Rambling #2: Workshop Eviction Notice (what to do?)

I feel your pain, buddy. My partner’s car is in the shop and when it makes it triumphant return home I’ll be in the same situation. It is a 1982 Mercedes that was given to her by her father when he passed away. She agreed on parking the Honda SUV on the driveway, but isn’t as agreeable about the Mercedes. I plan on putting as many things as I can on wheels to make it easier to move stuff around and have prepared myself to back the Mercedes out when I want to work in the “shop” or promise not to do any cutting or “sawdust throwing” with the car inside and can’t be moved due to inclement weather…lol. Beautiful barn, by the way! :)

-- "Creativity is...seeing something that doesn't exist already. You need to find out how you can bring it into being and that way be a playmate with God."

Are you serious? Asking a group of total strangers what is the best way to handle a demanding wife?

Write her a note, she will love the sensitivity, and you will love being forced to drive 116 miles to do something you like but she hasn’t give you permission to do..

This is exactly what all that sensitive BS has gotten you. Be the man or don’t. Just stop whining about it.

-- .

I say make the move, put a bench in the garage (if it will fit) for some mid-week hand tool fun, and head out to the cabin for some good long Saturdays with just you and the wood. As a guy with a 6×8 shop, your barn looks like a dream. I wouldn’t think twice about driving 2 hours just to have a space like that.

-- Eric at http://adventuresinwoodworking.com

Here’s what we did … when we purchased our home a year ago, my husband was good enough to give me the entire 2 1/2 car garage for a workshop … while his Audi TT coup sat out in the driveway. That lasted about 3 months before he started making noise about the car cover wasn’t really protecting it. So I compromised and said he could have half the garage if I could split it up with a wall down the center. As you all know, the workshop is a haven away from the rest of the world and I thought the wall would at least give me that. Again, this lasted for a little while, but I got kind of tired of having to share my space. So I thought about it awhile and decided that if I wanted my own space, it was going to be HIS idea :)

So, l started buying books and magazines on “The Ultimate Man Garage” ... pretty soon, he was willing to do ANYTHING to give me my own shop, so that he could have the ENTIRE garage. We looked at building one, but I wanted it yesterday. We came across an Amish family that builds garden sheds and their largest a 12×32 would get me by. The best part once we ordered it, we had it on site in 2 weeks. And it cost the same or less than building it myself.

I would hate to drive 2 hours to work in the shop or just get away. But if I had fishing, hunting and the outdoors, outside my shop, I would be in heaven.

Don’t sell the pickup, it’s part of your lifestyle. And it will get you 116 miles down the road to your shop. :)

-- Teri, Kokomo, IN

Maybe the drive is just what you need! We all need our alone time while working our wood. Remember ….turn off the cell phone and enjoy a week of pure bliss….lol. Good Luck!

-- A duck that brags on his own pond, soon swims alone.

I had a wife like that once.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

I would move to the barn. It,s nicer then my house.
I turn my house into a shop every winter .

-- John in Cranbrook http://www.extremebirdhouse.com ....http://community.webshots.com/user/cranbrook2

well, the picture sure makes #5 look really tempting!
The family could visit on the weekends :)

ha.
I’d toss out idea #3 or you might lose the garage, the barn, and the house.

#1 probably won’t sit well either—- “don’t you ever listen to me and my needs?” #2/4 not good…

I’m voting for the “hidden agenda”.... now, just to find out the details!

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Whimper – what the heck…

Only one question MtnMan, do you have a bed at the cabin????.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

Wow, rough crowd. In order of comments:

DroDave: Am I serious? Of course not, what I say at my house goes….right out the window, or more typically, the back door.

Eric: A bench here and a bench there would bring more grief since I’d have to have duplicate tools.

Teri: The pickup stays. It could be my home someday.

CarverJim: Let me think about that for about 2 hours.

Bob2: Pass. Been down that path before. Not again.

John: Looks can be deceiving. You haven’t seen the inside.

Mrs Debbie: I really think you are onto it with the hidden agenda thing.

BathRick: No whimpering here. I either bark or shut-up. Just ask BroDave.

Grumpy: When the truck’s there, I have a bed in the back of my truck.

The hidden agenda may be the actual solution. Maybe my wife just wants more room in the garage so she can surprise me with a new table saw? The answer is right in front of my sensitive self. Back to the POL with a valentines request. Just skip the last couple of sentences BD.

-- Mike, Meridian, ID, www.fishfinridge.com

Since I am on my third marriage, I finnaly learned a few things:

Rule #1- The woman is always right.
Rule #2- If the woman is wrong, refer to rule #1.
Rule #3- If I need an opinion, a woman will give it to me.
Rule #4- The woman reserves the right to change the rules at any time.

Like I said, I am on my third marriage. My wife (pink handcuff girl) told me while we were dating that if and when we got married that there would be NO divorce this time, I would end up with a bullet before a divorce. I have to think she is serious, she is a Deputy Sheriff, carries a 40cal to my 9mm, and shot a 96 to my 88 on the qual range, and she grew up in RURAL Alabama (plenty of place to hide bodies), and some of her best friends are Narcotics Detecives/SWAT team members (I already have been informed by them that I had better not hurt her OR ELSE).

I LOVE MY WIFE

-- Adrian ..... The 11th Commandment...."Thou Shalt Not Buy A Wobble Dado"

Just nod and smile. Repeat.

-- -John "Do I have to keep typing a smiley? Just assume it's a joke." www.flickr.com/photos/gizmodyne

Sorry for the suggestions. Why can wifes just leave well enough alone. But then again maybe you could make a larger garage/shop where you are at!

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

My guess is whimper with chocolates!

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

#2. Beg if you have to. Get every thing on casters and be prepared to stow your things as needed. Build her her own garden bench. Don’t even think of resting any of your stuff on her bench.

Other than that, I think Adrian has the rules pretty much down.

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

How about asking her straight up what options she has in mind and how the two of you can work out a plan that both of you will be happy with.
Never try to guess what is going on in her mind..Ask,

-- Hope Never fails

Put an ad out

Wanted: New Wife, must be able to cook, clean, and love fishing. Must also have an equiped woodworking shop/ Please send pictures of shop!

can’t help you, last time this dilema crossed my path, .........I chose a new wife

-- http://www.furnituremann.ca/

You could sell the cabin so that would eliminate it from the equation. If you have a cabin why are you sleeping in the back of the truck? My wife wants me to get off this computer and go build something in the shop and sell it so we can pay bills. Different perspective I guess.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Maybe she is really saying finish the mantle.

-- -John "Do I have to keep typing a smiley? Just assume it's a joke." www.flickr.com/photos/gizmodyne

In all seriousness, Mario probably has the right suggestion. Last time I tried to figure out what my wife was thinking, I slept on the couch for six months.

I’m just glad it’s a comfy couch!

-- "Give me your poor tools, your tired steel, your huddled masses of rust." Yep, I ripped off the Statue of Liberty. That's how I roll!

Maybe you could get her away for a day or two. Move everything out of the living room (or just stack it all to one side). Move your benches and tools into the living room. Call her and tell her that, surprise, the garage is now clear.

Working wood is part of my life. Part of me. It comes with me, not me with it.

-- http://dustynewt.webs.com/

what a concept: ask.
I’m writing that one down :) haha
we do spend a lot of time trying to outguess others (and the rest of the time we aren’t even aware that there is an issue)

(And I remember the wisdom shared by an Elder of a local native community: their belief is that women have 67% of the power/wisdom… and then he said, “Just don’t mess with my 23%!!!!)

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

My wife not only lives here, she helps with the payments and keeps the house clean and she does a superb job! I keep it functioning. All of it. Every loose screw, every bent hinge, every broken appliance, the painting, the oil changes, the furnace, the electrical, the…well everything! So, I need a shop. End of discussion.

Besides, if it weren’t for the shop, I’d have to spend my time doing other things, like watching reruns of Star Trek, drinking beer and hanging out at the local nudie-bar with my woodworking buds!

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!

If your not leaving out any of the bigger picture – it seems sort of unreasonable to me. Oh honey lets send our TV and DVD’s to our parents house. We’ll just go there whenever we want to watch a movie (or the news).

Perhaps nothing is all that needs doing (while drawing up plans for a convertable shop) that can fold up and allow the cars to fit at the end of the day. Several of the magazines have had plans for these in recent years. fold down tables, rolling carts, etc…

I guess I’m lucky in that the basement is mine, the kitchen is mine… I just need more time!

-- The opposite of war isn't peace. It's creation. -- Wood T's: http://www.printfection.com/snbcreative

Buddy I feel your pain, but I have a very understanding wife that would never do that to me. What happened to us was that I had to move do to cicumstances, and my wife, whom I love with all my heart, fell in love with this house that was an absolute steal. Problem, no garage. Easy enough just build one. we had 3 delays on closings because of the owners, but we finally closed in December. It Doesn’t snow much here in Medford Or, but it rains like the dickens so no shop until around May. Thge price my wife pays for getting here Dream House is all my shop tools in her dinning room until the shop/garage gets built in the spring.

Here’s all you have to do. Just build her something really nice that she has been wanting, lay a diamond necklace or something like that on it when you give it to her, and buddy I promise you, you will be able to keep the shop wherever you want.

I seriously hope it works out for you.

John

-- John -- Racine, WI -- Woodworking..."It's not just a Hobby, it's an Adventure"

build her a car port right outside the garage. that way when she isnt there you have more room for working.

-- Jim in Cushing Oklahoma

I’ve got it go out and rent the ugliest old cargo container you can find and have it dropped in the drive way…so you can move your shop into it. The more rust and graffiti the better.

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

Nice try guys (and gals) but the HOA will not allow cargo containers, car ports, and only woodworking with the garage doors closed and between the hours of 8AM and 8PM (OK, I’m stretching the last part a bit). I guess the answer is to find a new house in the valley with sufficient room for me, my tools and our vehicles and of course, my family. If it happened to have a pool, a chunk of land, nice view and privacy, that would probably work also ;)

Mean time, I’ll just have to focus more time on honey-do’s that require power tools. Back to the mantle I go.

I also earned some brownie points today by taking my wife and mother-in-law to the Counter Cottage Tea House. Wonderful food but the environment left me wanting for the closest pub. Hopefully it was enough for 2 more months of the table saw parking in the garage. Actually, I’m pretty confident that bought me some time.

-- Mike, Meridian, ID, www.fishfinridge.com

How much of your tools are on mobil bases….

I’d suggest going to Home Depot and getting a ton of mobil bases and trying to amke things move aorund as easily as possibe—os that you ahve enoughroom to park, and them move out teh machines as you need them…

You could kepe the largest machones and lumber storage at the barm maybe to save space….

One question. Does your wife have a job and work in town? If not, have her move to the cabin. But then that means that you wiil have to take care of the boys full time. But wait, they are teenagers, they can take care of themselves. Another question. Is the mother-in-law a factor in this conundrum? If she is then…......

-- Ron in Osseo, Minnesota