Carpenter Chuck

Our guest room had more cutouts, so I made built-ins with doors on the bottom and shelves on top.

Built the kids a sandbox using 2"x12" boards and a single sheet of 3/4" plywood cut in half. Painted with 2 coats of exterior primer and 2 coats of exterior paint. Put the lid on hinges and used some rope to make a handle. The lid will keep animals and rain out. I didn't want the entire thing sitting on the ground for water/rain, so I used a 4x4 pretreated post to make legs, with one in the middle for support. The final decisions are 4' x 4', which is 1 sheet of plywood cut in half to save costs. Took about 16 bags of 50lb. Play Sand from Lowes. 

At the bottom of our stairs, there is a little nook with a cutout that we didn’t know what to do with. We decided to make this area a library and we wanted built-in shelves. Here’s the process I used when building them. I decided to put shelf holes only above and below each shelf, so you can move each shelf about 1.5” up or down from the middle position. I did not run shelf holes from the bottom all the way to the top because it degrades the look a bit and since this is a library, we wanted the flexibly to move the shelves a little, but wanted to keep it classy. We noticed Pottery Barn does the same thing on some of their furniture ;)

We enter and leave through our 3 car garage (2 spots are tandem). The door to the house is by the fridge and that wall was pretty much unused. I built lockers as well as an attached shelving unit so that we could pop the 3 kids there when we are coming and going and we can get them dressed. Granted, we don't get snow in southern California, but we do have tons of sand, flops, beach towels, and hats that we need a place for ;)

My daughter loves to sing and perform and wanted a stage and microphone for Christmas, so I built her one that we can move around easily.

The plans are listed on ana-white.com.

Our new house has many cut outs, but nothing in them. Custom designed and built an entertainment center that has a floating shelf for the speaker, dvd player, and directv under the large TV.

Kids grocery stand for my daughter. Created from Pine. Put wheels on one side so it can be easily moved. Plastic bins are Velcroed down so they don't move unless you want them to and the Tips bin is screwed in. There are hooks for shopping bags and the red store sign is screwed in. The stand is "kid-friendly" :)

California King headboard made from Pine.

Checker cutting board made from Padauk and Maple.

Time lapse video capturing the making of a classic wood surfboard growth chart for my son Connor.

Made from Padauk and Maple. Used MirrorCoat epoxy on the top.

For my daughter's room.

Built a desk in the kitchen. We have very small kids and didn't want drawers and wires on the bottom that they could open, pull, and get into.