While Larry built the samples, I left a general manager position in the restaurant business and joined him in an earnest search for as many measured drawings of the interiors of Federal Style homes as could be found. The nearby University of Miami library, county library interlibrary loan, and the Library of Congress’s online treasure trove “HABS” provided us with thousands of photographs and measured drawings, and many additional pattern books for us to study.
Larry selected the best examples from the New England area, hand-drew the profiles, and we compiled the drawings into a set of three-ring binders to use as a catalogue for future customers. We never dreamed that this ungainly set of three ring binders was the beginning of a book -- we were just certain that the style would have a great deal of appeal to others if only they could see it.
The hand-drawn profiles that had been invaluable when studying the style had, however, some serious drawbacks: for the potential customer, a profile required far too much imagination on the part of the viewer, and our drafting skills would never produce a drawing with enough precision to produce a knife to cut the profile.
Larry had read an article in a popular woodworking magazine in which the cabinetmaker/author had recommended using a Macintosh-only CAD program called PowerCADD. If the moldings were ever to be reproduced, it would be necessary to make CAD-type drawings of the designs. Neither of us had ever used a CAD program: I was a PC user whose only experience with Macs was when I would use the computers at Kinko’s because they had better software than I did, and Larry had never turned on a computer.
