Michael is not a carpenter. Nor is he a contractor, a plumber, or an electrician. He is a smart man though, and somehow learned to put a lot of things together and use a bunch of power tools. No offense to the Terrys in his life, but I am fairly confident that he didn’t pick these things up from either his dad or stepfather. Yet he is totally able to do them. Often under protest, but that is an entirely different story.

So where do you build things when you have no garage, it is raining and your storage shed is full? Well in the living room of course! Before we moved in, our House looked like a wood shop. Michael cut all the moldings, we split the painting and then he installed all the trim. We still have a lot of touch up left, but I’m impressed with how it came together.

His current project is the Mighty Mantle. It seems like ages ago that our living room and dining room were separated by a wall and the fireplace was covered up with plaster and ugly tile. We considered keeping the current mantles, but after everything was opened up they just didn’t look right. And more importantly they weren’t deep enough to support a Blue Dog or a plasma TV.

I was dubious at first. This is not something he’s ever done before, but damn it is coming out cool. It still needs a little refining and some stain, but the plasma seems happy.

So why no post-move pictures. Because I am tired and I am a perfectionist. I want things to look “right” before I post. I know, I know, ridiculous. Bear with me please. We thought it was worth the wait.