ABOUT US
The Against the Grain Family
My wife and I - Iceland Honeymoon
From left to right - Breeana, Me, Austin, Gena, Maelyn. Having some fun at our wedding!
Our tradition - feet pics while travelling. We have a LOT of them!!
Dillon
Hadley
Jax
Addison
Jet and Kimba
Chicken Rep
The Key
"The Lamp"
OUR STORY
Prologue
Once upon a time...just kidding. I'm sure not all of you peruse websites looking for long stories...so bear with me. For those of you that do "suffer" through this short dissertation, you will get to know me and my family a bit more intimately. For those of you that don't, well...I completely understand. I'm not much of a reader myself. But, hopefully you will at least find our work interesting, and if you need some work done, you will consider Against the Grain (so go ahead and check out our Services and Gallery pages for some ideas on what we can hopefully do for you).
How I Got Here
For those of you that are still here, well...here it goes! I graduated from Central Missouri State University (now known as University of Central Missouri) in 1997 with a Construction Management degree and Military Science/Army ROTC minor. I then was commissioned into the US Army as an Infantry Lieutenant and that became a pretty wild ride. After going through all of that training, my family and I got stationed in Germany (an absolutely beautiful part of the world!). There I served 3 years and did a peace keeping mission in Kosovo. I then was transitioned into a Military Intelligence Officer (yes, yes, I know...quite the oxymoron). I got stationed at Fort Bragg, NC, where I got to jump out of perfectly good airplanes...and did one tour in Afghanistan, and one in Iraq. Shortly after returning home from Iraq, I went to the Washington DC area for my final assignment before I got out in 2006. I went to work as a Construction Project Manager and worked from 2006 through 2019 as a Construction PM for the Kroger Co in California and Kansas. I finally (in all honesty) got a little fed up with the "corporate" world and decided I wanted to do something I've loved for a very long time (since the 8th grade as a matter of fact).
My Family
As you can tell from some of my pics above, I am very proud of my family (the humans and the animals both...lol). My wife (my MUCH better half - Gena Johnson, MD) and I got married in Aug 2015. If you are from around these parts, there is a strong chance you've heard of her...she is a Physician and the Chief Medical Officer at Hunter Health Care Clinic in Wichita, KS. On top of that, she also runs her own business (Ultimate Beauty Health & Wellness) where she offers medical aesthetic services such as Botox, Juvederm Filler, and chemical peels. AND (although I have no idea where she finds the time) she makes jewelry, soaps, perfume and facial scrubs. Eventually I will get a link on this page so you can view her products as well. Additionally, we love to travel...I kind of wish I could share all of those with you, but I know that's just way too much information. So...here's a few places we've been: Iceland (twice...love it), Montana (Glacier National Park), Boston, Maine (Acadia National Park), Seattle, Western Canada, Mediterranean Trip (Spain, Italy, France, Monaco), Florida (Orlando and The Keys), Colorado (great skiing trips), California...and I'm sure a few other areas.
My daughters are pretty amazing as well. One of them is currently a senior in college (at my alma mater) majoring in education and is an incredible artist. The other is already done with her training and works at a salon full time and is amazing with her "art" as well...her canvas just happens to be human). My son is a senior in high school, and is all kinds of ready to be graduated (I think we all remember those days). THEN WE HAVE THE MENAGERIE!! We have 4 dogs (Dillon, Jax, Hadley and Addison)...2 cats (Jet and Kimba)...and 12 chickens (Willie, Lou, Elsie, Lila, Miranda, Crystal, Betsy Ross, Hocus, Dora, Dolly, Taylor and Carrie).
Our Logo
I've never worked with a graphic designer before, but we enlisted the help of one of our friends and my uncle to help develop our logo. The only thing my wife and I knew up front was that we wanted the "key" to be integrated into the logo/name. The "key" is a Viking rune that represents love. On our honeymoon trip to Iceland (our first trip there), we were fascinated with the historical references the country still keeps from the age of the Vikings...and of course we fell in love with the folklore, the stories, and the history of it all. So when we got back home to the US, we decided we wanted to have a reminder of just how special that place was...and to always have something to remind us of our love for each other. So we did what all sane/normal adults do nowadays...had the key tattooed on the inside of our wrists...lol.
After a whole lot of back and forth developing the color, the size, the shape, the font, and the spacing of the key and the lettering, we finally agreed on what we now have as our logo.
Why I'm Here
So...you've read the "How I Got Here" section...but the real question for any business is WHY you're here?
First - for me, I love woodworking...the smell, the texture, the grain...you name it, and I love it!
Second - I got a good taste in my mouth for woodworking in the 8th grade when I got to turn a walnut lamp. The lamp actually went to a state competition and still sits on a desk at my mother's house.
Third - ever since I learned of the construction process known as timber framing, I have been utterly infatuated with the beauty that process produces. The exposed wood, the large posts and beams...the wood joinery. It truly is an art that not many people get to appreciate in person! Fourth - working with wood is such a tangible process. You get to design something...then measure, cut, sand, stain, paint, glue, screw, nail...all the while seeing it come together just how you imagined it would (and every once in a while not QUITE how you envisioned it...).
I'm sure there are many more reasons, but to wrap this up, my last reason is having the ability to make a family member, customer or even a stranger look at something I've made and see the appreciation of the beauty of the project written all over their face!
And Finally...
Well, if you're still here, I'm pretty impressed! I hope that you've enjoyed the story of how we are who we are. And I hope you take a few more minutes to look through our pictures and services Against The Grain Woodworks has to offer.
If you feel like the products/services we offer can be a fit for you or your business, please get ahold of us so we can talk about what you're looking for! You can also check out our Facebook page for some in-progress pics and commentary (sometimes a bit sarcastic...but we like to have fun around here!). You can also check out our Pinterest page for some pics of inspiration to develop future projects. You can find the link to both of those sites at the bottom of our pages.
Thank you very much...and we hope to hear from you!
Against The Grain Woodworks