Home Work – yesiwood.be

Arabesque Door

Jo — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 16:39:15 +0000

Panelak

Jo — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 08:53:45 +0000

My grandparents’ living room walls were covered with oak panels from end to end, dating from the early 1920’s. With the renovation of the in 1980, the panels were removed, and stored for the better part of 25 years by my collectionnist father. Finally, they received a new destination in our French home. The challenge was to fit and trim the panels to the exact new dimensions of the available walls, in such a way that the uninformed viewer would think they had always been there. Been there, done that.

Jam Session

Jo — Sun, 13 Dec 2020 10:19:27 +0000

Birdie

Jo — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 08:26:34 +0000

No time to start playing golf yet!

One of our dearest friends had received notice from the local town hall that her birdhouse had been declared unfit for bird consumption after 25 years of unrelenting service.

In a state of panic, she looked at me as her saviour, if I could please arrange to build a new birdhouse to feed the Antwerp robbins.

Which I did, she is not the person to say ‘No’ to.

The roof is Padouk wood, the case is weather-resistant plywood used for concrete casting, the pole is afzelia.

Before

“Winter is Coming”

Jo — Sat, 05 Nov 2016 07:19:43 +0000

Pardon me my English, but it’s my favorite line of the TV series “Game of Thrones”.

In our areas of the South of France, we can tell something about winters as well. Witness the large chimneys in our old houses, often raised.

Very handy indeed, but aesthetic?

So, a couple of very dear friends put me to work.

” The way it was before”

Below the chimney, I built drawers that had to fit like a glove (three gloves in fact). The front of the drawers was made from a rare, large, single-piece of premier walnut panel, found at the Maraval sawmill.Your turn to judge.

Après le déluge

I put a steel angle above the walnut panels to avoid the risk of fire by bright embers, and the middle drawer is designed to catch the ashes. It features an insulation with rock wool and metal sheet. The surface is left semi-rough, to be in tune with the rest of the kitchen.

The reaction was swift and unequivocal.

Juste un mot mon cher Jo pour te remercier de la qualité

de ton travail à la maison sur la cheminée.

nous sommes ravis ???

They ?. Me ?.

Green House

Jo — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 17:05:48 +0000

This story started a long time ago. My grandfather purchased a villa in Westende, a seaside resort on the Belgian coast, in 1936. By the 1960’s, the wooden front of the house was completely rotten, as it was exposed to the harsh marine environment. So, my father decided to replace the front of the building. However, as he was an avid collectionner, he could not let go a lot, and kept the most acceptable in storage,” because they would serve one day”. Forty years later, he passed away, having not found the time to put them to use. I took up the heritage, and moved the stuff to the South of France.

I had never exploited a vegetable garden before in my life, so I thought the best place to start for a woodworker would be to build his own greenhouse. I drew my inspiration from two sources : one, a roof structure of a restaurant in New Zealand ( sometimes, you have to look far for good ideas) and the second one, the old factory buildings of Mr Alfred Nobel’s dynamite plant in Les Paulilles, in Southern France next to the Spanish Border.

That resulted in the following design:

And from there, the whole process was (±) ” straightforward” :

The Doors in Concert

Jo — Sun, 09 Feb 2014 17:39:51 +0000

These must be the largest individual pieces of work that I handled ( “all by myself”, to stay in the music mode). I had to replace an old, completely worn-out gate door in our courtyard. Finished, the two parts measure 280 cm x 300 cm ( about 9 feet x 10 feet).

I had first thought of making them in solid wood, but for such a structure, it would be overwhelmingly heavy, so I went for weatherproof plywood. Yes, plain, ugly plywood. However, you have to look really very close-up to see it. Even from a meter distance, it looks as if it is made out of wooden planks. The trick? Have a look at how I did it.

And this were the Doors before:

Vive la Différence !

Working on Windows

Jo — Thu, 06 Feb 2014 07:40:01 +0000

Don’t worry, I did not switch back from Apple to Hell. Instead, I made my own windows.

In our attic, we had 10 half-moon openings, which had been closed off approximately by discarded window panes, hardboard of varying colours and substances, in short, a not so pleasing spectacle for the aestethic eye.

The terms of reference called for the possibility to open the windows, and the economic use of wood in the construction process. Taking a big chunk of wood and cutting it out on the bandsaw would produce a huge pile of firewood, and in addition not be very strong.

For more details about the project, click here