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.