gift.

when i started my new job last year, the current dean of admissions was about to retire.

so, as his retirement gift to each person that worked in student admissions [i know, that's completely backwards - but true], he offered to build something of their choice.

he has a hobby of being a carpenter. and a fabulous one.
since i was only going to be working for a few months before he retired, i assumed that i was not included in this offer.  especially since everyone here has worked in this department anywhere from ten to twenty-four years. 

but, he graciously offered to build little ol' three month employee [me] something too.


he asked me to find something that i liked and send him a picture.


i immediately knew what i would ask for.


i have been wanting this chest from pottery barn since before we got married.
[we being me and worker man, not me and mr. dean :)]

i mean, everytime we walked into pottery barn i would go and drool over it.


isn't it fabulous?



well, i showed him the pictures above and he said he would be glad to make this for me.

i had only seen pictures of his previous work and heard from my coworkers how amazing their piece of furniture was.  so i had my hopes high.


but let me just tell you,  when i got to go pick this thing up last week....i was in awe.


words can't explain how incredible this thing is.



the quality and design is so much better than the chest i would have paid $600 for at pottery barn!



he even put a tray in the top to put our remotes in.  which is an extra that he thought of.

because we couldn't find any hardware that looked similar, he handmade the hardware to look even better than the ones at pottery barn.



and he thought to put child-proof hinges so that in the future [the far away future] our kids won't smash their fingers in the chest.

he also handmade the center latch.  which is actually a real latch.  much better than the pottery barn imitation latch!

hands down, the nicest piece of furniture in my house.








isn't it fabulous?!?