Billy and me went for a walk before 9 am, and it was a lovely morning. Although a bit nippy it was dry and we loved it, as soon as we got home though it began to rain and by the time we were stood at the Legion it was a sea of umbrellas
We will remember them!
Having given Leslie the first installment of yhe promised £1000 five days ago I was desperate for Saturday to arrive so I could get my hands on the tools the money was for. I was careful to make sure Leslie was OK still with what I was about to because the last thing I wanted was for her to be upset as she watched Trev’s workshop being dismantled, but I needn’t have worried she was overjoyed at being able to move forward as she saw the space she craved open up in front of her eyes.
I set about removing the stuff we could get to first and loading it in my car, and slowly worked towards the bigger stuff and it took at least 6 car loads to get it all home plus two runs in Jamie’s car for the router table and dust extraction cyclone. At home I just got everything into one of the three sheds available so as not to hold Leslie up at her end eventually chopsawing up all the scrap wood in the shop for firewood and bid her good day.
Once home and faced with my bounty, it was pretty daunting to imagine ever getting back into my shed comfortably ever again, but an hour or so sorting stuff out in there made a walkway, at least. Tomorrow and over the coming winter months, I hope to not only sort out some ideal cabinets carts and bench space but to actually make something that’s saleable too?
Anyway, I got into the stuff I had purchased as I tried to make room, and below is the price I would pay (new) for some of the stuff. I intend to do an inventory of all the stuff over the coming days and come up with a total but for now here is what I have seen.
Trend digital level box £19
Rutlands sprung clamps x 18 £40
Axminster Craft AC118CI £170
Irwin Marples 8 x Chisel Set £70
Record CamVac CGV286-4 £280
Clarke CS48 Woodworker 4″ belt 8″ disk Sander £245
Rutlands Work Series 16mm Bench Pillar Drill £180
Clarke COEBS1 Oscillating Bobbin Sander £270
Trend T11EK 1/2″ Variable Speed Plunge Router – PLUS – WRT Workshop Router Table & D60 Digital Router Depth Gauge – Package £800
Kreg Pocket-Hole Screw Project Kit £23
Kreg Jig K5 £140
Makita Forsner x 5 bit set £20
Kreg 320 pocket-Hole Jig £40
Rutlands Dowling Jig £120
Dewalt Metal Folding Sawhorse – Twin pack x 2 £260
Newkiton wheel marking guage £20
Irwin 30″ x 4 £100
Magnusson 36″ C-Clamps x 4 £70
Magnusson 44″ bar clamps x 4 £100
Irwin Record REC140 M140 Corner Clamp 2in x 4 £80
Rutlands Pillar Drill Vise No4 £30
Rutlands Wetstone Sharpener with Master Kit £350
Forsner Bits 10mm to 40mm 18off £150
GRR Ripper MicroJig £70
Rutlands T-Track R8018 60 piece kit £100
Wicks Dowling kit £30
11 Vaunts Drill sets £110
Trend face mask £20
GvS face mask £15
T-Track Bench clamps x 4 £80
Trend CDJ300 £120
Which is approximately 4 grands worth of kit and most of it things I would have eventually bought?
So even now I reckon I got a good deal
After work tonight we said we would look after the Pastor’s son Lucas and spent the first part if the evening in the kitchen while three children occupied our living room playing video games.
It got better after we finished our 8oz fillet mignon washed down with a drop of red, because we all played Uno and then watched Home Alone.
I looked down the garden tonight and the rain was pouring onto the mud I created at the weekend in front of my shed and it occurred to me that even though I love the space, the garden loses its appeal when the weather becomes incessantly inclement and I don’t go and play darts or just sit down there as often?
I felt excitement today as I sat at work sort of dreaming about what could be, and if it was possible to make stuff for a living? I paid a lot of money last night for a dream(?) something that makes no sense yet also makes perfect sense…
I have already let go of my current job although it’s security helps me sleep at night, but the love I had for the job has gone. I maintain my 100% work ethic and will serve the Willows (I think that’s the first time I have ever mentioned my employers in the first person?) because I care about them but it is difficult when I struggle to do the simplest of tasks and people think I am not being as helpful as I used to be!
Is it OK to dream about a different future that might make me happier than I have ever been? Right now, it seems like the impossible dream, but I am excited to go get lots of stuff that possibly puts me a huge step closer to making the impossible possible?
If my current job gave me another couple of years employment, fantastic that would give me time to build a business but if it ceased tomorrow I have a plan!
How about The Sawdust Factory, Middlewich
For some reason tonight teatime spiralled into to chaos with everyone crying with laughter after Lincoln told a story about a girl at school nearly choking to death on gum in class followed by Reagan suggesting that I was alive in 1925
Three family members rolled about the kitchen, unable to breathe, a bit like the girl in the story, and I washed up…!
£1000 is a lot of money that I could do without spending, all at once, but I know it is going to fast track me to a workshop kitted out with most of the equipment I would have spent the next few years collecting for twice if not three times the amount? It feels so selfish to do this now but I feel it is my plan in case the ‘inevitable’ happens and my current employer decides my wage is a good cost saver and I am cast aside?
Hopefully I can do this at my leisure and start creating stuff as a hobby and learn my trade but I am under no illusion that is not guaranteed, so I am thinking about company names designing logos like it’s going to happen.
My first attempt at a logo incorporates my shed and a title I keep coming back to MISIM (Man in shed in Middlewich) it may not be a keeper but its where I’m at right now?
I am also excited to give Leslie the first £500 and be able to get my hands on tools that may help me in the future and will definitely make it easier to make all the things I want to make. The feeling is so much different from when I bought Trev’s mitre saw just after he passed away when I felt guilty about “taking his possessions” a stupid thought but very much how I felt two years ago.
I still feel uncomfortable, but my internal reconciliation is that the money will help Leslie and the tools will help me…? I hope that does not sound too cold?
Today I realised that I have not had any dark thoughts for as long as I can remember which says so much about how I feel about work now and the fact that I have realised I can’t do anything about what’s happening so just go with the flow…!
If I could have painted my shed tonight I would have done it listening to music with a smile on my face and I wonder if…
It has never been about the building itself but about the challenge of creating it and from the foundations to the finished product doing it all myself, and this weekend I finally got a glimpse of what my shed is going to look like and I found myself constantly looking at it and continuing after dark looking at a photo of as it was such a transformation adding the cladding to the outside.
Still tons to do, but I’m still enjoying the journey and yes I just looked at it again and smiled. I am pretty pleased with it so far…?
The rain was not as bad as I expected today but it was enough to scupper my progress I wanted to crack on with cladding me shed but as stead rain started to fall it just got frustratingly more wet and muddy.
I retreated to the inside and cut the off cut from what I got done to clad the right hand side of the door and fitted those but at 3:30 when it stopped raining I decided enough was enough and began my evening just closing the door of my shed.
With Mommy and the kids at a birthday party in Chester I chose a bit of me time (assuming today was not that already?) Taking Billy into town to get a bottle of wine then laying in a hot bath to drink it whilst reading Eric Bristows biography accompanied by a “Relaxing Classical Playlist” felt great certainly made for a very relaxing evening.
Hopefully, tomorrow, there might be some respite from the autumnal damp weather, and I can at least get the front of me shed clad?
Rain rain and more rain forecast for this weekend following a week of rain means it could be w a wash out over the next couple of days with lots planned including installing cladding to the sides of my shed. Even if it does stay fine for a few hours the amount of water that has fallen will make he lawn a mud bath pretty quickly but I would take that at the very least.