I had never heard of Seana Bill before she placed an ad on The E List about her services. A female wood-worker, practically in my own back yard? So intriguing and unusual! I made an appointment and wound my way up to the tip of Sterling Hill Road. There I found Seana, hard at work on a custom painted bookcase in the basement of her family’s antique homestead. It’s fair to say that Seana grew up around wood. Her father meticulously reconstructed their 18th century saltbox by hand, hand-planing the interior paneling and rebuilding the fireplaces, stone by stone. After college and a move to Baltimore, Seana was disappointed with the sort of furniture she could afford for her new apartment. As a hobby, she started making her own, learning the techniques along the way. She loved it, in fact, more than she loved teaching high school physics. In a somewhat drastic move, she relocated back to Lyme and began piecing together furniture from wood salvaged from the family property. While she can build anything, she has her own style and her works have been snapped up by local retailers: Fairhaven Furniture in New Haven and Elle Design Studio in Chester. She employs mortise and tenon construction and builds her furniture to last hundreds of years. The work ranges from custom solid wood kitchen cabinetry, (no plywood boxes for her!), to refacing old cabinets, to custom furniture to suit the period of your house or style. The girl can build anything! See some examples of cabinetry and furniture on her website, here: www.seanabillcustomwoodworking.com