My Big Little Shop

The build that started it all

Back in 2013, my wife and I had just returned from a vacation. Upon returning, we received a call from my mother-in-law. "I'm ready to move to Florida" she says. Well we had been trying to encourage her for years to make the move but she just wasn't ready. Her roots were in CT, where we're originally from, and that was home. But with her health failing, it was time and we wanted her to live with us.  This would require a sizable renovation/remodel be done to our house. Nancy, my mother-in-law, used a walker and couldn't get around as well as she once could. Our doorways were narrow, the main bathroom had a bathtub and the list of things that needed to be changed goes on from there. So with the help of my mom, her husband, my wife and daughter, a few friends and a very tiny bit of sub contractors that we hired, the journey of months of demo and construction began.

Our home was a modest 3 bedroom, 2 bath single level block home. Your standard Florida fare built in the late 70's to early 80's.. At about 1,800 sq ft with an oversized 2 car garage, the garage being one of the largest in our subdivision, with most homes having only a single car garage that you could never get a vehicle in. That being said, that third bedroom that was once our office would need to now be used as a bedroom. What to do with the office.......convert the garage. So that's what we did.

We took more than half the square footage of the garage and it became our office, laundry and storage area. 2 closets were framed out and a wall was framed across the entire width of the garage. What once was a wide open large space that housed all our personal "stuff" and could fit both our vehicles in, was now about a 21' x 10' space. 

Now with the garage conversion completed, we renovated the old office space and moved our daughter into that room. Her old bedroom would become my mother-in-law's new bedroom. That's when the real construction began. We gutted the main bathroom and widened it by taking space from the closet in our daughter's old bedroom. We then framed out a new closet in the bedroom. We tore out the bathtub, jack hammered the concrete slab, moved the tub drain and did the same in order to move the toilet over to allow for the new wider shower space. Oh did I mention in this process we discovered a load bearing CLOSET??? Yep, roof trusses sitting in the middle of the closet ceiling, supported by nothing. Needless to say, we fixed this issue. From there we widened doorways, gutted the master bath, completely redesigned the master bedroom and expanded the living room and more.

This project started in May 2013 and we lived and worked in it until November 2013 when, except for some finishes and punch list items, we completed the renovation. Time to go get mom! We flew up to CT Thanksgiving weekend, packed up her van and U-haul and drove back to Florida. She absolutely fell in love with what we had been done and felt like she was home. Our friends and family here fell in love with her and she was immediately their family too. Then tragedy struck. On January 16, 2014, Nancy passed away from a massive heart attack. Although her health was failing fighting cancer, the heart attack was completely unexpected and we were devastated. The following month my grandmother, a pillar of our family, passed away. Needless to say, 2014 was not good to us.

Fast forward to February 2016. Growing frustration at my full time job was making me miserable. I was coming home from work and completely not myself. I needed an outlet. #mybiglittleshop , Mangrove Designs begins. My wife, daughter and I love all the DIY shows of course, Fixer Upper etc. Well we needed a new dining room table. I said, "I can build that". And so my stress relief began. One issue, I had pretty much no tools. I think at the time I owned 1 drill and a circular saw. So I borrowed a 10" miter saw from a friend and bought a Kreg Jig and away I went. Once completed I was shocked at what I had done out of My Big Little Shop with the most meager of tools. And of course, as has happened to a lot of my fellow makers and woodworkers, friends and family see what you have built and start to inquire about building for them. And so here we are in 2017........

2 days ago when putting the finishing touches on a farmhouse platform bed for my client, this process that began some 4 plus years ago came flooding into my head. I was proud to share what I had built in #mybiglittleshop but was embarrassed to show the shop itself. Why did I feel like that? Probably because I see all the talent out there in our community and some of the gorgeous spaces that some have to work in. The thousands upon thousands of dollars in tools they have. How can I compete? I want to build a brand right? How can I do that working out of this small space? So unprofessional, I thought. But then it came to me. We are all getting our hands dirty. We're all designing and building what interests us and started doing it for any multitude of reasons. And I was positive a lot of fellow makers and woodworkers felt just like me. Building stuff they love and not wanting to share where they are doing it. Who cares what the shop looks like?!?! So I decided to bite the bullet and post my small, disorganized space that I'm doing big things in. I wanted to get as many involved with me and come along on this journey as possible. And so I started the hashtag #mybiglittleshop and the response has been awesome. So amazing to see everyone's shops, big and small and what they are working on!

So thank you to everyone who has joined in with #mybiglittleshop ! Be proud of your space and take pride in your work! And keep doing great things in your #mybiglittleshop

KC