Carpentry and Home Ownership
by Al
It being Easter, Jesus comes to mind today. This, of course, leads to the topic of carpentry and woodworking for, in the model of our lord and savior, I, too, would work with the wood… (Yes, I am still a Buddhist…work with me here.)
For a home owner, I’m not terribly handy with tools or in the proper arts of home repair. I mean, I managed to power saw the legs off of a table and then sand it smooth this weekend to make a mikkyodan of the appropriate height (a kind of Buddhist altar) but that and the proper use of screws may be the extent of my skills.
Since I’m now in the second home that I’ve owned, this is kind of a sad state of affairs. I’m sure that I have as much aptitude as anyone else but, like car mechanics, I’ve simply never had any wood shop training or the like.
I’d like to remedy this at some point during this next year. It strikes me that the ability to be a bit more effective in the home repair and general “let’s nail some shit together and have it work” areas would be somewhat useful.
The thing is, I have no idea where an adult would go to learn skills like these. If anyone has any suggestions on doing so, I’d love to hear about it. It seems like access to vocational skills, outside of a fairly limited set, is difficult unless you are going for some certification in a trade. Since I don’t plan on apprenticing myself as a carpenter, there should probably be another way. I’m hardly the first person to need to develop these skills.
If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.
Comments
I absolutely hear you on this one. My aspirations definitely outstrip my skill set (or tool set) in this area as well.
There’s got to be “wood shop for grown-ups” being offered somewhere.
If there isn’t… Shop Teachers take note… I’m sensing a potentially decent sized side income potential!
As luck (and the awesomeness of the Bay Area) would have it, there are a couple of places you can check out:
The TechShop in San Carlos:
http://techshop.ws/
The Sawdust Shop in Sunnyvale:
http://www.sawdustshop.com/
Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything in the East Bay for you, but I did find information about the Heartwood Cooperative in Berkeley. It’s a working shop, but I’m sure that a number of carpenters working out of the shop would give lessons. Here’s the info I found:
510-845-4887
2547 8th St # 510
Berkeley, CA 94710
A quick hi from a Finnish some-time reader: how about volunteering in some project that involves carpentry, for example in building housing for the homeless, or eco-housing? Most projects gladly take anyone who’s not afraid of work and willing to learn. At least to me, learning by doing comes more naturally than sitting in classrooms, even if they’re arts/crafts classes.
Aaron, thank you for the suggestions. That was very helpful.
Noora, that’s a good point. I’ve been looking for some more volunteer opportunities. I could probably do something with the Habitat for Humanity people or something similar.