There is a Workshop!

So like a billion times now I've said I was going to tell you about the workshop, and then I don't. So here it is!

I love woodworking, have for my whole life. It's kind of in the blood. Dad's pretty handy, both Grandpa's had workshops and lots of tools, and my Great Grandfather had an extensive wood collection and loved to make wooden boxes. My husband is also a fan of working with his hands and would love to do more extensive woodworking. 

I had started down the path when I started to make spindles and tools. And then more as several people asked me for boxes and such. So. We invested in a workshop. 

Ok, so it wasn't that linear. Actually, I was complaining in early October or late September that a drill press would make drilling the shafts of spindles for hooks like a bajillion times easier that doing it with a hand drill. So we agreed to get a drill press. Then Chris saw me doing sanding of the spindles on the hand drill (and hurting my wrist and shoulder doing the same) and we started talking about tools that would help and things snowballed and suddenly... we were doing a full workshop for our Forever Plan.

First, this meant... well, LOGICALLY this should have meant clearing the space for it. Instead it meant ordering most of the tools before we had done any such thing. 



And starting to build all the things we now had in boxes. 



This included what felt like a massive dust collector, among other things, because my husband does nothing by half measures. I'm glad it's what we got, but man it is neither small nor quiet!

And adding some more lighting. Because it had a basic garage light (i.e. not very good)

An air filter, because the last thing I need is to add lung problems to any of my health issues. 

This quickly also led to the realization of how little free space there was. Which meant tools had to be reorganized.



And finally converting the garage, which as a tried and true Yankee, meant clearing out all the totally-not-a-car-why-would-you-store-that-here that we had in there. 



Once enough stuff was cleared, we could do upgraded wiring and electric for the space (yay not burning the house down). Which, of course, required more moving stuff so the wall was accessible (ish). 



And making space so the inspector could get through and the wires could be run. 



Much progress was made. Shelves went in for my spindle wood. Much stuff was gotten rid of or rehomed. 



And it became clear that the floor of the garage was VERY not-flat. Not-flat enough it was going to be a challenge to level things. Also cold if I was going to stand in there for any length of time. 

And so began an epic adventure!

First we had to clear everything out. So the big objects went out into the fair tent. 

Everything else went inside and turned this

into this



And the garage (after another couple loads to the dump) to this:



We cleaned that, and prepped it with something blue that ate into the old surface so we could put a new one on. 



Then it was off to get a gajillion tons of self leveling concrete

Neither of us had ever done this before, so it was going to be an adventure. But we watched videos and read guides, got the tools... and we were off!



Luckily, both of us are handy, and we did a lot of research on what could go wrong. It came out pretty darn good (and level, most importantly, level)!



A little trim moulding to neaten up the edges... 



And we're ready for the flooring! Well, once I put in the "shock towers." Only... 9 of them per sheet. 



But THEN we can put in the flooring!



This, of course, required much supervision



and inspection



Some were rather dubious of this idea



Luckily, with their help and critical eye, eventually, we finished!



Now time to put stuff back in! 



And put together the last few things, and up some more shelves...



And then... connect everything to power and... oh wait, that dust collector... CONNECT THE TUUUUBES! 



So. Very. Many. Tubes.



But finally, we were done. And we had a workshop that actually functioned as a workshop. 

It's pretty awesome. I've already fallen in love with it and started to use it for a bunch of new things you'll be seeing soon!

So, that's the journey of my new workshop. 

I'll post about what I've been doing with it, along with some other projects I've been working on soon!



That's all for now!
~The Gnome