
afterwards! In any case, she is an extraordinary person and this is her story about building
a house and making birdfeeders:
As for the house, oh what an adventure! We first dismantled a barn and moved it five miles.
The skeleton was reused for the main section of the house, other pieces were incorporated
into the new kitchen wing. I ended up with a 2,700 sq. ft. structure. My goal was a space
that was not extremely barnlike but used the expanse of space in a contemporary way.
Volume, light and shadow played a role. I tried not to waste space on hallways and to give
a flow to the living space. The exterior was incorporated by the use of extensive glazing
and a 1,500 sq. ft. tiered deck leading to a small pond. Lighting of both the interior and
exterior was taken into account to open up the space.
This was a hands on project. I not only designed the house but built and installed many
things from roof trusses to the cabinets in the kitchen and baths. I had a partner in this
project, Elva Reid, who not only helped paying the bills but also got the 2,700 sq. ft. of 8"
pine flooring laid on the diagonal done while I was busy with other details.
It was an act of either love or insanity. We built during the wettest season on record. After
clearing an acre or more of cedar, we fought with hydro to have the lines laid underground,
forcing us to take a very hand powered approach to the early stages of building. Things did
get better and the first large power tool we bought was a radial arm saw, about the time
we were installing the flooring. I always wanted to write Black & Decker and tell them
what a little circa 1972 orange skill saw could do.
Our building inspector wrote us a note on the final permit to occupy that this was the best built home he had ever inspected. Mind you, he came for coffee each week and I was able to pick his brains, to insure we were building over code. He was even there one day during a torrential rain and could see first hand how the drainage grading worked.
It was during this year and a half that I began to build the birdfeeders I do today. Sundays
were our day off but we still went to the sight to organize for the next week. I began to
turn the construction scraps into birdfeeders.
For some time the picture of a miniature mill was evolving in my head.
One day I heard of a competition. I entered it and my model won first prize. In the
interim I was approached to replicate St. Marks church in Port Hope, Ontario, one of the oldest
buildings in this very historic town. The church's architectural board purchased it
and auctioned it at a fund-raiser. To give you an idea of scale, each of these pieces is over
2' long".
That was 10 years ago, my arm still suffers from tennis elbow. I now have a full shop of tools and use each one. I have learned that each does a job easier and most importantly safer, especially with the small pieces needed for my structures.
As small as they are I still start with 16' boards. For cross cutting I depend on a well set up radial arm saw. My 3 HP table saw with an excalibure fence and hold downs then rips the widths I need. A band saw has been an important and safe addition to my shop used primarily as a small resawing machine. My belt sander and a scroll saw complete the list of my larger tools. I use my 6 or so other sanders on demand, hand and power chisels are always in use for the doors and windows. I plane with a 12" board planer, a small electric and most often a very small Stanley hand planer. Throw in a few drills and a few weeks and any one can come up with this type of thing.
Chatelaine Gardens magazine has kept me busy this spring. They wanted 2 pieces, 1 for display and the other for TV promotion of the magazine. Each of my pieces is unique, some may be similar but never the same. That is why they are signed folk art rather than mass produced.
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