How did you fare…

... over the last year? This question was posed on the forum - www.woodshopnews.com/forum - by one of the mods but I thought it would be interesting to “bring it up front.”

For my self, last year was a bit of an "odd duck." After seriously injuring my hand in '06, I was not all that anxious to "get back on the horse.” But around mid year, we got a call from a contractor we had worked with on a number of high-end projects. He and his wife were building a house for themselves, although they were leaving open the option of putting it on the market once it was done. We ended up taking on the fabrication of all of the interior doors, the entry doors and all of the casework for the house. All together it was a pretty good project that we could foresee keeping us busy through the winter.

Since we took that job, the whole market imploded and I don't see much new action in our area. The last time I was on the job site (a few weeks ago) the contractor was on the phone trying to scare up some work himself. He has let all of his people go except for one guy who he is keeping on to help him finish his own house. This is the first time in the twenty plus years my shop has been in its current location when I did not have at least several good projects under bid or "in the can.” So it is not too rosy looking right now. But I always like to at least try to be optimistic so I am hopeful that this new administration will provide some sort of stimulus to get things moving again.

D.D.