It all
started over 20 years ago when I was in middle school. I had my first
introduction to woodworking in shop class. Since the first day of class
I was eager to get building something. The teacher, seeing how eager I
was about this class, picked my design, a simple two shelf pine
bookcase, which still exists today. Soon after that I bought a
couple of woodworking books and my first two power tools, a 1 ¼ hp
router and a jigsaw. I used to sit in the basement of my parents
house, in my makeshift workshop, sawing and routering any piece of wood
that I could find. I remember thinking that it would be great to make
wooden signs with my router and sell them. Then
when I was in high school I took another shop class, where we learned
how to make dovetail joints. This time the teacher had us build step
stools out of hardwood, using dovetails.
Over the next 12 years
I went to college, earned a Bachelor of Science degree, got a job in
the corporate world and continued to do woodworking as a hobby. As the
years passed I added to my tool arsenal and learned new
techniques. In June 2006 our daughter
Nicole, had a relapse of her cancer that she had been fighting for the previous three years. At the time I had left the corporate world and was in
between jobs, not knowing what I wanted to do. Knowing how much I
enjoyed woodworking, my wife suggested that I start my own custom
woodworking business. This would allow me to do something that I loved,
but would allow me to help take care of Nicole. Later that year on
December 7, 2006, Nicole went home to the Lord at the age of 12. Then after
months of planning and after 20 years of woodworking, Kaleo Custom Woodworking was in operation. Since the company has started we have been
really blessed with continuous work, but also with the talent to do
something that I love to do. As I read once before, if you wake up in
the morning dreading to go to work, it might be time to find a new job.
"People who enjoy what they are doing, invariably do it well."
