It started with a stool

When I was five years old, I was spending a lot of weekend time with my grandfather. On one particular weekend, I was once again attached to my grandfather headed to his workshop in the basement. This weekend however, would start my lifetime journey of working with my hands creating things.

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I vividly remember banging nails (yes, he gave me a hammer) and cutting a hand hold for the stool (yes, he gave a five year-old a saw). I look at the tools today and realize that they were appropriate for a five year-old to use and the workmanship shows in the stool. That experience was a great start to my woodworking and construction career, one that I will never forget.

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Though I had no idea what I was doing or even what we were making, this project turned into a step stool that is with me to this day; I never tackle a project without it. "The Green Stool" has helped me renovate numerous houses and it is a tool I can’t work without. My latest creation, The Molding Genie, has become my new go-to helping hand tool. Like the stool allows me to reach areas just out of reach, The Molding Genie acts as another set of hands, allowing me to install long moldings, doors, windows, and anything else that would require another set of hands. It is truly a game changer for the weekend warrior and residential builder or remodeler.

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During my latest home renovation project, we decided to install crown molding and wainscoting in the bedroom. A fun and rewarding project to say the least but installing crown molding by yourself, even for someone who has done it before, can be a challenge to install without damaging the walls which would requiring patching and painting.

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This one had me stumped: How do you install crown molding and wainscoting by yourself without damaging the walls? Yes, this led to procrastination on my part. There was a pile of crown molding and wainscoting parts in the basement collecting dust.

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Then it clicked one Sunday after staring at the wall while drinking my morning coffee:

A device that would hold the molding in place while I fussed with the corners and obsessed with level straight lines trying to achieve the perfection that lives only in my head! Thus, The Molding Genie was born.

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- Mike Harriman, Inventor of The Molding Genie