Paul Houser never planned on using his considerable woodworking skill to build caskets for the dead. But that changed in 1999, when his only son was delivered stillborn.

"I asked the funeral home if they had any little caskets and they said, 'No, we just do a cardboard-type box,'" Houser recalled. "I said, 'Would it be alright if I built a little miniature wooden casket for our son with the handles and everything?'"

The funeral home agreed, and Houser embarked on an unexpected vocation.

Carpenter by heart

At age 54, Houser is still a tall, muscular man with a handlebar mustache and calloused hands. He and his wife Ann now have four daughters. Earlier this winter, Houser took a break from building a new family home just outside of Palmer to talk with the Catholic Anchor.

Wearing a faded flannel shirt, work boots and dusty jeans, Houser looked every bit carpenter — a trade he discovered as a teenager and one he’s made a living at since retiring from the Air Force in 1995.

Previously stationed at air bases across the country, the couple settled in Palmer and became parishioners at St. Michael Church. Since then, Houser has built roughly 30 homes and – in an unexpected twist – begun crafting caskets.

Casket requests grow

The demand for Houser’s caskets grew at a heartbreaking rate. After his son was stillborn in 1999, a number of Houser's other loved ones died in quick succession.

"A year later, my stepfather died during a heart operation. But before he died he said, 'Can you build me a little box like you did for your son -- just in case things go bad.' Well they did, and he was cremated and put in that," the plain-spoken Houser said.

The following year, Houser's brother-in-law was dying of cancer. He, too, asked for a little casket to house his ashes.

As word of Houser's emerging craft spread, requests for his services grew.

Then last spring, he was charged with burying a dear family friend and settling her estate. In order to purchase a basic adult casket, however, many of his friend’s possessions had to be sold. It was then that Houser thought of expanding his skill set to constructing traditional, adult-size caskets. He thought it might be a way to provide a valuable service to people who were suffering.

"I called the funeral home here in Palmer and asked if they needed any inexpensive boxes for people who couldn’t afford much," he explained.

They did, and Houser soon started building caskets from home.

His preliminary model is already spoken for; it is the one he wants used for his own burial.

"That's my box. It's built for my size," Houser said. "When it's my time, the worst one I ever built will be mine," he added with a chuckle.

As for subsequent versions destined for the public, Houser has instructed the funeral home to sell them for less than a thousand dollars, and if someone can't afford anything at all, "I'll just give it to them," he said.

As a practice, he gives every tenth casket he makes to a local church.

The first of those went to the Knights of Columbus at his home parish of St. Michael in Palmer. The next one is headed to nearby St. Andrew in Eagle River or Sacred Heart in Wasilla.

"It’s like a tithe for the company," Houser explained. "The churches can use them for whoever they want. If they have someone who needs to use this, then I want them to use it, and then we’ll replace it."

"I don't want to be a millionaire from this," he added. "I want to make a little money but I also just want to make it happen as a good thing for people at their worst time."

Family affair

Houser's four daughters, ages 8 to 14, have an appreciation for their dad's woodworking ways.

"In fact, they say you know I'm around when you can smell sawdust," Houser said with a smile.

Indeed, carpentry has become a bit of a family affair, with his daughters now taking part in the process.

"The girls think this is pretty cool," Houser said.

Twelve-year-old Hannah is the "little seamstress."

"She's really getting into lining the caskets now," Houser observed.