cottage, meet mexico

Recently, Brent and Janelle left a comment saying that it was time for a woodshop update, because the last they have seen was a table saw in a very large room. I (Grant) am pleased to announce that the woodshop has definitely upgraded. I now have a table saw in a very large messy room.

Well actually, I have made a few small tool purchases in the last few months. Business expenses. That's what they're called. Tools can sometimes be called men's toys, but these purchases were crucial to having a functional woodworking business. Seriously. Like I'm really serious - no sarcasm. Definitely necessary purchases.

Now stop that - I can feel you looking at me like Hannah does when I talk about tools. (Side note from Hannah - I'm trying to convince him that my need for a serger is not that different than his need for, say, a miter saw. Right?)

Here's the air compressor:

And the miter saw (this was a big blessing. Used tools that are not stolen are hard to find for a decent price down here, but one of the guys at the lumber yard happened to have it for sale right when I was looking for one):

View #1 of the shop:

View #2 of the shop:

I feel a need to explain the door. Especially since I know Brent probably smelled the MDF already before he even opened the blog post. So anyway, down here people don't buy their interior doors from Lowes or Menards. They order them custom-made from a local carpenter. In fact, it's so common that probably the most frequent response I get from telling people that I'm a carpenter is "Oh, so you make doors?"

Well, that's an awkward question to answer, because that's what carpenters do down here, but I've never made a door in my life. So I usually answer, "sure, I could make a door for you if you wanted one", hoping that I actually would be able to if it ever came down to it. So, I ended up with a few extra days in between projects and figured I had better make a door just to say I had. This one is for Ivory's bedroom. She ranked above the bathroom on priority for a door.

Most doors down here are hollow core, but I could get enough MDF to fill up a door for about $15, so we decided it was worth it. Just for the record, I never, ever thought about even thinking about considering possibly using MDF in my woodshop. That's just not what good woodworkers do, but since it was the inside of the door, and not part of the structure, just filler material.... well, I figured I could get away with it.

From a business standpoint, things are going very well. I'm swamped... but it doesn't take much to swamp a lone woodworker who only works five hours a day in his shop. Right now I'm working on Ivory's door, have another door to do for a customer, a bookshelf for a friend of one of the teachers at the school, and a few other quotes out.

The future of the woodshop is something we've had to really be thinking about. Do we use it as a time-filler/hobby or do we really invest in starting a possibly family-supporting business? To have a real business, I would need a vehicle. Do we make that investment? Is our ministry being a normal working family in Mexico, or do we try to focus on the traditional "missionary" activites? These are some of the questions that we've been praying through.

On top of that, business in Mexico is complicated. One example of this is that businesses are supposed to pay taxes, but with the small businesses, it is not enforced. No effort is made by the government to collect these taxes. There is only one incentive for a small carpenter to wade through all the complicated government paper work and pay taxes - honesty. Honesty is very important to me. It's important that people know that we Christians are honest. However, paying taxes would put my prices 16% higher than any other carpenter in town, making it nearly impossible to stay in business. I'm planning to talk through things with an accountant sometime soon who can hopefully give some guidance.

So, these are some of the things that are rolling around my head as I cut, sand, glue, stain, and varnish.

On a lighter note, here are some pictures of my latest project (and where the title of the post comes in). Hannah brought a style to Mexico that is not well-known down here. You can call it cottage, colonial, rustic, whatever you want, but people seem to really like it. Well, they say they do anyway. Take for example our table. We had a couple over who saw our kitchen table and wanted one just like it for their kitchen. Well... almost just like it, just with a few minor details a little bit different.

So here's our table:

And here's the exact same thing, with just a few details changed (please excuse the kid underneath):

If any of you are not familiar with traditional Mexican style, this is it. Red, shiny, and chunky. We're flattered they like our cottage style table so much.

Well, that's all I have for now. Hope you all had a great week-end!