By King Harris ~
Richard Decater is a fine carpenter, and he has little problem in telling you that.
Richard is the proprietor of what he calls Carpenter Shop San Miguel. I recently met him while on assignment for Tolosa Press, which wanted his story for their upcoming magazine “Living Lavishly.”
What intrigued me about Richard was not just his skilled craftsmanship, but his amazing ability to find a way to survive the challenges that life threw at him.
When he started out many years ago wielding nails, hammers, and saws, business was booming. He lived on a 17-acre ranch in Lake Tahoe, building houses, as well as tearing old ones down and collecting vintage wood in the process.
That kind of wood would become key in his later life.
Then along came the economic recession in 2007, the work dried up for the next several years, and he found himself homeless after moving from Tahoe to San Miguel, where he lived on the street and slept in the nearby fields.
All he had was a car that didn’t run, his tools, stacks of vintage wood for which he found a storage place, and his skills. Having little or no money but refusing food stamps and the like because he didn’t believe in welfare assistance, he managed to eke out a living by doing odd jobs and various other chores to keep him afloat.
They were painful times, he told me. The only thing that saved him was being able to get the trust of the community, which he did.
“What kept me going was my belief in being responsible. Whatever the job required, I felt that if I always showed up on time and did the best job I could, any job, I would eventually make it.”
Richard never panhandled. Instead he washed cars and pulled weeds, then began using his carpentry skills to fix whatever needed fixing.
At the time, it occurred to him that rather than looking for work 8-hours a day, he could make a product and go out and sell it. He had the product, his vintage wood; all he needed was a place to process and refine it.
When he finally earned enough money, he found a drafty old place on 12th Street, which leaked like a sieve, everywhere except on his bed.
“I’d be carrying out 5-gallon buckets of rainwater every 30 minutes or so.” Richard fixed the leaks and stopped the flooding, then began making what he calls his best product, that being laminated vintage wood paneling.
One fellow, he said, wanted some of that paneling to cover his office walls and when Richard finished the job, said, “I just wanted you to know, Richard; you greatly exceeded my expectations.”
The guy was so impressed that he had his entryway done in the same fashion.
Today Richard lives in and works out of a big red barn on Mission Street in San Miguel, not far from the fields that he used to sleep in when he was down and out.
With those days behind him, the 53-year old can now concentrate on his business. Visit his website at: carpentershopsanmiguel.com to see what kinds of incredible things he makes.
“I am very grateful for what the people of this community have done for me over the years,” he told me as we parted ways. As I got into my car to leave, I thought the best tool in your barn, Richard, may very well be your inspiration.
