husband the builder (#tbt)

husband was already a master builder way back then. this is one of my favorite photos of him. ever. i do love these thursday strolls down memory lane. this is in the back garden of his childhood home in sweden. and doesn't it foreshadow the future?

husband the builder

husband has a habit of going slightly over-the-top when i ask him to build something. i mentioned one day that i needed a nice little rack for my thread, so i could see what colors i've got when i'm sewing. i imagined a little rack of 3-4 rows that would maybe hang on the wall, but husband made this instead. it's at least a head taller than i am, holds 104 spools of thread and features a turning base so i can turn and see what i've got. right now, it's completely unworthy of the old dining room where it's standing, and it leans thanks to an uneven floor, but it's just completely awesome. and it, along with an old-fashioned three-layer pot for extracting juice using steam that he picked up in a second-hand store, made for some of the best christmas presents he's ever given me.

he also recently built this over-dimensioned (and not quite finished) little shelter for our mailbox and trash can. they passed a law last year that the mailbox had to be out on the property line and accessible by vehicle (if you live out in the country) by the end of 2011. many people put theirs out earlier, but after our postwoman asked chastised sabin one day last summer in a most decidedly churly manner about how we had to move our post box, we decided to wait 'til the very last day.  i mean really, yelling at a child about the post box? please. the weather turned ugly before husband could finish painting it, but it's already passed the hurricane-force winds test, so it's a good one. those poles are sunk a good meter into the ground - husband doesn't build things halfway. what he doesn't know is that once he's painted it with that weather-proof paint, i'm going to dress it up with something a bit more colorful.

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happy weekend one and all!