One of the great things about life in our community is the many skills of our neighbors and the way that everyone is so quick to help others, loan tools, or even to do things for the residents here with skills that they have which others may not have. In our case we seem to be able to do most with manual labor, computer skills and Pam has taught hand crafts. Today we realized a benefit of one of our neighbors which we might not otherwise yet have.

Next door is a retired school teacher whose hobby is cabinet making and who has a workshop with all of the specialized tools that this work requires and the skill to use them very well. He has built cabinets for at least six kitchens here, including ours before we owned the home. In our bedroom there is (or was) a space between two closets that just needed a set of built-in drawers. It was one thing that Pam expressed last year when we were looking at the house before we bought it. For just the cost of the materials, Tom my neighbor built us an oak cabinet, eight drawers and did all of the major work. I supplied the finish work as it is a skill that I do have and own most of the tools needed, but borrowed the others from neighbors.

The result is something that makes Pam happy and leaves me just a little bit proud of my part in it! The only negative is that now Pam has eight more drawers in our bedroom and not nearly enough clothing to fill them! I do hope that she doesn't deside to buy enough more clotning to fill all of them!