The New Henry Workshop

The other day Henry and I sat down late at night to watch a bit of televison before bed. Mom was out of town in California and it was a guys weekend. That being said, neither one of us is much for monster truck pulls or pro wrestling so as we scrolled through the Tivo options I fully expected Hen to vote Curious George or Clifford (whom Henry calls "Clippard") the Big Red Dog. Much to my surprise Henry stated that he'd like to watch "that Yankee show with the tools". I've been watching this yankee show for years and truthfully, I've always been alone in that endeavor. As sexy as Norm Abrahms is, his screen presence can bee a bit akward. Once past his trademark plaid shirt and goofy safety glasses however, most discover that he is the god of wood, and his shop is the temple every tool guy goes to worship.

Henry and I cuddled up on the couch and watched Norm go through part one of his "How to Build Kitchen Cabinets" series. Hen never twitched. He watched with admirable attention until the credits rolled, afterwards, he looked at me and said "I like that guy, he's nice".

A few weeks later as part of the ongoing saga that is our home remodel, I enclosed a covered portion of our dilapidated deck to form a bit of a temporary shop to house my tools prior to our next remodeling phase. Each night I've been going into this makeshift space to try and make heads or tails of all my tools & supplies and each night Hen wants to be a part of the action.

Tonight Henry and I ventured into the "shop" to sort and clean but as I looked at all the tools, set up for the first time since we left Sugarhouse nearly 3 years ago, I had the itch to build something. I looked at Henry, who was playing with a MatchBox car and said, "do you want to build a speedracer car?" He was on board without hesitation and so we began. I grabbed a few scrap blocks of wood, laid out a simple design, flipped on the bandsaw and started cutting away. Each piece I cut was handed to Henry to sand, which he did with great anticipation.

After all the parts were cut and sanded, I took a minute to show Henry how to glue all the pieces together. He hopped up on a Home Depot bucket and spread the glue with his finger before I began clamping the pieces together.

After letting the glue dry for 10-15 minutes (which was painful for Henry) I took out an old dusty carboard box that I received from Meg's grandpa, Jack Dale. In the box were a bunch of wooden wheels and wooden axels that he used to make children's toys. I've had the box for 6 or 7 years now and have waited until I could use them with my kids. Henry and I picked out a few wheels and found the matching axels and began marking, drilling, and tapping them into place with just a touch of glue. Once he car was complete, we grabbed a can of black spray paint and gave it a coat. We waited. Then waited some more. The wait was killing us both. We finally brought the car out to mom for the great unveiling.

He lifted it up proudly displaying his new "speedracer car" that he and dad had built. It may not have been part one of "How to Build Kitchen Cabinets," but it was the first of many joint projects to come in the "New Henry Workshop". Next time, perhaps we'll both be in plaid.

-Kev