The clients who asked me to create a window seat in their living room probably don't know it but this is when I proved to myself that I could survive anything (having to do with wood and tools) given enough time and the clients' patience.

Nodding my head in affirmation as they outlined how they wanted the bench to curve just so to catch the morning light, only the thought that they were really getting a bargain here let me overcome the fact that I had no idea how to do it. So, after some experiments on the roof of my apartment house and reducing the complexities to the analogy of the generic train station bench, I camped out in their apartment for a month with my circular saw and 100 bed slats as I learned about compound cuts and why most guys have workshops.

I did get through it, as these pictures attest, and was able to use the same methods to make a chair for my cousin Eleonore and a rocker for my Mom.