About Us
This Old Shack is a custom crafting business owned and run by Dennis Lawrence in Columbus, Georgia. Here, you can find a great array of original, handmade crafts from carpenter bee traps to a metal chain alligator for your yard.
How it Began
Woodworking has been a passion for Dennis since he was a kid, starting out with go-karts and treehouses. He took every shop class he could find in school, and enjoys the woodworking shows on television. This Old Shack got started because he was looking for fundraising ideas to "buy Christmas" for a family, so he began to build stuff his youth ministry at Upatoi Baptist Church could sell. After they had sold everything for the fundraiser (over 50 bee traps and birdhouses for $1000), neighbors and friends who had bought or seen these crafts called asking for more. Dennis sold them at work, and before he knew it, coworkers were returning asking for more birdhouses and bee traps for their friends and neighbors. There was no official marketing, only word of mouth and the products spoke for themselves. In this past season, Dennis has sold over 1,000 units of wood products and over 150 units of metalworked products.
