This D*mn Workshop

I managed to get out of work yesterday within 5 minutes of when I’d planned. (Writing this on the calendar now.) Got home, changed clothes, started in by about 12:40 p.m. and worked ‘til dark. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect. It got a little warm in the shed at times, but nothing like last week’s baked alive experience. Not even close.

I got the last, and one of the more difficult boards cut and up inside the shed. I helped the mother move everything out of the carport so she could finish her scrubbing (in preparation to paint the foundation), and then I started trying to organize the shed. I cleared out a bunch of old boards I’m never going to use, chopped those up, along with the scraps left from the shed project and got that all picked up. Then I went back to the shed for more organizing.

During all of this, one of my neighbors, he of Jack and the Beanstalk fame, came over to inspect. He eyed my small collection of 2x4 scraps. (I always seem to have some amount of scrap wood. You never know when it will come in handy.) “Hey, can I have one of these?” he asked. I don’t have an immediate use for it so I said “sure.”

He wanted it for something to do with their air-conditioner. I confess I wasn’t exactly listening as I was trying to get things picked up as we were heading for the last throes of light. “You don’t have your saw out or I’d have you cut it for me,” he said. Well, I did have my jigsaw set up still so I volunteered to fix him up. He went home to measure. I wasn’t going to let him saw. He has tremors and I’d be afraid he’d hurt himself! Welcome to This D*mn Workshop.

(All that the ‘workshop’ is are my two aluminum sawhorses and a sturdy piece of board leftover from when Lawrence replaced the front stoop back in the spring. I set them up on our half-lot, run an extension cord to the carport, and viola! Instant workshop. It’s where I cut bricks all summer and where I cut the framing and plywood for the shed.)

I continued to help the mother put stuff back in place. We even put the little chairs and table back on the front porch! It was a real step toward normalcy. ( I didn't take a picture, but I will when I put the finials on the new porch railing.)

We were just setting the boards for the shed’s exterior back under the carport (no, sadly, I didn’t get that part of the project going) when my neighbor ambled back with the scrap board, a cut line clearly visible. It may not have been a 100-percent straight cut (I was hurrying a bit) but I lopped off the last 2-3 inches as marked. That seemed to solve an issue for him – and that’s a good thing.

So while everything is back in the shed – including the lawnmower which hasn’t been there for months – it’s only about 90 percent organized. But still, a big improvement and lots of progress!