Sadly, we lost one of our employees in December. He was 53 years young. Todd Bales, left, had worked in our Finish Shop for about 6 years. You probably never met him but if you had any finish work done, you've seen his work. 
  He was our stripper and prep guy in The Finish Shop, and by nature a kind of solitary guy. The job was messy, stinky and dusty, but he loved it. He was thrilled when we moved to our new building with more light, heat and its own bathroom! 
  In December Todd hadn't been feeling well. He went to the doctor and learned he had diabetes, which had affected his heart. He stopped by to see us two weeks before Christmas but the next week his health took a sudden turn and we lost him on December 18. 
  Todd was a Des Moines native, having attended Lincoln High School. He came from a large family, being survived by four brothers and a sister. He leaves five children.
  We all miss Todd, he was a good man. 

  The pain of his absence is softened by the presence of two new members of our family. Shown below are Joe Ewig, left, and Chad Thompson.  Chad came onboard about two months ago to fill Todd's position. Chad, also a Des Moines native, is our main prepper. Joe is actually returning to us after a short absence, also working in the Finish Shop. He is a native of Springfield, Mass. Both men will also handle a good share of our pick ups and deliveries. 

About 99 percent of what we do is furniture repair, either in our shop of on-site. Every now and then someone comes to us wanting something custom made.
For the past week or so Bryan has been working on making four classic dining room chairs for a customer. Bryan has a sample to build from, which on one hand shows him exactly what he needs to do, but on the other hand, he needs to do it exactly!
He must determine the wood to use (white oak in this case, which is a nice dense hardwood) define and measure each of the 17 pieces, figure out the joinery (there will be no nails or screws in these chairs!) and any special techniques needed. Sounds easy, but even for “basic” chairs like these, something as simple as a 4 degree angle can be complicated if you don’t know what you’re doing.  
He has all the legs and rails cut, bored holes for the dowels and tenons. This week he’ll work on the backs and seats then it’s on to sanding and finishing.