Dan has been texting us photos of his construction project. All of the wallboard is up now. There is still mudding, painting and doors to do, then it should be done. He plans on getting the doors from one of Habitat’s ReStore outlets. After he texted us the pictures, he sent us the following text:

I just landed a commission to build
a coffee table, a dining table and a matching bench!

Sometimes texting does not have the bandwidth necessary for meaningful communication, so I called Dan. I caught him waking back from lunch with Annie. They went their separate ways and I got to speak with Dan.

A friend’s mother, an investment banker commissioned the work. She just closed on a LA property that to her is an investment property. She lives out-of-town and will only use it while visiting LA. Dan got upfront money for materials. He plans on finishing this project by the end of November. Afterword, Dan has a gallery lined up to sell future product. The gallery will take a 40% cut, but also plans to jack up the price by 44%. So, Dan will actually realize a ~4% net raise.

With all of this going on, he is also helping his classmate and friend, Amanda. She also graduated last May from CalArts, in theatrical costume design. That’s right folks, Dan is cutting and sewing. He also plans on helping with costume design. By Dan’s estimation, Amanda is the most successful of all of his classmates. She recently participated in a movie project staring Natalie Portman and that hunky guy from the Twilight series, Taylor Lautner.