Getting a new shop

JohnnyStrawberry — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 14:02:55 GMT

I’d been looking for a place for my workshop for 4 months… I wanted to rent a safe and dry place about 300 sq ft where I can work whenever I wish to. So many people tried to deceive me (one would not give me my copy of the contract, several times they offered me the actual tax-free prize as the gross rental. [It’s quite a big deal, being 27% its tax here in Hungary…])
And I was having the last and the most exasperating moment of this search, when I had my official offer for a place. And it was the same again. The extremely annoying thing about it was that I had asked them (having learned from previous failures) several times emphatically whether the prize they keep telling me is gross or tax-free and they assured me every time that the prize they talk about includes tax of course. Of course my a$$! When I got the letter of the official offer first I was very sad and disappointed but then I tended to be furious.
All right, I said, let’s take the internet again. And there it was – the first search result. I didn’t care that it was Saturday lunchtime, I immediately called the number. Everything was fine and it was a valid offer. The place is simply perfect for me.
On the 1st of June the contract was signed and two of my best friends were invited to celebrate it. Lots of booze, of course – whisky and wine mainly. This was the first and the last time I drank in the shop of course but this success needed some celebration you know. When we felt like drinking we would say ‘Well, we’ve got to a well.’ LOL
The party was fun. At the beginning we brought my stuff from home to the workshop. But when three creative engineers come to a problem ‘at the well’, the solution will be fun. And it was. We used my scooter to drag that stuff to the shop. We put a beech slab on the scooter and piled up some of the boxes on it. The picture uploaded shows when a disassembled workbench is on the top that. It worked great – especially because there is a very slight slope from our home towards the workshop. So I literally had to run after it while I was trying to pull it back. It was fun. :)

Loving wood

JohnnyStrawberry — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:42:05 GMT

I guess it has started with my grandfather who loved woodworking so much… so much that when I was a child we would think of him every time when we saw a truck packed with logs or any kind of lumber and we would say how happy he would have been with that load… (He passed away when I was about seven years old.)
It took 25 years to recognize that this endless admiration for the world of woodworking is going on in his grandchildren (yes, my sister too but that’s another story).
I assume that the pleasure of creating things is one of our most common features. I’m no different. In fact, I’m an engineer and it suits me just fine so no wonder that working with wood, making something useful out of it gives me even greater pleasure.
Literally nothing can beat the excitement that I feel when I’m on those few square feet around my workbench discovering materials, techniques and solving problems. Ooh, I just love solving problems; it’s always been so. And here is a world of challenges. Woodworking means a constant learning activity to me. Although I’m at the very beginning of this process, I clearly see the opportunity for gaining skills for a lifetime. As a matter of fact I can see myself settled down in the mountains working with wood all day long.
Actually woodworking is not the unique source of this great pleasure that I’m trying to describe. Touching or even seeing a nice piece of lumber even with a rough sawn surface can easily give me such a thrill. Let me give you an example.
It happened a few weeks ago when I popped into the local home store for some screw or something and I saw this beauuutiful piece of acacia lumber waiting for being sold as a piece of fence. No way! I just couldn’t let it happen. But I didn’t want to buy it – I had no need for that. I had 25 bf steamed beech at home – I was dissuading myself from it. But I repeatedly went to this piece of wood and eventually I’ve bought it.
On the subway I leaned it against a seat and I was continuously looking at it, watching the exquisite texture of its surface and its golden color. And I found myself caressing it! Probably because I just wanted to feel this texture but anyways!
I’d already been at home for a few minute and I was looking for a place to store it and my girlfriend asked me something. I went to that room and I sat on the bed and we were discussing something and I found this acacia baby in my lap and I was definitely caressing it. No excuse – I wasn’t discovering its texture, just caressing it…

JohnnyStrawberry's Blog at LumberJocks.com

Getting a new shop

Loving wood