Woodworking

I'm not a skilled woodworker myself - functional over fancy - but I learned all of it from my grandpa, who I'd call a true master of the craft. He built the majority of his own house in the 80s, and a playhouse for us kids that same decade. I helped him build a big shed in the backyard - an all-day-and-all-night job. Once the foundation had cured, we started anchoring the walls down to it with hook anchors, one section at a time, and I learned how structure actually works from the ground up. He also built furniture - tables and chairs with fancy finishes that went well beyond "functional."

I lived with him off and on growing up, so waking up to the smell of sawdust and the sound of a circular saw ripping through fresh 2x4s was just normal life. I truely loved the smell of sawdust in the morning. He used to take me to lumber yards back before Lowe's and Home Depot were around, and taught me the lingo - what to look for in a board, what to avoid, all the little tricks because there wasn't a manual.

It's carried into home projects too - repairing my mom's fence, and tearing out old carpet to install Pergo laminate flooring in our own living room.

That thread runs straight through to today. My son and I built a "Stuffed Animal Storage" tower for his room - I drew up the plan myself, and he ran the drill in his own safety glasses. Same sawdust, same shed-building lessons, just a generation later.