Making My Dream Woodshop Part II: Wildfires, Headwounds, and Moving Day
I have always been a DIY mover. Get a couple of friends and a few pickup trucks. Maybe a U Haul if I’m feeling really bold. Pay everyone in pizza and beer, and it makes for a nice little day. But now I’m almost 40, friends have kids and ex wives to contend with. Worst of all, if I ask them now, they might ask me to return the favor. And I can’t have that. So we decided to hire the house/shop move out for once… At least until I found out that apparently movers don’t want to move cast iron shop tools any more than my friends do. Most companies weren’t available, all of them either wouldn’t move anything over 300 lbs, or were going to charge a fee of $100 per item. Which adds up when you have 15 items over 300 lbs! Soooo… back to the friends and family.
Doesn’t get any easier than this.
I was more than a little concerned how a few guys were going to load 1000 lb planers and 500 lb jointers into an elevated moving truck. Then a week before the move my wife suggested I rent a truck with a liftgate… Which definitely falls into the “why didn’t I think of that category?” It was so simple. We found a rental company that had a truck with 2500 lb capacity lift gate and cost $100/day. Which ended up being $180 with mileage and required commercial insurance. Still not bad though. In the spirit of keeping things positive, and not getting sued, I won’t mention the rental company. But I wouldn’t recommend the one I used. We booked a week out and showed up to them not having a truck. So our entire moving crew had to wait an hour for me to finally get a truck brought in. All that said, the truck itself was awesome.
Wildfires
No filter needed. This doesn’t do the smoke justice.
To make things a little exciting, NW Oregon had the worst fires in the history of the state break out. There were around six fires over 100k acres burning at once (have had like six that big in the last 50 years total). The closest fire to us was about 8 miles away. Definitely close enough to get us wondering if now was the best time to buy a house on a heavily wooded lot/hill. We also had a really rare combination of atmospheric conditions that basically pushed all the smoke down. Like the most intense smoky fog you have ever seen. We actually had the confirmed “worst air quality in the world” for around a week. It brought the temperature down from low 90’s to the 60’s. It was actually bizarre and surreal. My dad is a retired game warden who has seen a lot. He said it was the smokiest place he’s ever been. And that includes times he was inside active wildfires.
All that was going on for moving day. Although the air quality really didn’t come down to respirator levels until the next day. So my crew of rockstar movers powered through.
Headwounds
This will be more of a PSA, and to help clear up any rumors that my 5’ tall wife abuses me. But have you ever set anything on top of a ladder and told yourself you would remember it’s up there? I definitely have, but would like to think I won’t anymore. A few days before the shop move, my wife and I were packing and I set my impact driver on top of an 8’ step ladder. Then went to move the ladder a few minutes later… Caught the butt of the driver just above my eye. Split me open pretty good. Luckily the surprisingly insecure doc at urgent care patched me up with no stitches. Just bandages and CA glue. Got a nice scar, but lesson learned.
The moving process
The actual move couldn’t have went any better. The liftgate worked like a champ. Despite the time we killed the battery by moving it up and down too many times with the engine off. Just a reminder that you still need to carry jumper cables (thanks dad). Most all of my tools are on a mobile base, so they literally just rolled onto the liftgate and then into the truck. We were only moving 8 minutes away, so we didn’t go crazy strapping everything down. Just packed it all in snug and crossed our fingers we don’t have to do any evasive driving maneuvers on the way over.
So the shop must be operational now?
Cluttered shop selfie with my mandatory smoke respirator and showing off my headwound (don’t set tools on top of ladders).
The tools are moved in. That’s about it. I was pretty excited about all the space I was going to have, but after the move I was pretty terrified I wasn’t going to be able to fit everything. I even had to stack my nice dry wood slabs outside the shop. Just to make room to get around. I keep reminding myself that I am gaining square footage and everything is going to be ok. But it looks pretty overwhelming with all the tools and work benches piled in the middle of my shop.
Whats next?
Before I get too far into setting up the shop I want to make some cosmetic changes. So next up is taping up the seams on the interior OSB walls (not drywall). Then add some texture and new paint. Then so many more things… deep breath. Oh, and orders keep coming in and have no place to make anything. Good problems though!