Still moving...

This weekend involved the final haul out of the apartment. Nothing too exciting, just clearing out the last of the closets, cupboards, and corners. Surprisingly these locations hold quite a bit of stuff. I think I filled up the truck twice. Erin managed the cleanup yesterday while I took the kids and my mom down to Birmingham to see her off. Faith really didn't understand that Grandma was leaving. After dinner she actually went looking for Grandma on the couch. Of course Grandma was just about to Denver by that time. Austin understands fine, but he was still wishing that Grandma was around this morning. Obviously they both enjoyed her visit.

I have been working on getting the garage functional.

Yeah, I know, I am not supposed to be playing in the garage. Just couldn't help myself. It is great to get my tools back. I am still half and half, not knowing where all of my necessities are. But in time I will be organized enough to make project life a bit easier. I got the bases built up for the drill press and the tablesaw. I spent a fair amount of time Saturday building the mobile base for the tablesaw. It wasn't absolutely necessary, but it sure makes life a whole lot easier to be able to move that beast around. I also managed to adopt a folding base for my miter saw. I had planned to just go the saw horse and 2x4 route, but Lowe's was blowing out this Black and Decker for $50. It actually is a great table and a happy addition to the shop. It will spend most of the time folded up, but since the saw is on a quick release base it only takes a minute to set up. The rollers and stop make life sooo much easier.

Note to self, MDF makes a lot of dust when routed. Pretty much everything got a healthy coat of saw dust in the process.

the finished product of the garage dusting...


Note to self #2 power planers are only as good as their guide. I spent a few minutes to plane the edges of the 2x4s that I used for the mobile base. After doing a few I noticed that the planed edge was not perpendicular to the side face. Great! So I had to go back and right the edges. More saw dust. I gotta get me a jointer. Honey, can I have $200 for a jointer? How about $250 for a planer? Don't see that happening. I am so going to be in trouble if I buy tools to build a table that end up costing more that just buying a table. Going to have to make due with what I got for now to avoid that issue. I did have to purchase some clamps. They came in very handy for my mobile base.


I got my peg board hung on Friday and have been putting out some of the common tools for general use. Peg board is kind of a pain in the but, however having the tools in plain sight is helpful. I am not a fan of digging in a drawer for tools that get used just about daily. I decided to give silver a try. I had wanted to do white to help brighten up the shop, but the silver will probably go better with the refurbished cabinets once they are painted up black. Also the silver peg board was on sale for less than half the price of the white or brown. Honestly it doesn't look bad even with the state of the cabinets.



The drill press is just placed on an inexpensive Harbor Freight stand. It was on sale for about $20, so I grabbed it. Pretty flimsy, but it did stabilize with some plywood and tightening of all of the bolts. For the price I can't really complain. It will need some casters on a mobile base to be more functional, but that project will be for another day. Gotta plan that one out since the drill press is so top heavy.


I managed to get my other 2 shop lights hung. Don't ask me when. I can't remember. I have been very busy. There has been a list of things to do pretty much daily for the last couple of weeks. For the most part I have done well on getting them done. The dog run is an exception. I started to put it up in a logical location. Poppy has pretty much decided to use the other side of the yard. We are debating on whether to just go with where we planned or to go with the spot she has chosen. Either way, we are not going to let her do her business all over the yard.

Note to self #3
When buying a weed wacker purchase extra string. My mom bought me a trimmer as a house warming gift. At the shop she asks if I need string or anything else. Me, "Nah, it has a spool so it should be fine for a couple of trimming sessions". Wrong. I edged about 100ft around our yard and ran out of string. It probably only had a couple feet of string in it from the factory. Murhpy's Law in full effect there.

Well, that's about all I got for a weekend follow-up. Family is quite happy in our new home. Poppy is also in bliss with her new yard. Erin and I are pretty wiped out, but also pleased with the look of things.