BIRDHOUSE BUILT FOR THE HIGH-RENT DISTRICT : WOODWORKER PUTS IN SO MANY EXTRAS, HE WON'T PART WITH IT.Byline: Joe Bigham Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. With 16 rooms, a dozen gables and other interesting architectural angles, the house Lewis La Salle La Salle, city (1990 pop. 9,717), La Salle co., N Ill., on the Illinois River; settled 1830, inc. 1852. It forms a tricity unit with Peru and Oglesby. Corn, wheat, and soybeans are grown, and cattle and hogs are raised. built should satisfy the most discriminating tastes. But La Salle isn't sure his house ever will be home to the birds for which it was built. The birdhouse, 28 inches high and 32 inches wide, seems too pretty to expose to the elements even though its tiny shake shingles shingles: see herpes zoster. shingles or herpes zoster Acute viral skin and nerve infection. Groups of small blisters appear along certain nerve segments, most often on the back, sometimes after a dull ache at the site; pain becomes are weatherproof and the siding has plenty of bright white paint to ward off the elements. ``I don't think I'll ever put it up as a birdhouse,'' La Salle says. ``Everybody says not to let the birds mess it up.'' For now, the birdhouse is being displayed at a new art museum in this San Joaquin Valley Noun 1. San Joaquin Valley - a vast valley in central California known for its rich farmland Calif., California, Golden State, CA - a state in the western United States on the Pacific; the 3rd largest state; known for earthquakes farming community. Sitting on an equally intricate wooden pedestal that La Salle made, the Victorian-style domicile domicile (dŏm`əsīl'), one's legal residence. This may or may not be the place where one actually resides at any one time. The domicile is the permanent home to which one is presumed to have the intention of returning whenever the purpose won a blue ribbon blue ribbon denotes highest honor. [Western Folklore: Brewer Dictionary, 127] See : Prize and best of show at this year's Merced County Fair. La Salle spent about 200 hours cutting little pieces of wood into fancy shapes and putting the pieces together. The hardest part may have been tapering about 2,000 tiny cedar shingles to get them one-sixteenth of an inch to three-quarters of an inch wide. ``The roof is actually waterproof because shingles lap three times, just like a regular one,'' La Salle says. The birdhouse's exterior is made of Ponderosa pine ponderosa pine pinusponderosa. , while the interior is made of waterproof plyboard. La Salle placed a row of eyelets painted with gold leaf at the top of the roof on all four sides to give the look of a decorative fence. Fake birds of different colors bought at a craft store stand on perches outside the holes, which real birds might enter if they were allowed to. ``I did it for the fun of it more than anything else,'' La Salle says. Woodworking is nothing new to La Salle, a 73-year-old retired contractor who built custom homes during his career. ``I've been fooling around with lumber since I was 10- or 12-years-old,'' he explains. ``My dad was a building contractor building contractor n → contratista m/f de obras building contractor n → entrepreneur m (en bâtiment) building contractor , then went into the flooring business. From about the fifth grade on through high school, I worked evenings when I could and on weekends with him.'' In his own business, La Salle did much of the finish carpentry himself and turned that talent into a hobby when he retired. He's made a wheel of fortune, which officers of a local Rotary Club spin to decide which members to fine. A couple of rocking horses were donated to a church, which sold them at a bazaar for $600 and $900. A garden bench La Salle made also brought $600. Two carousel horses he refurbished grace the family home along with watercolors painted by his wife, Ellie. Somewhere on each of La Salle's woodworking projects is a brass plate with an inscription proclaiming that he did the work and the date it was completed. The birdhouse plate states ``Crafted by Lewis La Salle May 1996.'' His next project will be to carve fancy little town criers similar to some he saw selling for $8,500 apiece in Bavaria a couple of years ago. La Salle took pictures of those town criers and has laminated blocks of poplar Poplar, city, England Poplar, former metropolitan borough, SE England. See Tower Hamlets. poplar, in botany poplar: see willow. wood together which he will use to make his own version. ``They're sitting in my shop,'' he says. ``I have a pattern made up but haven't started on it yet. I'll get around to it.'' CAPTION(S): Photo |
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