The time to sand and finish just slays me for a project like your road vault. That's at least a week there, just sanding, I would guess.
My dad was a carpenter, so I grew up on job sites too, and worked construction quite a bit until I was done school. I do like building in wood because of that, but not so much for the projects that take all your free time for quite awhile. Everything nice takes time, and often time away from other things.
I am building a fly rod tube rack for my gear closet out of some scrap walnut that was used to make the shipping case for some hardwood furniture I bought, but I have spent SO MUCH time sanding because everything is odd sized, or I am rough cutting one good section out of a bowed and junky board. Even for that little simple project, basic design made with great wood, it will be in the 10-20 hrs timescale, working to get all these odd pieces uniform and fitted.
My dad was a carpenter, so I grew up on job sites too, and worked construction quite a bit until I was done school. I do like building in wood because of that, but not so much for the projects that take all your free time for quite awhile. Everything nice takes time, and often time away from other things.
I am building a fly rod tube rack for my gear closet out of some scrap walnut that was used to make the shipping case for some hardwood furniture I bought, but I have spent SO MUCH time sanding because everything is odd sized, or I am rough cutting one good section out of a bowed and junky board. Even for that little simple project, basic design made with great wood, it will be in the 10-20 hrs timescale, working to get all these odd pieces uniform and fitted.