Accessible and beautiful

Jim met the nicest people, and they needed him to build them so many things. Desks and tables and cabinets, oh my. These very nice people had just retired to a very nice, brand new condo where they were decorating everything from scratch in their elegant, minimal style. Jim can totally build that.

But they also needed everything Jim built to be accessible from a wheelchair. Jim had never built that. But could he?

"Sure," he said.

So Jim took his engineer brain and his woodworker hands and he figured it all out. My favorite thing he built for these very nice people is this secretary built into a nook (or is it a cranny?) in their foyer.

I mean, gah that is just pretty. But what's very cool about it is something you cannot immediately see. That desk part folds up so the furniture is tucked neatly away when it's not in use. And then, when its owner pulls that desk part down, everything behind it slides forward so that it's easily accessible.

Because Jim can build that.

Here it is all closed up.

Here it is all opened up. You can see the hardware Jim found that makes
the whole back part slide forward when the desk is opened.

Other beautiful things he built for these very nice folks included a very groovy custom entertainment center.

Again, some of the coolest details are not immediately visible. Like the nifty storage ottomans he made for underneath:

You have to like these people. They seriously
know how to use a storage ottoman.

And the big hinge he found for the back of the TV so it can swing around without parting ways with the wall:

And the neat side panels he built so the view would be pleasant from every angle:

He thinks about these things. He's smart like that. He also built them some desks. Hers:

And his:

Actually, Jim built them so many things that he kind of lived with them for about a year. They all had a fine time, and now these very nice people have a really beautiful condo full of gorgeous, functional Fortune furniture.

Little things

Sometimes a small change is all it takes to make a big difference. Here, for example, is an astoundingly boring mantel. It is just a board sitting on bricks:

Really, does this even qualify as a mantel? Probably not. Let's just call it a board. Because that's what it is. So Jim Fortune took down this board and built something beautiful to go in its place. Like so:

Yes, this will be an actual mantel when it's done. No more boards. Here's another picture of it close up, so you can see all the detail work:

He also had to build slots into the back of this pretty thing to fit over the brick supports where the old board was resting. That was not a problem. Jim can totally do that kind of thing. Here's the finished product:

Yep, now it is a mantel.

Not a huge thing. But so much better.

Signs of affection

Jim Fortune expresses his love for his family through action. He builds us stuff and he fixes our bikes and our cars and he plans trips for us and he makes sure things get done and people get taken places and everything is operating optimally.

This is a phenomenon I think of as engineer love. Do not wait for engineers to tell you they love you and would do anything for you and feel lucky every day to be part of your life. Just watch them work and interpret as appropriate.

All that to say, Jim Fortune built this for me:

Yeah, I know. Wow. 

This gorgeous thing is the very first thing you see when you come through the front door of Jim Fortune's house. It is a monument to engineer love. It has file storage on the bottom so I do not have to schlep upstairs every time I want to file a receipt. It has drawers to store our old CDs so we do not have to part with them even though we really don't need them anymore:

It has dovetail joints and inset doors and self-closing drawer slides and it is made to look like a built-in but it can be removed so that if we ever leave it can go with us. Because, yeah, this is MINE.

Babies have a lot of stuff

Our delightful friends had the delightful experience of having twins a couple of years ago -- a gorgeous little duo: one boy and one girl, one dark and one fair. They are the sweetest little set you ever saw.

Because our friends needed places to put the many things that accompany the arrival of two babies, Jim Fortune made them the prettiest set of matching shelves and cabinets, built into the walls around their bedroom window.

On the left.

On the right.

I have mentioned before how much Jim Fortune loves symmetry. This project made him quite happy.

Man with a mission

This post is about yet another amazing entertainment center Jim built for a very nice family so they could stop watching TV like this:

When Jim Fortune sees this, a little part of him dies. So he and these nice folks (whom he'd worked for before) decided to fix it. If you look, you will see that there was a door behind that TV. So this project involved some door closing-up and wall-installing, too.

He came home and told me about it, and he was practically giddy. It was cute.

Anyway, here are some pictures of what replaced the teetering TV in front of the unused door:

This is seriously pretty. I have visited it in person. It is gorgeous. It should have been a supermodel.

Here are some pictures Jim took to show the cool details:

Yes friends, Jim Fortune is making the world a better place for TVs, one living room at a time.

Study hall

Jim Fortune believes in desks. He thinks every kid should have a place in their room where they can sit down and do their homework or use their microscope or deface surfaces with the point of a compass. This desk he built for our friends' daughter is one of my favorites.

Maybe because I have no daughters, and will never have a room in my house that looks like this:

Seriously. How cute is that??

Back in the day

Jim Fortune has been building cool stuff for a really long time. We are going to dig into the archive a little today. This oak map table is a beautiful thing he built for our dear friend Norman in 1994(ish).

Maps were an important part of Jim and Norman's lives at that point because they were forever taking their bikes and kayaks into remote locations and, y'all, there was no Google maps yet.

Here's a picture of it with one of its elegant drawers extended:

And here is a picture of it under construction in Jim's old workshop. Which looks like it was purple? No, he says his workshop was not purple. It was just the light.

But what's in it for me?

When he has time, Jim Fortune builds things for his family. We like it when he does that. We moved into our house in 2007, and Jim immediately pronounced the mantel hideous. "Totally hideous," he said. I shrugged. "I guess," I said. "It looks OK to me."

Here it what it looked like:

Not great, sure. But I couldn't really tell what was so hideous about it. Jim grabbed some of his favorite implements of destruction and ripped it right out. Like so:

Then it really WAS hideous. And it stayed that way for quite some time. But Jim worked on it now and then and, eventually, it looked like this:

OK, so then I truly understood why Jim thought the old mantel was hideous. The old mantel WAS hideous because this is what Jim Fortune had in his head when he looked at the old mantel. This mantel is incredibly beautiful. And I get to look at it every day.

Thanks, dear.

Hey, let's watch TV

Lots of people have cabinets with TVs sitting on them. Or dressers with TVs sitting on them. Or tables with TVs sitting on them. Jim Fortune thinks TVs need their own furniture. He is right about this. Here is a lovely and practical TV cabinet/entertainment center thing he built:

One very cool thing about this lovely cabinet is that it has a friend just on the other side of this archway:

Because Jim Fortune likes symmetry a lot. Another cool thing is that the TV can swivel out from the wall:

Because it has this super-cool, heavy-duty hinge thing behind it that Jim went out and found. Because Jim likes to find things that can make cool things even cooler:

He also put lots of groovy drawers in this entertainment center thing:

Just so you can appreciate how truly rad this project is, here is how this nice family was watching TV before Jim Fortune showed up and tricked out this place:

Um, no. Not on Jim Fortune's watch.

Breakfast is served

This pretty little mahogany breakfast bar is in the master bedroom of the same house where Jim built the cool tub cabinet. (Jim works for a lot lot lot of people who want him to come back and build more stuff.)

The coolest thing about this pretty little mahogany breakfast bar is the hidden fridge that Jim incorporated into the right cabinet. He attached the fridge door to the cabinet door to make the thing maximally efficient and streamlined. Like so:

Because, you see, Jim likes for things to be maximally efficient and streamlined. He would not put in a cabinet that required you to open a door before you opened yet another door. That would offend his artistic sensibilities.

To the Batcave!

The only thing cooler than a whole wall of gorgeous floor-to-ceiling bookshelves is a whole wall of gorgeous floor-to-ceiling bookshelves with a secret, hidden door:

Now you see it....

Now you don't.

The only thing even cooler than that is whole wall of gorgeous floor-to-ceiling bookshelves with a secret, hidden door that leads to a wine cellar. People, it's a secret door to a Batcave FULL OF WINE. 

Maybe Jim Fortune's niftiest project ever.

Here are some pictures of the progress:

And here is the spectacular finished room:

Did I mention it's a BATCAVE FULL OF WINE? Gah. So rad.

You know what that bathtub needs?

It needs a place for a great big TV. And it needs a beautiful cabinet that goes all the way to the ceiling. Jim Fortune likes for cabinets to go all the way to the ceiling. Otherwise there is wasted space, and we all know how he feels about wasted space.

Behold, a place to soak and watch TV. Life is good.

Here is what it looked like when it was in progress:

Also, here are some fancy panels Jim built for the front of the tub. They are removable so a person can easily access all the tub guts inside: