The Story of the Shop.......
When I first retired several years ago, I converted a storage shed at our lake house in North Carolina into a 12’ X 16’ compact shop. I packed a Nova lathe, table saw, mitre and band saws, drill and a workbench into this small space. Everything had to be in an assigned space as there was not a square inch that was not used for something – and to this day, it is still operational.
As it turns out, we (my wife Barb, aka the Finishing Dept, and I) are home in Virginia much more than in North Carolina. And, after spending one or two weeks before Christmas one year by myself making bowls for various friends and relatives, I decided that I had to have a shop at home. After many discussions, my son, Jay, and daughter-in-law, Erin, agreed to open up 2 bays of their 3 car garage to shop activities (Jay is also a woodworker). We first built a shed attached to one end of the garage into which went painting supplies, camping equipment, gardening stuff and g-kids bikes, etc. Next, Jay’s ’67 Mustang was moved into bay 3 and we had ourselves a shop. Many equipment purchases later, I had a place in Virginia to create my bowls and mills, that is not only convenient, but also close to the kids and grand kids!
