It’s far too late and I should follow the lead of the rest of my family and go to bed but I finally managed to get the aesthetics of the page setup the way I wanted them so I felt the need to at least tackle this first post.  Well that and I’m still waiting for some combination of the prescription meds to at least dull the massive pain in my lower back so I can actually sleep.  I guess the best place to start is to give everyone a little peak at my main work area.

Where I'm supposed to do all my work

Full disclaimer, this picure was taken when I first set everything up a few years ago.  I’m pretty sure it still looks like that underneath the stuff I’ve managed to pile all over it.  I’ve also since added a large wooden desk giving me a full L-shaped work area.  Add this to my husband’s very large woodworking bench and our 2 car garage will now fit 1 car and only with a little creative rearranging.  And here I thought he was going overboard on the garage size when we first built.

I was so thrilled to finally have a real workspace.  I’d always thought it would be too cost-prohibitive but in the end it turned out I spent way more on tools than I did on the actual workspace itself.  The cabinets are all off the shelf pre-manufactured unfinished cabinets from my local Home Depot.  The paint was my favorite find.  I was going to stain the cabinets but I saw this amazing color in the “whoa that’s not the color I wanted” sale bin in the paint department for I think it was $4 a gallon.  The countertop was another great score, it had a tiny blemish on the edge of the backsplash so I bought it for well below normal price.  The only real expense was the jeweler’s bench and even that was reasonable in comparison to what I was expecting to pay.  If you’re in the market check out www.contenti.com.  I searched just about everywhere and by the time shipping was factored in it was the best deal. 

So that’s where I’m “supposed” to work.    A majority of the metalwork and all of the torch work happens out there but at other times I tend to spread out across the house.  I’ve been known to maille at the kitchen table while dinner is cooking or in my favorite spot of all, my oversized chair in front of the tv.  I’m still in awe that my husband not only okayed but actually encouraged me to get a tabletop bench to use in the house when the garage gets too cold for sawing.  I have carpet all through the house except for the kitchen/dining room so now that’s where my indoor bench lives.  How he puts up with my constant invasion of space (Did I mention yet that I’m slowly taking over the spare bedroom for picture taking? lol) I’ll never know.

Of course you don’t need all this stuff to get started.  My beginning setup was a far cry from this and worked perfectly as a way to test the metalworking waters.  In a future post I’ll address setting up a cheap (and portable) beginner work area.