Stouffville, Ontario Canada (647) 962-1997 gwstudios@rogers.com M-F 8:30am - 2:30pm & 8:00pm - 11:00pm

Tag: spring cleaning

Looking forward to a good Spring Cleaning.

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Reclaiming space by decluttering and purging junk is a favored pass time of mine. Cardboard, broken stuff, wood chunks, old crappy particle board furniture, you name it, I love to break it down and throw it away once it has finished being useful. Although in regards to particle board, if the pieces are big enough, and still smooth, I may save a panel or two for making jigs for wood working, but the item itself will no longer be around. Waste not – want not. Reduce, reuse, recycle, and all that jazz.

I am really wrestling with what I’d like to do with my garage shop space. It is very tight in there. I need to sell off a tool or two that I don’t really use (namely the radial arm saw) as that could be replaced by upgrading my mitre saw to a 12″ saw blade version, with a sliding feature. I regain a few feet of open space on the floor around my table saw, and can remove one mostly unused item from the shop. Now I do use the radial arm saw because it has a 16 inch reach to it, but a larger chop saw would just about do the same, so rather than hauling items from one station to another, I could do them all in one spot, forever more. Sounds great. One – slight hitch. New  sliding compound mitre saws are expensive. Like nearly $1,000.00 expensive. So not going to happen any time soon.

I also toy with getting rid of my mastercraft work bench in favour of a two tiered rolling tool box. But, this may be a vanity thing, rather than a necessity. I would like to have more room in the drawers to not have to pile wrenches, and sockets on top of each other, but do I need a full tool chest to do so? I can easily justify it to myself, but… you know. Probably shouldn’t. My garage isn’t just a wood shop. It’s also where I maintain my lawn mower and weed eater. Where we store exterior lights and decorations for several holidays, it’s where I work on minor (very minor) car stuff, like light bulbs, coolant, brake fluid, power steering fluid, and the wheels. It’s also where I have my arc welding machine, and angle grinder and such. So I like having this stored together by activity, but separated by task. I want to reclaim space, but on the other hand I want to maintain separate zones too. It’s a mess – my head. I want, I want, wah-wah-wah.

I realize how particular I am, don’t you worry about that. I see it every day in my kids. Stubbornness comes from the wife, particularity from my side of the family. Pragmatic, pedantic & particular. I’m fun at parties. So yeah. Spring cleaning is great. I have big plans, no budget, and the tastes of a trillionaire Saudi King. Ha. The real question is, would a single or double cabinet actually save me space in the end? I like the idea of my unused rags, and finishes, and paint not being covered in dust and debris. And then being able to tear down the now motionless tool carts I build. They haven’t moved an inch since I parked them in their current locations about 6 years ago. I can reclaim the castor wheels off of at least 2 carts for future projects.

Something I need to consider is: do I really intend to optimize the work space, or am I bored and looking to introduce something new to the mix just because? Ooh. That’s a tough one. I do get angry when building some items because of how little space there is, but I am also a notorious room rearranger to make things feel new again. There’s more here than I care to get into. So happy Easter Long Weekend, Good Friday, etc etc… Ciao Bella!

I didn’t know she was 115 years old.

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That’s ancient in dog years, holy cow. Today marks continuous writing day 115. That’s not any specific kind of milestone, but I did keep going even while having a pretty dastardly flu all this week. So that counts for something around here. Though it was a light week for paid work, some labels, a display, a meeting through a glass door, a some customized brochures, I did much more outdoors. Spring is in the air! And so is the sun and slightly warmer temperatures.

To celebrate I put out the patio furniture. The deck carpeting, chairs and kids toys. The solar lights and ornamental garden decorations, the hose ( but didn’t turn the water on yet.) This whole month is one longish rain storm, with intermitten fits of blue sky and sun. The slack line went up. The swing is back in working order. Crab sand box is uncovered from leaves, snow and winter debris. Porch chair, and drinks table put up. Scooters dug out of the shed. Gardening tools brought to the front, and winter shovels and de-icer moved to the back, and away from the front door. I did not uncover the AC unit, as that’s about 6 weeks away from being needed, if at all in the spring. Cleaned the car of snow gear and toboggan etc… a productive morning.

In the shop I built the second peg board and placed that over the lathe. It’s a bit bare, but I wanted it off the floor, and that’s where it was going anyway. I got my large cross cut sled holed so it can finally hang on the wall and get out of my way.

I have a new project from my wife for the farm orchard, a rustic bench. So I’ll move that in front of my adjustable saw horses. I was looking at last years progress on the screen door, trying to see if I can salvage it, or am I putting good money after bad on it. I do need a door there though. So I might press on with it.

I had an hour or two tweaking the kids bikes yesterday, so all good there now too. Cleaned a bunch inside, got the laundry sorted and put away. All in all a good week for having been ill. Still am, but not as bad as last weekend. Maybe I’ll watch Dune again. It’s long enough that I can just phase in and out of attention with it and still enjoy it a bunch. Part two coming next year!