Paul Curioli: The Birdhouse
Expert
The
son and grandson of skilled craftsmen, Paul Curioli
discovered his carpentry gene only after he married. But
he quickly made up for lost time.
On weekends, when he wasn't in the bleachers cheering
on his teenage sons' baseball or football teams, Mr.
Curioli, 53, a vice president with FM Global, a
commercial insurance company, could typically be found in
the garage of his home in Norwalk, Conn., knee-deep in a
woodworking project. He built dressers, tables, a blanket
chest, a corner cabinet for the television, a game table
with an inlaid checkerboard top. His specialty, however,
was birdhouses.
In the beginning, he made simple A-frame models. But
over time, they became more elaborate. "Some were
shingled and stuccoed by hand," said Mr. Curioli's wife,
Kathi. "They're beautiful -- like Colonial homes."
A family man who grew his own tomatoes, Mr. Curioli
had big plans for his birdhouses. In early September, he
told his wife that he thought Martha Stewart might like
to see them and asked her to write Ms. Stewart a
letter.
After he was lost while attending a meeting at the
World Trade Center, Mrs. Curioli decided to act on his
request. Last week, she sent Ms. Stewart an e-mail
message relating her husband's story and describing his
birdhouses. "He had just started one," Mrs. Curioli said.
"It's sitting here unfinished."
.
