Richard G. Wybou

My father decided I was a lost cause for working with tools when i was 5 because I would blink whenever I heard the banging of a hammer on a nail. I could not stop myself - it was automatic. I grew up without any real experience using tools. A few years ago I got this crazy idea that I should learn how to use tools and build things. My frist project was to gut a kitchen and rebuild it with Ikea cabinets. I rebuilt an entire kitchen for $3000 and it looked great.

This past year, at age 50, I decided to see if I could "level up" so I gutted the bathroom and this time built a small cabinet with drawers from scratch to fit in the 8 inch space at one end of the tub (Small bathroom meant that a longer tub would be wider and there was no room for that). These drawers will hold soaps, body wash, shampoos and conditioners in the top, and spare rolls of toilet paper in the bottom.

I love wooden furniture, but I cannot afford what I like. I have refused to buy a bed frame for my king size bed because I just can't afford anything nice. Building furniture myself, however, seemed like an impossible goal, despite the fact that I've managed to master the basic carpentry tools.

Then, very recently, I discovered the Ana-White.com web site and it had a perfectly simple plan for a sturdy work bench. I had been making an Ikea kitchen island cutting board table double as my work bench. It was such a simple plan only requiring 2x4's and a piece of plywood. I modified the design slightly to allow for a piece of melamine as the lower shelf (for easier cleaning) and a 3/4 inch thick piece of Russian Birch plywood for the top (beautiful, smooth, sturdy and hard).

I was able to build this work bench in just a couple of hours for a total cost of about $65. I am so impressed that I was able to accomplish this so quickly and the results look great. This has boosted my confidence that I can soon tackle building my own country bed frame with drawers underneath which will be perfect my old home which lacks closet space and has limited space for dressers or wardrobes.

This is one of the best, if not the best, website I have ever come across and I am sharing the site with all my friends as well as mentioning where I found the plans as I post pictures online of my completed projects.

Thank you Ana White, for liberating me from my assumptions that carpentry had to be hard and projects had to take a long time. I'd also like to thank your other followers who have posted their projects based on your designs, which I find very inspiring - especially when they make small design adjustments showing that there's room for creativity and individuality.

Rick.