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formariz

Is your shop just that?

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JimSraj

Oh, you are not at all alone in feeling like this. 

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ebinmaine

 

We currently have 2 shops split between the basement workshop and outdoor workshop.  Some tools duplicated in both spaces, some not.  

If all goes according to plan we'll be combining both areas to the new building soon but that too will be ... 2 shops. Upstairs and down. 

 

Louis Lamour has written about the struggles of a man without a "home". In his case he was referring to the constant movement of some humans be it the product of upbringing or current circumstances.  

I had that same set of struggles for a few years. 

I was born n raised in an area I missed and dislike greatly and equally. 

Over the last few years Southern Maine has become my home. ... But even as the economy grows and thereby the population, this area is eventually to be a former home as well.  

The BBT and I are VERY much quiet country loving folk. North is where that happens.  

 

I tell you all that to state this:

Your safe happy place is where you make it. 

Yes we have memories of certain people places things attached to a particular area.  

Those memories are just that no matter where we are physically. 

 

I am happiest and most relaxed in The Great Northern Maine Woods.  

I am happiest and most productive around my own acreage. 

 

 

You are who you are and have become not because of the place. 

You are who you are. No matter the place.  

 

 

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adsm08

My shop has recently been co-opted for storage.

 

I have a full 2-car garage that is supposed to be my work shop. More recently it has become storage for the kids' toys, and I barely have room to get the tractor in.

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peter lena

@formariz  agree and can relate , as we all get steadily older , you fefinetly look at and see things in a different light , THE IRONY OF AGING IS THAT YOU GET TO ENJOY IT , having my own reflections , pete  

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ebinmaine
12 minutes ago, adsm08 said:

More recently it has become storage for the kids' toys, and I barely have room to get the tractor in.

You need a kid shed.. 

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rjg854

It's taken 22 years to build what I have here.  A 2 story 24x28 garage/workshop for carpentry work for me, and a 2nd floor craft room for the wife. It also has a 3/4 bathroom and a kitchenette.  There's a garden shed for the little lady, and attached to that is a 18x20 tractor shed for the :wh:'s. The place is a 1/4 mile off the main highway, so it's nice and peaceful here. Most people don't even know it exists, except for the ones I tell.  I just finished putting in a kitchen and last year a bathroom. I would dread the thought of having to leave this place at this stage of life.  I call it, "GOD's half acre". In my mind right now, there's only one way I'm leaving here. In an urn :laughing-rolling:

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ebinmaine

Excellent thread. 

It's very interesting to read the variety of thought processes.   

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pacer

@SPINJIM Im in the almost identical situation -- I'm 82 and still in pretty decent health, but I'm only TOO aware that could change quickly. I've been here 50 yrs and as several others have said, I contracted out the main house construction and did the rest myself, including a 24x32 stick built shop  that over the years has got full insulation with sheet rock and heat & air. As @953 nut sez, its my 'man cave! I dont fish, golf, bar hop, etc, etc, I head to my shop!!

 

Now, my eldest is putting a bit of pressure on me to sell before my health goes (and move to Mich -- yikes!) And, he has a valid point! One minute I'm tempted and the next - several - I say I dont know if I could leave my shop, I could care less about the house having lost my little bride a couple years ago. but ....

 

Bout 10 yrs ago I sprung for a full sized Milling machine and a 13" metal lathe (YEA, love them things!) one of my buddies sez wasnt that a lot of money to put into tools?  - I promptly asked him 'what did you pay for that bass boat you bought couple years ago' That was the last of that conversation! I knew what he paid and it was was a bit more that double what my 'tools' cost:thumbs:

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8ntruck

We have moved often enough since 1978 that our house has turned out to be the place we are living until we move again.  Now that we are retired, our house is now a long term deal - unless some unplanned upheaval happens that requires another move.

 

With that in mind, my shop space has always just been a space for me to work.  With the prospect of another move being much less likely, my shop space will become more specialised and permanent.

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adsm08
4 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

You need a kid shed.. 

We are working on that.

 

I have an 8X10 tool shed that houses the un-used Horse and implements, but it keeps blowing away. I want to upgrade to a 14x10, which will help some.

 

The big issue is that we all have bikes, the boy and I both have 2 that are in the garage because it's bike season, and we have four PowerWheels sized electric go carts that we bought the kids at Christmas, one for each, and two extras for when they have friends over, which take up almost as much floor space as my Bronco II would, but they can't really be kept in the shed because they need to be kept out of the moisture since the electronics aren't sealed, and they need access to electric for charging. When we get the bigger shed I'll put down a real floor, or at least some gravel.

Edited by adsm08
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squonk
6 hours ago, rjg854 said:

there's only one way I'm leaving here. In an urn :laughing-rolling:

Can I toss some ashes onto your neighbor's property so you can Haunt him? :lol:

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squonk

About 40 years ago I was working at a large Chrysler dealer in Rochester N.Y. about 20 bays. They built a new dealership down the street (30 Bays) Guess who moved everything? WE DID!!!  I always say, you never know what you have until you move! My main task was moving the parts dept. We had a 1 ton Dodge window van to do it. And if anybody had driven a Dodge van, let's just say they don't steer the greatest. We laid the bins down with all the parts in them in the van @Pullstart style and that back end was sagging. I didn't dare go over 20 MPH on the double lane.

 

If you have a shop and thinking about moving start early. Get your new place bought before the old one is sold otherwise your gonna move everything twice.

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8ntruck
2 hours ago, squonk said:

Can I toss some ashes onto your neighbor's property so you can Haunt him? :lol:

I've told my kids that I want to be cremated, then they need to deposit some of my ashes in locations ranging from Copper Harbor to Daytona beach. I doubt that will happen, though.

 

My brother in law's wife owns and runs a funeral parlor.  She got kind of flustered when she heard that plan.

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Heatingman
8 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

You need a kid shed.. 

That exactly what I did. The last step I did the week of the move was make a shed for all my sons bulky toys that I knew would drive me up a wall being in my shop. Bad enough my wifes car is in there. 
 

So as part of the move, my wife wanted a new bed. A metal one this time, and I know if I built it, it would have been so heavy, it never would have left the shop. So I bought one instead. 
 

The previous bed I made 15 or so years ago from cedar and pine. So I dismantled that bed, took all the parts and reworked them into a shed. Only new parts I bought were the roof shingles, and 2 sheets of 4x8 siding.

 

 

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rjg854
2 hours ago, squonk said:

Can I toss some ashes onto your neighbor's property so you can Haunt him? :lol:

If you would, please :text-thankyoublue:

:laughing-rolling:

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953 nut
10 hours ago, SPINJIM said:

faced with a decision as to whether to move to a much smaller house in a 'continuing care facility'.

With the fees those places charge I figure we can have someone cut the grass, pick up our groceries, take us to appointments and have money to spare.

 

We are blessed to be debt free and live in a county that has a very good senior citizen program that encourages independent living. They have wheel chair accusable vans to take you shopping or to appointments and the cost is quite reasonable. When my wife was recuperating from her broken ankle and unable to get into our SUV they picked her up at the door, took us to the doctor's office (about fifteen miles away) and brought us home for $ 20.00. They have meals on wheels, volunteers that will take turns giving people that want it a phone call to do a wellness check and lots of social events every week. They also have visiting nurses that will check on you every couple of weeks if desired, fees for this are very reasonable. In short they are doing everything a continuing care facility would do and you are at home.

 

@pacer and @SPINJIM have a couple of years on us but at 77 my wife and I have made it clear to our daughter-in-law that we are not at all interested in moving back to Florida and going into an assisted living facility so she can be near to us.   :no:

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ebinmaine
3 hours ago, Heatingman said:

So I dismantled that bed, took all the parts and reworked them into a shed

Excellent!!

 

"Use what ya have" 

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SPINJIM
1 hour ago, 953 nut said:
12 hours ago, SPINJIM said:

faced with a decision as to whether to move to a much smaller house in a 'continuing care facility'.

With the fees those places charge I figure we can have someone cut the grass, pick up our groceries, take us to appointments and have money to spare.

 

I agree.  They want half a million up front, plus almost $3000 per month, and when you die they keep it all, and your children get nothing.   I expect to die 'in the harness'.   Don't want some nursing home keeping me only half alive and half conscious.   That said,  I also have to consider my wife who will probably outlive me.  Tough decisions.   All I can do is pray about it, and keep on fighting.

   Jim

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Marv

 

Formariz, I am with you and all the others on the sentimentality issue. I have lived here for fifty years. When we bought the house that is all there was. I started by building a shed/work space. I remodeled and added onto the house, built a 24 X 24 wood working shop which is heated and air conditioned. I also built a 28 x 60 garage / workshop. It was a labor of love and work space. So I am strongly attached to all this. Now at 85 I am faced with some looming  serious health issues. Currently, I am doing just fine but I know the time will come when that is no longer the case. I still work / play in my shops. I frequently sit there and just enjoy being there. I am trying to decide when to do do what I know I will have to do one day. I have a lot of emotion tied up here. Our children grew up here and now the love of my life is in a nursing home never to return. Please don't think I am complaining, I am not. God has been good to us all these years.

Marv

 

 

 

 

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