Emmett Agee creates beautiful wood furniture
\nBy MARK NEWMAN Courier staff writer
\nOTTUMWA \u00e2\u20ac\u201d If Emmett Agee shopped at furniture stores, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be broke.<\/p>\n
Agee and his wife, Esther, have a house filled with hand-carved wooden furniture. From the dining room set to the grandfather clock, nearly every wooden item in their home was built by Emmett.
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\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My father was a carpenter; I learned the trade from my dad, but I always fooled around with cabinetmaking,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I worked both trades. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re both connected.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
A simplified explanation of the difference between carpentry and the cabinetmaking Emmett holds so dear is that cabinetmakers create their pieces in a shop; carpenters generally work on the job site.<\/p>\n
Not that Agee hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t put in his time in construction: He was a foreman on the job decades ago that put the addition on the back of the Ottumwa Courier building.<\/p>\n
Now 90 years old and retired, Emmett has slowed down. Slowed down, but not stopped. He just finished a music console to hold his CD player and CDs. Esther said her husband can be found listening to old country music nearly every day.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He lost his wife; I lost my husband. After six years of being widowed, I found him on the dance floor,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n
They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been married 26 years.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got 10 kids between us and have wonderful relationships with all of them,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Emmett said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I build a lot of furniture for the kids.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
For example, he cut just the parts for 15 grandfather clock cases. He bought some \u00e2\u20ac\u0153works\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for the clock, then started assembling the clocks. He gave one to each child.<\/p>\n
One of the clocks stands in his dining room today. It shares space with the hand-built dining room table and chairs. Nearby sit other Emmett Agee creations: a magazine rack, a plant stand and on the table, a lazy susan.<\/p>\n
The bedrooms, the living room and the kitchen are stocked with hardwood furnishings, too.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think the oak is the most beautiful,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Esther, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so heavy! Even an [oak] dining room chair is heavy, especially when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re 90 years old.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
And at that age, Emmett has slowed down on the number of pieces he builds. Which, said Esther, is a good thing.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any place to put them.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Emmett Agee creates beautiful wood furniture By MARK NEWMAN Courier staff writer OTTUMWA \u00e2\u20ac\u201d If Emmett Agee shopped at furniture stores, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be broke. Agee and his wife, Esther, have a house filled with hand-carved wooden furniture. From the dining room set to the grandfather clock, nearly every wooden item in their home was built […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-furniture-indonesia-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}