Rick T. Kuehnast Building & Carpentry

02/25/2021

This song has been stuck in my head for weeks and it still sometimes gives me chills. It's partially about an idea that the burning of fossil fuels is releasing the ghosts of previous life on Earth (since that's what fossil fuels are made of after all). A haunted, sort of serenely observant, unwavering stride with which to approach our shared apocalyptic anxieties.

[My half-functional whistling is the result of an acute facial trauma years ago. It's weird and some days are just randomly better than others]

03/17/2020

Reposting myself from years ago. This is a favorite of mine that rings true now as much as ever. Time to shine, fellow humans

I first saw this poem one day when I was riding the T in Boston, years ago, and it has always resonated and stuck with me.

03/15/2018

I first saw this poem one day when I was riding the T in Boston, years ago, and it has always resonated and stuck with me.

03/15/2018

New kitchen, bathroom, and exterior side deck, full interior refinished, front porch refinished and exterior re-sided

03/15/2018

New kitchen, refinished bathrooms and hardwood floors, full interior repainting, and previous cold attic converted into finished living space with 2 bedrooms and a full bathroom

03/14/2018

I'll post "before" pictures if and when I find them

03/12/2018

This 1940's blacksmith shop had fallen into a dismal state, sunken 10" into the ground on one side and with a maple tree growing into the roof. After removing two metric tons of scrap metal from inside the building, more than half of the floor frame and sill beams were discovered to have been rotted to soil. Carpenter ants lived in what was left of the lower wall frame, and a large hole had been punched through the roof.

03/12/2018

A gross underrepresentation of smaller projects I've done for myself and others in MA and VT

03/11/2018

A quick demonstration of the simple but effective water delivery and drainage system for the Blacksmith Shop House sink, recorded while the shop was currently being lived in. The longer video walkthrough of the Blacksmith Shop House includes an explanation of the drain system

03/11/2018

A video-walkthrough of the (mostly) finished 1940's Blacksmith Shop House, after its transformation from a rotted and decrepit scrap metal storage shed that had been slowly falling over and sinking deeper into the ground for decades.

Corrections: The corner of the shop in which the forge was built is resting on ledge, not fieldstone....and the clapboards are quartersawn white pine, not white cedar. Also...in the video, I make it sound like the roof assembly is something I cobbed together; in actuaIity, it's a double-purlin, vapor-open, ventilated/cold roof assembly that I thoroughly researched, designed and built to handle the heat and moisture dynamics of a small living space with a true cathedral ceiling. I was a little tired when I recorded this video :-)

03/11/2018

Things that I have built for our two ungrateful goats. To their credit, they have helped...once...sort of