Tuesday, February 3, 2009

The New Shop (an Icelandic Hot Spot)

I am alive.

The reason for the two weeks without communication is that I have FINALLY moved out of my parents house. Also, I have (just today) re-established a connection on the Information Superhighway.

Last week Gail and I finally closed on the purchase of our McMansion after weeks of underwriting delays caused by all of the refinancing geeks who wanted to lock in the sub-five percent rates.

Last Friday the movers started unloading the first semi trailer of stuff, and they finished it yesterday. It is interesting how things were divided between the two moving trucks. The top of my Holtzapfel bench arrived Friday. The base was delivered yesterday. I can only imagine how the time apart will affect their long term relationship.

I now have the daunting task of setting up the new shop. The basement of the new house is just over 1800 square feet, so I finally have a massive space to fit all of my crap (tablesaw, jointer, planer, band saw, chop saw, router table, work benches, sharpening station, tool cabinets, lumber, etc). However, I have to do everything from scratch with regard to things like running the 220V lines, and piping the dust collection for the cyclone. It's weird that what was sort of fun when I set up my first shop is now just rattling around in my brain as being a big pain in the ass.

Setting up the tablesaw the day I bought it was sort of fun. I relived everything I had learned from Kelly Mehler's book and video. Now, I just see it as a source of tension that it was necessary to remove the perfectly square fence and cast iron table top in order to move the Unisaw to its new home.

On a bright note, the movers somehow moved my jointer from the old basement shop to the new basement shop without having to disassemble it. So there are no gib screws to tinker with.

I suppose I shouldn't complain. This is probably a good problem to have. Perhaps this is akin to some guy complaining about how rough it is to change the oil in his Ferrari 250GTO or go shopping for lingerie for his supermodel wife. Oh woe is me for having to do so much work to reassemble my dream shop. Still, I needed to vent to someone.

Let me leave you with one assurance, though.... this blog will continue to be the same smartass stuff you have come to love. I promise to not turn this into a 3 month documentary of setting up the new shop.

Let me leave you with something else. (Really this is just something for myself). I have noticed that I get almost NO blog hits from Iceland, and this was even before the country went bankrupt. So in an effort to get a big rush of hits from Iceland, I want to do a little bit of keyword spamming... just to stir up the traffic from Iceland. Here goes: Reykjavic Escort Services, Iceland Sex Tours, Iceland Gilrs for Dating, Keflavik Asian Massage, Samantha Brown Iceland Vacation Pictures....

THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can see my Icelandic hits increasing already.


Gott kvöld

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

At least you own the place! I move every 2-3 years, and it usually doesn't make sense to buy. I have to convince my landlords to "let me" wire and sheetrock their garages or basements... or just drop outlets in the garages of my on-base military house and cross my fingers that the inspectors don't notice when I move out!

Odd that your keyword spamming didn't bring any good banner ads with it.

Anonymous said...

I would like to read about the shop setup. You could do it in a smartass way if you want to uphold your standards.

Anonymous said...

Hvernig segir maður Jeff Skiver á íslensku?

Smjörið er brætt og hveitið smátt og smátt hrært út í það, þangað til það er gengið upp í smjörið. Síðan er mjólkinni smáhellt út í, og hrært stöðugt í, til þess ekki fari í kekki. Þegar mjólkin er gengin upp og grauturinn orðinn vel jafn og saltið komið í, skal taka hann ofan. Með honum er borin saftblanda eða mjólk, einnig steyttur sykur og kanel.

Anonymous said...

Good for you Jeff! With 1800 SqFt you ought to be able to set things up just about any way you want. You'll be able to have a seperate finishing room and a low assembly table in the bench area! Comming froom an engineering background I'm sure you'll have it all laid out on paper before commiting to a design. At least give us some before shots.

Anonymous said...

I think Jeff is lost in the massive new shop. Jeff! If you can hear me, come towards the sound of my voice!

Sorry, couldn't resist. I hope the move and setup is going well

Jeff Skiver said...

Ed,

My Icelandic Translator doesn't work well enough. It is only picking up about one out of every four words.

Sorry. I just can't make out all of the good stuff hidden in there.

Jeff Skiver said...

Mac,

This house is HUGE. There is about 4200 square feet above the 1854 sq ft basement.

Between the tanking property values and the sub five percent mortgage rates, it was the perfect time to act like George and Weezie.

Honest to God, my old shop was 325 sq ft. So I just have a crazy good amount of space to deal with.

I'll try to put together some occasional updates to see how it develops.

Jeff Skiver said...

Jason,

I really am CRAZY BUSY.

However, I have got to prioritize and put these blog delays behind us.

There really isn't an excuse for going two weeks between blog updates, even if I am trying to settle into the new house while still doing a bang up job at the office.

Jeff Skiver said...

Scott, if you ever switch over to the Coast Guard (right...) and you get stationed in Grand Haven, Michigan... I can make you an INCREDIBLE deal on a house in Holland, Michigan that is already set up to house a great basement shop.

Anonymous said...

Björk.