The Alchemist From the perspective of Machias woodworker Walter Spear – who’s converting a lobster boat into a house – everyday things have golden possibilities

Walter Spear sees things a little differently from most people.

When he looks at a discarded chunk of water main, he sees a chimney pipe. In his eyes, a rusty crane boom becomes a stand for that chimney. And then there’s the weathered old lobster boat that a young man in Lubec planned to fix up but never quite got around to.

Spear took one look at that and saw a house.

“I sit around and get big ideas,” said Spear, 57, breaking into a wide grin at his woodworking shop in Machias. “Why not?”

That’s a question the Boston native has been asking since he moved Down East 30 years ago. In 1989, he moved his home and business into an industrial shop that once housed a window sash manufacturer. In a few months, the boat, with its single-story addition that shelters the deck, will become his new abode.

A tradesman who initially dreamed of studying medicine, Spear has worked alternately as a builder, motorcycle mechanic and clam digger, which allowed the single dad to be around his children all the time. One needs only to look at him to know he enjoys the outdoors – he’s tall, fit and tanned. And after a few minutes talking with him, it becomes clear he’s a modern Renaissance man who loves what he does.

“If you’re not excited about your work, what’s the point?” he asked. “You should be doing something you like to do.”

In his long, open workshop with weathered broad-plank floors, Spear has perfected the art of woodworking. Here, he mills old-fashioned molding on an antique machine. He turns porch columns on a long lathe and carves intricate balusters. He re-creates antique furniture and hones his own designs.

“Most of what people are having done today is not my can of beans,” Spear said. “You want me to lay down that stuff from The Home Depot and use particleboard and plywood? No. I’ll just stick with old wood. It’s more fun that way.”

He has built a reputation for his restoration work, which allows him to be choosy. He regularly works with the Wells-based American Lighthouse Foundation, which has lauded his “uncompromising attention to saving and restoring the historic fabric” of projects such as the Little River Light Station’s former keeper’s house. He also does restoration work on several churches in the area and has a handful of regular residential clients.

“It’s really nice to be able to work on these places and be in these places,” Spear said. “Doing restoration on the lighthouses has been a lot of fun.”

These days, he’s having a lot of fun with his own house. The project – which is meant for land, not sea, and is held up with adjustable boat stands – incorporates the original hull, which he bought for $300. Using that as a base, he built a single-story living space just big enough for a small kitchen, sleeping area and a table or two. In the cabin, he built a bathroom and guest sleeping quarters. When the sun shines in there, a pair of small, red glass windows salvaged from a lighthouse restoration cast crisp, blood-orange rectangles of light onto the floor and walls.

“This is a way big improvement over where I’m living now,” Spear said.

He has been working on the project for about a year in his spare time, and it’s almost finished. On a recent afternoon, he painstakingly painted the muntins on one of the boat’s 200 or so panes – using yacht paint, of course.

He drew inspiration from the movies “Master and Commander” and “Mutiny on the Bounty.”

“I tried to make crooked windows,” he said. “I’m also going to put a cute little gutter on the building.”

Though he hashed out several possible scenarios, including bending green wood or steaming the joints of dry wood, to get the gutter to follow the contour of the roof, he figured the best solution would be to use a crooked log, which he found at a local lumberyard.

“I think what I am – and what a lot of us are – are mechanics,” Spear said. “We know how to install things. We know how to put things together. We know how to innovate, and we know how to make things work.”

Such as how to turn a boat into a house. Or how to turn a burl into a functional door latch. Or how to turn a pipe into a chimney.

“Whatever you’re doing is a little bit of a challenge,” he said. “If you can, come up with a plan and then cast authority to the wind. You have to become the authority.”

And it helps to look at the world a little differently, too.

To reach Spear Millworks, call 255-3108. Kristen Andresen can be reached at 990-8287 and kandresen@bangordailynews.net.