Inhaling Paint Fumes, Building Wine Racks

If the following post sounds a little off, it's only because I've spent the last two hours in an enclosed plastic wrapped area in our basement staining the wine racks we're building and I may be slightly high on paint fumes.  I didn't realize it until I finished and felt a little light headed.  I had to go outside for some fresh air and it was the first time this week being outside actually felt GOOD.

Anyway, spending two hours by myself painting wood and inhaling paint fumes gave me time to hallucinate. 
I mean think.  It gave me time to think.  It made me think as I was carefully painting every square inch of our wine rack, that as proud as I am of the wood veneer I ironed on all the edges and cleaned up with a razor blade, my "woodworking" pales in comparison to Aaron's Uncle Don.  Don is a retired carpenter who has found an amazing skill and hobby in woodworking.  While I don't have pictures of all of his work, I do have one that I will post here. 

Our homebuilt wine racks are made from plywood and are designed to hold mass quanitites of wine.  Recall all those carboys of wine we have in our basement? Those will all be getting bottled and we'll need a place to store them. 

Don, however, designed and built a simply amazing, quality craftmanship boutique wine rack for us as a wedding gift.  And this lovely piece is definitely worthy of a shout out.  I'm not sure how many hours he spent whittling away at this, but I can imagine it was quite time consuming.  It is definitely one of the most thoughtful gifts Aaron or I have ever received. 

All the details are what makes this so special.  The grapes at the top are actually cut from a piece of wood called purple heart that turns that purple color naturally when it is cut.  Which makes me glad to know that Don was not inhaling paint fumes when he made this.  All of these pieces were cut individually from different types of wood and placed together like a puzzle in order to give it its round shape. 

And look, it even has our names on it!

Thanks, Don! 

We still have some more staining to do on our silly little wine racks before they are complete.  Then organizing the rest of that messy room.  I'll post pictures of the wine cellar once it is all complete, well mostly.