Our Shop and Setting

We live and work in Wimberley, Texas, a small town in the hill country, 35 miles southwest of Austin.  After fifteen years on the Latchford Ranch, we built a new shop, showroom, and family residence across the Blanco River from the town square.

Our old shop in the barn had a certain charm and a giant live oak shade tree.  But it didn't have good light, insulation, or enough room, and the sloping, cowboy concrete floor was rough enough to wear out your boots prematurely.  There was no showroom on the place either.  However, it was cheap enough to permit experimentation and innovation, and it enabled us to build a little furniture making business and now, a compound of our own design and construction, tailored for what we do.

In July of 2000, having made a deal to survey and purchase two acres of cedar thicket, I began with machete and compass.  By August, all hands went to construction work.  We moved a building that we had built at the old shop and added on to it to make the showroom /finishing room with an office in it.  The shop we built of Autoclaved Aerated Concrete Block (AAC block) with Structural Insulated Panels for the roof (SIPS).  The shop has natural light from a clerestory, a convenient layout, a humidity controlled room for wood and assembly, and a remarkable thermal performance — warm in the winter, what there is of it, and warm in the summer, there is plenty of that and warm is much better than hot.  In March of 2001, we began making rocking chairs.

	Shop		Showroom / Finishing Room

While keeping the furniture making going, we built a house on this land for the Weeks family.  Leslie and I can walk down the hill to work.

This land development and the structures on it are certified by the Austin Energy Commercial Green Building Program for achieving a high standard of sustainable design and construction.  (You may view the certificate we were awarded.)  This compliments our commitment to sustainably harvested wood and our Forest Stewardship Council "chain of custody" certification explained in the "Our Medium" section of this site.

If you have some knowledge of woodworking, you might be interested in the layout of the Shop and of the Showroom/Finishing Room to understand the scale of our endeavor.