ETO Doors Staff's Page

There are plenty of studies that explain how we humans make decisions, and the upshot seems to be that we really should not make them for ourselves. Whether choosing what to have for breakfast, who to marry and where to keep our kitchen trash--these are things we should perhaps let others decide. We are mired in our reasons, our competition with the Joneses, our need to control our destinies and a irrepressible urge to express our creativity (read: reinvent the wheel). This applies to building…See More

Me, I choose the Historic Redstone Castle!This is all hypothetical, of course, but in this game if you move to your fantasy castle, let's also pretend that you don't have to work unless you want to, your castle comes staffed with landscapers and maintenance engineers,…See More

We're building an earthship. Yup; pounding dirt into almost 1,000 tires to make the foundation and walls of a 1,100 sq. ft. home.The part of this project I love the most is that everything is still in front of us. We're not scraping old paint or replacing outdated cupboards. We're pounding dirt and dreaming of the beautiful fixtures…See More

It's hot today!I was looking for ways to stay cool and found a great list of how to sit in the shade, sit in the tub, sit outside, sit inside, blow into a glass of ice. . . you know, things that keep you cool if you have nothing to do.But what if you have projects to work on? Maybe you're cleaning out your attic, weeding in the sun or working on a construction site.How do you stay cool then?…See More

My grandfather grew up in the 20s, the youngest of nine children. During the depression, his family, like many others, lost the family farm. I can only barely begin to imagine what life was like then. Certainly they worked hard and made do and grew food. I wonder what splurging was for them? Sugar? A trip to town? If my…See More

Your spring cleaning window has passed.You either did it or you didn't and now it is time to organize what's left. We've got options: closets, drawers, garages, under beds, in our parents' attics . . .I've been thinking about storing things that are beautiful, that I want to use or at least look at.Here are some interesting shelving ideas found by googling "interesting shelves":…See More

It's warm, the ocean calls, the lakes are getting populated, the snow is melting and the rivers are up. You know what that means? It's boating season!Water + Human stuff does kind of weird me out. Houses underwater in these crazy floods they've been dealing with in the midwest and south? Not only is that sad, but it is just eerie. Sunken boats? Eeeek!BUT, here's a cool thing about shipwrecks. The old wood is beautiful. Check this out: (from the…See More

A carpenter friend of mine was hired by an eccentric woman to turn a barn into a dog shelter. He and his partner were the third set of carpenters to work on this project, so they started work with question marks hovering over their heads. Three weeks later they were outta there. A new set of carpenters moved in and a few weeks later word got around that they, too, had moved on.Why are some work relationships easy and others hard?In the case of the dog-lady, there were many obvious issues, the…See More

What makes doing it yourself fun?When I was a college student living in a basement apartment, I had an idea for my bathroom. This tiny tiny bathroom had exposed pipes and a concrete shower stall and was just, um, icky. On a long drive I had an idea, and by that evening the bathroom was transformed. Some metallic sage Ralph…See More

Interior design is an ever-changing obstacle course. No one project is the same, trends and products change like the weather, and one person's masterpiece will certainly be met with shrugs or rolling eyes from another. Working with any specific color palette is like basing the success of your obstacle course on one element of your outfit--like your shorts. Certainly your choice of shorts has an impact on your final time, but without…See More