Lets get started
Well… It just wouldn't be me if I didn't share pics of my first "workshop". Many of you have already seen it… But here it is again.
Yep. that's where I got my start. Working outside on a stack of pallets and some plastic tables. Of course, when it was too hot outside I didn't get to work. And when it rained I didn't get to work. And then when it got cold I didn't do anything at all. The above pic was taken August 2012.
In January 2013 I filled for divorce. And in February 2013, during a bad day I was having, a dear friend of mine who had also went through a divorce had me over and was trying to cheer me up. Little did she know that her words would change so many things. As we walked around her property she was telling me I needed to look for the little positive things and focus on them. She pointed at her garage and said "see that garage? Now that I'm single i can do whatever I want with it. I can park my car, not park my car. I can store stuff in it or I can throw stuff out of it that I don't want in there. I can do whatever I want with it. At that very moment I realized something. I too had a garage. One that was previously off limits to me. And now… I could do WHATEVER I WANTED WITH IT. My eyes grew big and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. And I found my inspiration to keep moving forward.
It just so happens that on that very weekend it was my weekend that I had no kids. I started immediately cleaning the garage up. I had lots of stuff in there that belonged to my ex so I was probably only using half of the space. This is probably what it looked like soon after that weekend.
As the months went by I slowly took over more and more space. Finally… I removed ALL the ex's items and stored them at my moms. And eventually took out everything that wasn't shop related except a few lawn care items. Now my whole garage is dedicated to woodworking. And I have to tell you… I couldn't be happier.
It was just in June 2013 that the divorce was final and the house… and garage… became officially mine.
And let me tell you… garages are for cars… this is a WORKSHOP!
So now that summer is over and school has started and the shop is all mine… it's time to make some changes. To start… you can see in the above pic that my miter saw is sitting on a built in workbench. This was there when we bought the house in 2009. Here's the problem with it… everything. LOL . It's not deep enough, it's too high, its really long so it takes up too much space and for the top they glued down sticky tile. You know… the vinyl laminate stuff. And due to a previous leak… those tiles are coming up.
And as you can see… the pegboard has some issues of it's own. It's been wet so it's bowed. It also was put right up against the wall. So there are quite a few places on the pegboard that you can't even hang anything. It totally needs replaced as well.
So here is a pic of this wall.
To the left of the bench is my new ReStore find that is temporarily storing some of my tools. Ideally… what I'd like to do is tear out the workbench and build a miter station for my new miter saw. I've been wanting to do this for a long time. I was waiting for two things… 1) To have the house in my name alone. And 2) Get a new miter saw. Well… House became mine in June and a couple of weeks ago I got my new miter saw. So…. it's time to get moving.
This bench is 40" tall, 10 1/2' long and 21 1/2" deep. I want to tear it out and tear out the peg board.
I figured I'd blog about this adventure. And even though I've thoroughly tore my shop up in ways. And I will begin demolish this weekend… I still did so in a way that will still allow me to work on my other projects… namely… the room divider (shoji frame) that I'm building for my mom. And eventually…I will also get to get back to work on my bench as well.
So… time to start searching for what to build. I'm open to some suggestions. I'd like to hear what has worked for you guys and what hasn't. THings you'd do differently if you were starting again on your shop. I have this entire wall to play with. I've thrown a few ideas around in my mind. I've obviously thought about doing a built in miter station. But i also have considered building one that is mobile.
I do know there are some features that I definitely want to make sure I have. My new miter saw has an awesome feature… it has an extending fence on it that has a build in stop. LOVE IT. I used it to make the room divider. It has 12 short pieces and it was great. Measured once, adjusted the fence, flipped down the stop and cut the other 11. And they are all the same size. Love that for repeated cuts. And it would be nice to be able to do the same thing with some longer pieces as well.
Anyhow… more on that in another post. Off to bed. Thanks for reading this and I look forward to your ideas.
Oh… PS… that window unit… not staying. I have another window AC on the other side of the garage. And it does all I need it to do. This little one is coming out and going in an upstairs bedroom window. (My future room). And notice how I'm storing my clamps… that needs to change. I will probably replace the pegboard but instead it will be with a framed piece that can be moved anywhere. Just wanted to add those things
Well… It just wouldn't be me if I didn't share pics of my first "workshop". Many of you have already seen it… But here it is again.
Yep. that's where I got my start. Working outside on a stack of pallets and some plastic tables. Of course, when it was too hot outside I didn't get to work. And when it rained I didn't get to work. And then when it got cold I didn't do anything at all. The above pic was taken August 2012.
In January 2013 I filled for divorce. And in February 2013, during a bad day I was having, a dear friend of mine who had also went through a divorce had me over and was trying to cheer me up. Little did she know that her words would change so many things. As we walked around her property she was telling me I needed to look for the little positive things and focus on them. She pointed at her garage and said "see that garage? Now that I'm single i can do whatever I want with it. I can park my car, not park my car. I can store stuff in it or I can throw stuff out of it that I don't want in there. I can do whatever I want with it. At that very moment I realized something. I too had a garage. One that was previously off limits to me. And now… I could do WHATEVER I WANTED WITH IT. My eyes grew big and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. And I found my inspiration to keep moving forward.
It just so happens that on that very weekend it was my weekend that I had no kids. I started immediately cleaning the garage up. I had lots of stuff in there that belonged to my ex so I was probably only using half of the space. This is probably what it looked like soon after that weekend.
As the months went by I slowly took over more and more space. Finally… I removed ALL the ex's items and stored them at my moms. And eventually took out everything that wasn't shop related except a few lawn care items. Now my whole garage is dedicated to woodworking. And I have to tell you… I couldn't be happier.
It was just in June 2013 that the divorce was final and the house… and garage… became officially mine.
And let me tell you… garages are for cars… this is a WORKSHOP!
So now that summer is over and school has started and the shop is all mine… it's time to make some changes. To start… you can see in the above pic that my miter saw is sitting on a built in workbench. This was there when we bought the house in 2009. Here's the problem with it… everything. LOL . It's not deep enough, it's too high, its really long so it takes up too much space and for the top they glued down sticky tile. You know… the vinyl laminate stuff. And due to a previous leak… those tiles are coming up.
And as you can see… the pegboard has some issues of it's own. It's been wet so it's bowed. It also was put right up against the wall. So there are quite a few places on the pegboard that you can't even hang anything. It totally needs replaced as well.
So here is a pic of this wall.
To the left of the bench is my new ReStore find that is temporarily storing some of my tools. Ideally… what I'd like to do is tear out the workbench and build a miter station for my new miter saw. I've been wanting to do this for a long time. I was waiting for two things… 1) To have the house in my name alone. And 2) Get a new miter saw. Well… House became mine in June and a couple of weeks ago I got my new miter saw. So…. it's time to get moving.
This bench is 40" tall, 10 1/2' long and 21 1/2" deep. I want to tear it out and tear out the peg board.
I figured I'd blog about this adventure. And even though I've thoroughly tore my shop up in ways. And I will begin demolish this weekend… I still did so in a way that will still allow me to work on my other projects… namely… the room divider (shoji frame) that I'm building for my mom. And eventually…I will also get to get back to work on my bench as well.
So… time to start searching for what to build. I'm open to some suggestions. I'd like to hear what has worked for you guys and what hasn't. THings you'd do differently if you were starting again on your shop. I have this entire wall to play with. I've thrown a few ideas around in my mind. I've obviously thought about doing a built in miter station. But i also have considered building one that is mobile.
I do know there are some features that I definitely want to make sure I have. My new miter saw has an awesome feature… it has an extending fence on it that has a build in stop. LOVE IT. I used it to make the room divider. It has 12 short pieces and it was great. Measured once, adjusted the fence, flipped down the stop and cut the other 11. And they are all the same size. Love that for repeated cuts. And it would be nice to be able to do the same thing with some longer pieces as well.
Anyhow… more on that in another post. Off to bed. Thanks for reading this and I look forward to your ideas.
Oh… PS… that window unit… not staying. I have another window AC on the other side of the garage. And it does all I need it to do. This little one is coming out and going in an upstairs bedroom window. (My future room). And notice how I'm storing my clamps… that needs to change. I will probably replace the pegboard but instead it will be with a framed piece that can be moved anywhere. Just wanted to add those things