Tag Archives: manual labor

Carpentry and Construction Work

I’ve been doing carpentry projects since I was a kid. I’ve put together countless balsa wood model airplanes, built birdhouses, cabinets, tables, chairs, construction framing, sheathing, and flooring.

Most recently I started a business with my friend, Sunstate Specialties in Phoenix, AZ. We did some sub contracting for United Renovations, and also spent time doing private Ikea cabinet installs. It’s hard to compete in that business in Arizona due to incredibly cheap labor costs, but we made a good run at it. We built and installed lots of kitchen overhead cabinets, vanities, and base cabinets.

carpentry
United Renovations apartment kitchen cabinet installation and construction
carpentry
Ikea bedroom cabinet installation in progress

After I completed a summer job working in Zzyzx, CA studying the Mohave Tui Chub, I moved in with a friend of mine in Pahrump, NV. During that time, we started construction on an 80×100′ steel building. It took 6 months to get that erected from the ground up, but afterwards we started building a two story lumber framed house inside of it. All construction was done by my friend and myself with some interspersed additional help from people. Very rewarding experience and I learned a lot about construction doing this job.

Snowflake building in progress
Snowflake building in progress
Building steel frame for Snowflake project
Building steel frame for Snowflake project
Siding done on Snowflake project
Siding done on Snowflake project

I also built higher end cabinets while I was attending college as a summer job. I was in charge of doing all of the initial cutting on a table saw. I also built drawers, shelves, mailboxes, etc.

A recent personal project, was hand designing and building a stand that could hold my racing wheel setup. It went from a blank piece of paper to a completed project in one day. It’s fully adjustable to fit any type of chair. It’s a prototype that I plan on refining in the future.

carpentry
Personal project, home built, home engineered

All in all, I’m quite a capable carpenter and enjoy working with wood.