New Year’s Resolution: Measure Twice, Cut Once

At the end of 2012, Studio 360 listener Ariel Lautman, of Silver Spring, Maryland, resolved to teach herself woodworking and build furniture for her home. Despite an exceptionally cold East Coast winter that limited her ability to work with lumber outside, Ariel has completed her first project, a display bookshelf for her son’s bedroom.
The shelf is designed to help Ezra see the books’ covers and select the one he wants easily, though Ariel acknowledges that as a toddler, Ezra “is going to take all of the books off the shelf no matter what.” The project came off rather smoothly. “I’m of the ‘measure twice, cut once’ school – or measure three or four times.”
(Scroll down to see Ariel’s bookshelf in construction)
Ezra likes the addition to the room perhaps a bit too much. “He keeps trying to hang on it,” Ariel says – don’t try this at home. A few more shelves are next before she attempts her final project, a breakfast bar for the kitchen to which she can attach a booster seat for her busybody son. “He’s really good at unloading the dishwasher. He is not super good at things like not touching the hot oven.”
  
  
  
  
  

Slideshow: Work in Progress