January 2026

During 2025, I had some awesome opportunities!

Let me tell you a story.

In June, I did a project for my aunt. It was nothing crazy, just re-finishing a deck. This deck had been built by one of her good friends twenty years ago, and while it had seen a lot of wear and tear (and weather) it was still in decent condition. I replaced a few of the worst boards (ones that had warped or cracked so much they presented a real danger to walk on) and sanded and stained the whole deck and about a mile of railing with a 2″ brush. (The railing literally took multiple days to finish.)

After that, I was on to my next job.

I thought I wouldn’t hear much more about it, other than maybe a pat on the back at a family reunion.

I was wrong.

My aunt liked my work so much that she recommended me to her friends.

In August, I drove to Tennessee to visit friends and look at property. (It’s so beautiful out there, guys!) And one morning I find that someone has taken the time to text me. I say “taken the time” because it wasn’t your average 10 or 20 word text.

Friends, this text took up three pages of my phone screen. I scrolled and scrolled and still there was more.

She introduced herself as a friend of my aunt’s, and had heard that I did good work. She wanted a small shed built for her cats, so they could spend the night under cover for winter. This shed was supposed to be built under the egress stairway that went from their upper-story porch to the ground.

She requested that I start the project as soon as possible, so that it would be done before horrible weather set in.

But when I got there, the plan had changed. This is where it starts to get fun.

I rolled up to their house on September 22nd, bright and early, walked up to the front door, introduced myself, and we had a short meet-and-greet. Then they said, actually, they wanted the staircase torn out completely, and re-routed around a pre-fabricated shed I would build where the old staircase was. The floor of this shed would have to be level with their existing deck, and they wanted me to extend that deck over to the shed, so they could walk from the front door into the shed on one plane, without stepping up or down.

Ok, so more work! I like more work. They said they were fine with time and materials rather than a bid, so I wrote them up a simple contract and got to work.

Come to find out, just around the corner of the house was a nice flat space in the dirt that they had used a long time ago for a couple of chairs, to sit and watch the weather and enjoy the nature that surrounds their house.

As the project progressed, They told me they wanted me to build the deck around that corner of the house as well, so they could put chairs out there.

And actually, they’d like to have an awning over this extension so the window on that side of the house didn’t let so much heat into the house during the day.

And actually, they would like to have me extend their upper deck as well.

And would I please put some fascia on their existing deck?

And while I was still mid-process on framing up the shed, they mentioned that the whole interior needed to be cat-proof.

This essentially means it needed to be pee-and-scratch resistant. Waterproof vynle click-together flooring, new-fangled “TrussCore” walls, instead of sheetrock, (Sheetrock on the ceiling, since the cats probably aren’t crazy enough to pee on the ceiling).

This is the Taj Mahal of cat paradise. I keep smiling to myself when I remember that this is actually just for the cats.

But let me briefly explain: these folks have about 100 acres, and only five cats to keep the mice and other critters at bay. A lot of other cats have been killed off by predators like coyotes and wildcats. The five remaining are battle-hardened veteran mousers who have earned their keep. (Might I mention they are all named after characters from Harry Potter, except for one, who is always missing. His name is Awol.)

And they also wanted a single drawer unit built to custom dimensions so that they could put kitty litter and extra food in the shed.

I didn’t really know what I was doing when it comes to fine wood working, (I’m good at framing) so they said, go ahead and learn it!

So I learned it!

And I think it actually turned out pretty well.

Then, just to really finish this project off with a bang, let’s add a little flair to the cat door.

I should mention that these cats are feral. The plastic door (which was a very nice door, by the way, if we’re talking about domesticated house cats) was not enough to keep them contained. They may dislike the confinement of their new palace.

That’s an understatement.

They hate being locked up.

Once upon a time, there was a little fluffy strip stuck to the edge of the swinging door, called a weather strip. It’s meant to keep the draft out of the building. One night, my employers hear BAM BAM BAMBA BANG BANG!!!!!!! …BANG!!!!! BAMBAMBAMBAM …. BANG!!!!! And apparently it’s this one cat who is particularly offended by his confinement (we won’t name names, since I’m likely to get sued; I’m sure that cat is out for my hide already) and had gone to tearing at this weather strip with might and main, evidently in an effort to break out of his holding cell.

While the plastic door remained intact, the weather strip did not. It took him a total of two nights to fully remove it with his evil little destructive kitty paws, but he did pull it off in the end.

So now the problem became, should we reinforce the door, and make it so they can’t see the light through it from inside the shed, and think it’s a way out?

The hunch was that this would fix the problem. If the cats can’t see the light through their door, they won’t want to use it as an escape route. Simple enough, in theory.

The catch: this barrier must be a dollhouse-style door with a piano hinge on one side, and a pair of stout locks on the other.

You would think we were trying to lock in Tasmanian devils.

Maybe we are.

At any rate, the other stipulation was that this door should make you smile when you look at it. It should be so distracting from the pent-up evil that is contained inside this shed that you actually forget yourself and smile when you look at this cat door.

(I say all this jokingly. I actually do like those cats a lot, and have made friends with a few of them. I’m saying all this tongue in cheek.)

So I went to work, employing some skills with the lathe, router table, and table-saw, to create a very endearing little cat door. Below, this is how all the pieces of the door panel fit together. I wasn’t lazy about constructing it to look like a real door: this baby is made out of 3/4″ white oak, properly fitted together.

For final pictures of this project, please visit my “Furniture” Page. All the pictures wouldn’t upload to this post, I guess I have too many in here already. Not sure what’s going on!

Well, that’s a wrap for my January update!

The Lord bless you all richly,

Carter

Psalm 37:4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.