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I’m In ;-)

PostPosted: 03 Jan 2020, 17:16
by Woodman
Hi guy’s,

Now before I go any further, ‘guy’s’ is a generic term I use irrespective of gender, so now you know I’m not excluding anyone from this or all my future post :lol:

As I type, I’m 61, retired and laid up in bed with ‘man flu’. This means I am bored silly and restless so this could be the longest introduction post in the history of this or any other online forum. You have been warned!

So for those of you that are still reading, as stated, I am now retired and have no major work history in the woodworking industry, so what brings me here? Basically you can blame my wonderful wife, Barbara because she wanted and if I’m honest needed an art studio. But that is far to late in the introduction so I will go right back to the beginning.

When I was in secondary school half a century ago :shock: my favourite subjects all involved using my hands, back then they were called ‘woodwork’ ‘metelwork’ and ‘Tech Drawing’. I’m certain my 2 daughters school had different names for these subjects and my 3 granddaughters and 2 grandsons probably don’t even get taught them anymore :(

Anyway, my interest in these types of subjects was probably set in my DNA with both my grandfathers being engineers and craftsmen, and even my father being ‘on the tools’ as an electrical engineer. All were more than willing to pass on their respective skills and as a young boy I was always happy to listen and learn.

Now despite this starting to sound like an episode of ‘all our yesterdays’ or ‘Out Of Town’ with Jack Hargrieves, I am in fact a young at heart, fairly fit and active 61 year old, retirement being a life choice rather than an enforced event. In short, having left school at just shy of 16, I had been a mechanical and electrical engineer until I was 26. By then I had a wife and 2 young daughters and due to changes in the technology this career paths were rapidly changing or in some cases disappeared altogether. So a completely new and to me somewhat unexpected career change came about and I secured the next 30 years of employment in the Police Service. I had no idea when I joined or even for several years after I had joined that I had in fact stumbled into one of the best final salary pensions schemes available, and fortunately back then it was compulsory to join it.. 30 years on, there is no point continuing to work as you have already accrued you maximum pension entitlement so at 56 I ‘retired’.

I sat ‘retired’ in inverted commas because whilst sitting in front of the TV all day with the dogs for company may seem like a great way of life, trust me there is only so much ‘Jeremy Kyle’ and ‘Loose Women’ you can take. In my case it was about 2 weeks. So I bought a van, put my tools in the back, had 5000 leaflets printed which I posted myself locally, and started my own handyman business. Something part time for a couple of days a week when I needed to get out I though, but 3 or 4 years on and I found myself working full time despite turning down loads of ‘big jobs’.

In the mean time we had bought a 2nd hand caravan, changed that for brand new one and then traded that in for a new Motorhome. I was starting to wonder how I ever found time for a 30 year Police career :shock: and something had to change. Just as it had always done in my life, something did change when Barbara went part time and then fully retired and got back into ‘art’. Now this I confess is where we differ, firstly I had no idea Barbara could paint but she can and indeed she is very talented too. I on the other hand can only draw anything other than a dead straight line when it is done by mistake.

Enter into the story, my OCD. As I went through life and made hobby, career and lifestyle choices it never once occurred to me that there was anything ‘wrong’ with me. However, looking back to the woodwork, metalwork, tech drawing, discipline within the police service, and constant tidying things up behind other people, trust me that annoys them far than it annoys me, So Barbara is the creative one, and I am the practical one. Ask me to solve a problem or build something and I can do it to a high standard, ask me to come up with the creative idea in the first place and I am struggling.

Ok, so having establishes that Barbara needed an art studio if we (more specifically my OCD) were ever going to get a nice tidy dining room back, I needed to create one. This is where my practical side comes in very handy because I had the great idea of knocking down the existing prefabricated concrete garage with its asbestos concrete rook and replacing it with a brick built garage, above which I could build an art studio.. Perfect, except I have never laid a brick in my life. Ok not specifically true, I did in once build a brick fireplace in our first house (it was the late 70’s) but it didn’t need foundations, planning permission or have to comply with building regulations :shock:

Well, thanks to YouTube I am now above head height with the ‘garage’ or should that say ‘workshop’ :lol: with its 1m deep foundations, dense concrete block inner walls, full fill cavity insulation, concrete slab floor and roughly 36 sq mts floor space. The art studio level is just over half that footprint, has 1 side that is fully upvc and so it should go up fairly swiftly. The only delay is that I am stuck inside with this man flu so my attention shifted from the ‘build’ to the ‘workshop’. I have stopped the handyman business to concentrate on the build and post build I plan to split my time between creative woodwork and motorhoming.

And that boys and girls is why I joined Woodhaven2.. I did warn you it was a long intro :obscene-drinkingcheers:

Re: I’m In ;-)

PostPosted: 03 Jan 2020, 19:41
by Phil
Welcome! :obscene-drinkingcheers:

There is a wealth of knowledge here as well as very helpful members.

We all like pics of work/projects.

Cheers

Re: I’m In ;-)

PostPosted: 03 Jan 2020, 21:16
by Malc2098
Yo, Woodman! Welcome from Deepest Mid-Devon.

Traffic or the other lot?

Re: I’m In ;-)

PostPosted: 03 Jan 2020, 21:20
by Woodman
Malc2098 wrote:Yo, Woodman! Welcome from Deepest Mid-Devon.

Traffic or the other lot?


Traffic, Motorcycles and Motorway 8-)

Re: I’m In ;-)

PostPosted: 03 Jan 2020, 21:42
by Mike G
Hi, and welcome.

Re: I’m In ;-)

PostPosted: 04 Jan 2020, 00:47
by Woodman
Phil wrote:Welcome! :obscene-drinkingcheers:

There is a wealth of knowledge here as well as very helpful members.

We all like pics of work/projects.

Cheers


Thanks Phil, as I start accumulating my new workshop machines I’m sure I will be calling upon that knowledge.

Re: I’m In ;-)

PostPosted: 04 Jan 2020, 00:47
by Woodman
Mike G wrote:Hi, and welcome.


thanks Mike, much appreciated.

Re: I’m In ;-)

PostPosted: 04 Jan 2020, 09:42
by Mike G
Just a thought...........36sq m of floor room means you need to have Building Regs approval. Are you having your work inspected?

Re: I’m In [emoji6]

PostPosted: 04 Jan 2020, 11:05
by TrimTheKing
Hello and welcome woodman.

Re: I’m In ;-)

PostPosted: 04 Jan 2020, 11:05
by Woodman
Mike G wrote:Just a thought...........36sq m of floor room means you need to have Building Regs approval. Are you having your work inspected?


Yes, I had to go via the local council for Planning Permission, but I am using a private company for Building regs. Just supplied them with the structural engineer calculations and architects drawings at the outset. I am even doing the electrics myself and have a firm that will come in to test and certify the work at the end.

Given it’s a self build, it’s taking me a lot longer than a team of brick and labourers so I have not had them back for over 12 months.

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Re: I’m In ;-)

PostPosted: 04 Jan 2020, 11:50
by 9fingers
Looks like you have a good grip on what is needed and doing the electrics yourself and getting it certified professionally is a good way to save dosh.
Wonderfully tidy site too :eusa-clap:

Keep up the good work!

Bob

Re: I’m In ;-)

PostPosted: 04 Jan 2020, 16:20
by Woodman
9fingers wrote:Looks like you have a good grip on what is needed and doing the electrics yourself and getting it certified professionally is a good way to save dosh.
Wonderfully tidy site too :eusa-clap:

Keep up the good work!

Bob


Thanks Bob, I already have water and electric into the site, I buried an armoured cable across the garden 1m down, fed from a separate dp switch and RCD fed from a separate pair of tails at the meter. I will be using steel surface mount boxes and conduit to put 2 or 3 double sockets on each wall and not forgetting a couple of 16am outlets.

I have never laid bricks before but YouTube was my instructor and because I'm taking my time its probably better than if I got a bricky in on day rate :-)

Re: I’m In ;-)

PostPosted: 04 Jan 2020, 23:39
by Malc2098
Woodman wrote:
Malc2098 wrote:Yo, Woodman! Welcome from Deepest Mid-Devon.

Traffic or the other lot?


Traffic, Motorcycles and Motorway 8-)




Me,too! :)

Re: I’m In ;-)

PostPosted: 06 Jan 2020, 12:44
by RogerS
Malc2098 wrote:
Woodman wrote:
Malc2098 wrote:Yo, Woodman! Welcome from Deepest Mid-Devon.

Traffic or the other lot?


Traffic, Motorcycles and Motorway 8-)




Me,too! :)


Any more and we'll need a sub-forum :lol:

Seriously, we need more of you guys on the roads. When I was about to take my driving test, one of our neighbours who was also Traffic kindly took me out for an hours' Masterclass. I learned more from him in that hour than all the time I spend driving with my old man. :eusa-clap:

Welcome to the forum, by the way. Whereabouts are you located ?

Re: I’m In ;-)

PostPosted: 09 Jan 2020, 14:09
by Andyp
And a warm welcome from me too.
Dont worry about the speed of the build. Rome was not built in a day afterall - eh Mark?

Re: I’m In ;-)

PostPosted: 09 Jan 2020, 14:42
by TrimTheKing
Andyp wrote:...Rome was not built in a day afterall - eh Mark?


Absolutely! And we all know that time is merely a construct. What really is a day...?

Re: I’m In ;-)

PostPosted: 09 Jan 2020, 14:54
by Woodman
Andyp wrote:And a warm welcome from me too.
Dont worry about the speed of the build. Rome was not built in a day afterall - eh Mark?


Exactly, It will be finished when its finished :obscene-drinkingcheers: