Bernie Resh shares a strong personal connection with the furniture that fills his East Lampeter home.

He made it.

All of it.

From jelly cupboards to TV cabinets, shelves to sugar bowls — right down to the wooden knobs and latches.

"I went around one time and counted everything (I'd made) in the house," Resh says.

"It's around 100 items."

With the exception of building a dry sink in a long-ago cabinetry class, Resh, whose work has appeared in Today's Woodworker and Fine Woodworking magazines, is largely self-taught.

Since his 1997 retirement, the former machinist/toolmaker has honed a signature approach to early American, country-style furniture, most often made from his beloved Pennsylvania cherry.

Take a tour of the home Resh, 65, shares with his wife Mary Ellen, and the descriptions of every single room sound strangely similar.

Of the living room, Resh says: "Basically everything in here, I made — except for the upholstered chairs."

In this case, "everything" includes a TV cabinet, a corner cabinet with 200-year-old glass, the clock, the switch plates and even frames for photos snapped on his travels.

In the Reshes' home, the unclaimed corner is rare, leaving space for new creations at a premium.

"The house has so much furniture in it," Resh says.

"That's a problem."

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Even growing up in and around Lancaster City, Resh liked to build and tinker with things.

He just didn't know exactly what he was doing.

That began to change when he studied at Stevens College of Technology, and later, when he took a cabinetry and millwork class.

Now Resh designs many of his own pieces. He also re-creates antiques he admires. (He recalls furtively taking measurements of a display piece at the old Watt & Shand department store.)

Resh works on one piece at a time, sometimes for several months. He prefers the color, texture and hardness of cherry, which he says is fairly easy to work.

"There's something about cherry," he says. "It has a glow to it."

It also happens to be his wife's favorite.

Resh finds wood in newspaper ads, at a Quarryville lumber yard — anywhere it's not too expensive.

He turns scraps from finished furniture projects into smaller pieces, like plates or candleholders.

Resh, who has two grown sons, shares a love for gardening, travel and photography with Mary Ellen, his wife of 11 years.

Resh's retirement from Rothsville's Petters Engraving left him with more time for woodworking. It's a perfect hobby for someone with what he calls "a little bit of a disability" — in his case, muscular dystrophy.

Resh, who has trouble climbing stairs and is prone to falls, doesn't know how his condition will progress.

Right now he's grateful to be free of a wheelchair.

"I'm very fortunate to be able to enjoy the life I have," he says.

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The window in Resh's neat workshop overlooks the carefully tended flower garden.

When he's working wood, he listens to older country music, especially Chet Atkins tunes.

Evidence of Resh's woodworking hobby exists throughout his home, including four clocks that keep the time.

Some of Resh's designs arise from necessity. A "cabinet table" — "That's the name I came up with," he good-naturedly explains — houses once-unsightly stacks of magazines.

Each project presents its own challenges, like the quarter-sawn white-oak bed, with 60 intricate spindles.

"That was a job," Resh says.

In fact, his next project may be matching nightstands.

Mrs. Resh, who grew up on a dairy farm near Strasburg, requested the milk stool that sits in the basement.

Otherwise Resh doesn't take furniture orders. But he does occasionally make small gifts for family and friends.

Landis Valley's Weathervane Museum Store sells some of his pieces, including small wall mirrors, clocks and candle boxes, for $50 to $500.

Manager Kaye Peloquin says customers most often comment on the striking beauty of Resh's clocks.

"The wood is so beautiful, most customers are driven to want to touch it," she says in an e-mail.

"Bernie Resh is a master at getting the wood he selects to look its best."

The Reshes aren't traveling as far this summer, thanks to the high gas prices. But Resh still isn't in a hurry to start his next creation.

There's nowhere to put it.

Mrs. Resh offers a solution: "We need to get a bigger house."