My latest non-software project has been working over my kitchen. Replacing appliances, designing and building a new island, etc. Though not finished, here's what it looks like. The side opening is for a pullout trash container.
Work was suspended over the winter when the garage was getting just too cold for it to be any fun. That, even after I insulated the garage door.
I'm not very hardcore about working on the house, so I've just been dabbling. If I was married, my wife would have killed me by now. The kitchen level has been a mess for the last 9 months.
I also made a pair of 10-move puzzle boxes for my nephews and nieces. Each Christmas I give them some kind of an experience (a camp, music lessons, ski trip, whatever). Because they get a note, I like to make it interesting for them to figure out what their gift is. So each year it's a puzzle. Normally word or number puzzles, but this time I went with a physical puzzle.
If I ever do another such box, I'll be sure to get the grain properly oriented. I did it the way I did in order to minimize cutoffs. Plywood ain't cheap. The boxes were my own design, using Sketchup.
Which reminds me that I've written programs for taking the Sketchup designs and laying the parts out on sheet plywood. I used another one to lay out the sticks for the island top on the lumber that I had. And another one to figure out how to glue them up for a nice pattern in the top.
I love it when I can write software that I'm going to use.
These days, I'm rewriting the warp prototype's autopilot stuff. These are the times when I wish my math skills were stronger.
And I've really gotta give that thing a better name than "warp prototype".