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My quest to clean out and organize my father's workshop continues. In that pursuit, I have turned my attention to another disaster area--the garage (which hasn't had a car in it since oh, about the 70's. Why would you want to be able to put a car in the garage?). The idea is, if I can clear out part of the back of the garage, then I can move the table saw and jig saw (we're talking a mega jig saw here, with about a 24" throat) into the garage until I figure out what to do with them. With them out of the way, I figure I can start organizing and cleaning up the workspace in the shop. (This whole place is one big game of whack a mole. You push it down here; it pops up over there.)
I think I've mentioned that Dad never threw anything out. Recent finds:
Three--yes, three--old car radios.
The speaker for an old capehart phonograph. (For the youngsters on the list, they stopped making these before I was born. They were way before stereo. They played the old style records. Not LPs. Not even 33s. 16s. The kind that had cardboard in the center.)
Oh, yeah. And there's stacks of those old records up on the back shelf. I haven't gotten to those, yet.
There's actually another (not the same one the speaker came from) capehart out there too. It's fairly intact. Some of the veneer is peeling a little, though. It's just possible I might find some antiques dealer interested in that.
Four boxes of hardware for a gazebo Dad planned to make but never did. I have no idea where the plans are, but I've got the hardware.
Before he died, I said I would have to go through the garage/workshop/storage room so I could figure out what was out there. Dad said, "Just light a match." I'm beginning to understand what he meant.
The biggest thing I need to move now is one of the two old tv cabinets. Actually, I don't mind these. They're cabinets from the old b/w tvs, when they made the cabinets like actual furniture. Dad took out the vaccuum tubes and such, put a plywood back on it and installed a shelf. (Of course, somewhere out there I've also got a box full of the vaccuum tubes, because you wouldn't want to throw anything away, would you?) They both made decent cabinets and I'd actually like to bring this one inside and put it in the master bathroom for some much-needed storage.
But that's another story. In order to bring the cabinet in, I've got to get the unused vanity off the wall. Two brackets, six screws. And I can't budge any of them so much as a milimeter. Dad never put anything up that he didn't mean to stay forever.
Of course, there was that time that my bathroom sink fell off the wall and almost crushed my toes. But that's another story.
[This message has been edited by Meredith (edited November 21, 2009).]
quote:No kidding, I want to come and play in your garage! All I have is 15 yr old cans of paint. Leslie
Oh, I have some of those, too. In fact, I have some so old the labels have all worn off. Oil-based, too. Because Dad didn't like latex. Now, me, I'm a latex fan. Easy clean up. And you can throw the empty cans in the trash. Oil-based, I have to save up for a toxic waste event.
But you never do know what you'll find when you look in a box out there.
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Found the box of vaccuum tubes and other assorted bits of antique electronics. Told you they'd be out there.
Otherwise, I just moved some stuff around today. And swept. I can't get very much further until I figure out how to get that *%($#@ vanity off the wall in the main bathroom so I can move the old TV cabinet in.
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Hit my first real snag today. I need to get a 36" piece of equipment through a 30" door. I have a feeling that's not going to work. In fact, I had a very interesting five or ten minutes while I had the table saw stuck in that door.
This means I have to figure out a way to get the Dutch door open. It's 45". Plenty of room. But it won't open more than about a foot because the concrete slab has cracked and one side of the crack is raised enough to stop the door. I'll probably have to take it off the hinges to get the table saw and the jig saw out. (While it's off the hinges, I'll cut it down by about half an inch so it will open in the future.)
That means I have to cut back the rose bush that has grown partly across that door and clear some other stuff out of the way between the Dutch door and the garage door so I can move the table saw around and into the garage. Plus, that'll mean moving both of them across grass, not concrete, for a short distance. That'll be fun.
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