My first plan of action: kick my husband’s stuff out of the
garage. It had to happen. He’s in IT. There’s no reason that routers, switches,
keyboards, etc. belong in a non-temperature controlled garage that would soon
be collecting saw dust in the smallest nooks and crannies. At least that was
what I told him. He didn’t put up much of a fight other than needing to find
some storage space inside the house now.
My second plan of action was to figure out how to set up shop without bankrupting us. I had taken a class at the local woodshop back in February where my hand was held while I built the cutest little adjustable bookshelf (see photo). Looking back, they had selected the perfect project- which I don’t doubt was the purpose- as it allowed us to use a wide variety of machinery and techniques. During this class, a few of us had quizzed the instructor on what types of equipment you should buy first, what brands were the best, etc. His opinion had been that if you intended to do fine woodworking, you should go ahead and invest your money in a good, higher-end product rather than purchase a cheaper one that you may likely need to replace sooner. It is sound advice. But at that time, I wasn’t fully sure that I wasn’t going to make one piece of furniture on my own and then quit. So I took a different approach- my dad.
I reached out to my dad. I knew he had a variety of tools and machinery that he had accumulated over the years doing home improvement projects. I’m not sure if I just caught him in a good mood or if he was intrigued that his daughter was showing interest in something such as woodworking, but he was all too eager to offer up any tools that he didn’t need on a regular basis. My suspicion was that his upcoming retirement had something to do with his recent “getting rid of junk” approach to the house.
My next visit to their home was like my own little Christmas. Dad loaded my arms with all kinds of useful tools, someone of which I didn’t even know their names yet. He briefly gave me a tutorial on some of the items. Most of the squares were all but covered in rust. Dad could probably read my face as he assured me that with a little bit of oil and elbow grease, they would “shine right up”. I will have my dad know that it was a long couple hours jamming out in the garage, covered in oil to get it to where I could even read the numbers on some of those things. But still, a jigsaw, a router, a miter saw, some hand planers and numerous measuring tools later, I had a good start with no more than a tank of gas and some elbow grease invested. Now let’s get started.
