My last post generated just the right amount of negative commentary for my tastes. Some people thought I was just poking a stick in their eye. Others thought that I wasn’t talking nonsense and was just reinforcing the framework of their lives. Either way, I leave you with this in conclusion: the only, in my opinion, good self help book is a how to book. If I ever feel that I need help I’ve never once considered emotional help but rather I look for the tools to help me climb that mountain. How to tie knots. How to make snow shoes. I don’t look up how to feel like a winner. You’ll feel like a winner on top of that summit. Now let’s talk about going back to the future.
If you haven’t heard about how terrible 2016 was you must either (A) have better things to do, or (B) you don’t have the Internet and aren’t reading this blog anyway. I fall in the former category and just happen to think that 2016 was fantastic. I left my job, traveled the world and started my own business and less-than-successful blog. I had a blast doing all of that.
At a dinner party this weekend a story started out something like this, “I think when I was 19 I had the worst year of my life.” The storyteller reminisced about the doldrums of life living alone and away from home while trudging through a college degree you don’t see the point of working for. By the end of the night we were all smiling and laughing at his wedding video – a sure sign of improvement as time marched on.
Because my birthday is so close to the new year I often find myself thinking about the past and the future. Last year I turned thirty and now, as I draw closer to discounts at McDonald’s, I thought about why we dwell so much on the past anyways. For me, things are looking up and up. Raum Furniture is growing. I keep a guy pretty busy helping me out and am already looking to get my own dedicated shop space.
With those things in mind, I have a few resolutions for the new year. When I say resolutions, I mean things on my task list. Most importantly you’ll be seeing changes to the website. Little bit of cleanup work, streamline the homepage and finally get some furniture pieces from our living room collection listed.
I also will be adding a page that discusses the other type of work Raum does. What other things you say? My largest customer base consists of Houston based small businesses. Recently I’ve been contracted to design and build organic produce shelving units for a trendy downtown grocery store. My next project is a batch of storage shelves for a direct to consumer fresh produce delivery service. Those guys are so fun to work with that we are designing a grain silo that will be converted into a skid mounted bar that can be drug around their farm for events. In March (let me know if you can help!) I’ll be volunteering with Bounce to help out with flood damage repairs on people’s homes in Houston.
That’s not all – I got asked to bid giant art walls for a world class art exhibit at a brand new on campus building for one of Houston’s esteemed universities. Big or small, Raum is doing it all. We love to build furniture, but most of all we love craftsmanship. Seems like there is less of less of that in the world these days but we are striving to do our best with every board cut, every seam welded and every last stroke of a brush.
With all of that rambling, let’s get to some photos of our current projects:
Welded the prototype sawhorses for www.weldables.com
Tons of parts to make boxes for fresh produce.
Welded steel frames. Sealed and ready for a semi-gloss clear.
Boxes and racks coming together.
What I guess I’m saying after all that is we are working on big things and having a blast. I can’t tell you how excited I am for this year. The blog will be updated with some of our projects, more philosophy shall ensue and keep a weather eye out for much needed updates to the look and feel of this website. You know where to go if you need something built 🙂
Don’t forget that Texas sales taxes are due January 20th!!