Sketches

We don't have a television in Tahoe. We don't have internet in Tahoe. We don't have a lot of reading material in Tahoe. Instead, we spend the evenings lost in conversation. Inevitably, the conversation turns to the house...

"What do you think about this?"

"We could do that!"

Soon we come to a general consensus about a "next" project.

Shortly thereafter rough ideas are sketched out on paper. Some people work from exact, scale drawings. I don't. I prefer to work towards some rough idea. Form and shape change along the way, sometimes dictated by materials on hand, sometimes dictated by the limitations of tools available. We never really know what the finished project will look like. Sometimes we finish a project, scrap it, and start all over again. Eventually we end up with something that we are happy with...

Below are early sketches of some of those "ideas." In some cases I've included pictures of the finished product for comparison purposes. Some turned out remarkably similar to the original idea... some are completely different.

A working drawing of the fireplace wall...

The finished fireplace wall.

The first rendition of the sink base... 

The later version of the same sink base...

The finished sink...

Caren's very early sketch of the stove wall...

A nearly complete stove wall...

A sketch of the pot rack...

Ideas for the refrigerator wall including an early version of the dish rack...

One version of the kitchen layout using manufactured cabinets from one website or another...

Another version of the kitchen using manufactured cabinetry...

A scale drawing of the final version of the dish rack, including a cut list...

I can't tell you how many sleepless nights I've laid in bed designing and redesigning each and every project... dimensions, construction details, tool limitations. Once the mind gets turning over, it is very difficult to stop it as it skips around from one detail to the next. The sketches above are starting points, and, at the same time, finished ideas... then I try to sleep, and they change completely. Construction starts, and everything changes again. Final installation occurs, and minor changes are made. If I sit on the couch in the evenings, sans television and internet, I see changes that I can make in projects that I thought I finished months ago.

It is about the journey... not the destination!