I haven’t posted for a short while. This is due to several reasons.
For one, I have been quite busy in the workshop, mostly with boxes and a few bowls and platters, and candlesticks. Once I get a chance, I’ll take pictures of the lot. However, this may be a while.
Secondly, because Helen and I have spent a lot of time lately to look at properties. We are very happy with the house we have, now that, after 10 years hard word, it finally looks the way we want it. Initially the search was powered by Helen’s desire to have a home in the countryside, where she could have her horses on the grounds, and maybe have a few chickens run around the yard. Over time, she has come to realize that this may not be as ideal as it sounds, mostly because she would lose the support from all the other people on the yard, and we wouldn’t be able to buy a property big enough to run a yard of our own. Not unless we converted it into a business and got a bank to buy into the whole concept. And that would have been tricky, with us not being able to show any experience in running a horse yard.
As this particular dream got laid to rest (for now!), another drive started to come to the fore. My wood turning skills are getting better all the time, and Helen is a full-blooded supporter, not least because it provides a reason to go to various events and spend some nice quality time together whilst trying to flog my pieces. I now have a decent lathe, but in all other regards the workshop is sadly lacking. And this cannot be fixed, simply because it is far too small. Already I am in a position where I have to keep everything stowed away other than the very tool I am using, otherwise I can’t get anything done at all. And it looks untidy all the time, because the cupboards or full and in consequence lots of stuff lives on the workbench already.
So, to cut this long story a little shorter, not the motivation was to find a house with a bigger garden, ideally with a shed or a workshop already in it. We almost went for a house in Kingsnordley. In the middle of the countryside, which is a blessing in disguise, nice size garden with old trees, and a workshop in it with electricity. As it was one of the first we looked at, we just tarried a little too long, and boom, it was sold. On second thought, it would have been right at the upper end of affordability, so maybe not such a bad thing. All in all, we did spend a lot of time researching the internet, registering with all sorts of estate agents, and looking at more and more properties.
In the end, we followed some tip from a friend, for a property almost in stone throwing distance from our current house (well, more like gun shot distance). The house itself is not much bigger than the current one, but the garden is about 5 times the size. The biggest bonus, though, is that it has a full blown workshop right at the bottom of the garden, because the current owner used to run his sign-painting business from there. It even has a workbench with a radial arm saw in it. Absolutely ideal. We made an offer, but that was a little too low. Second offer, accepted.
So now the madness begins. Tomorrow I have a call from the mortgage folks to establish and agreement “in principle”, which we need for the estate agents. On Thursday we have the photographers in the house, so we can put it on the market for selling. And, as you can imagine, Helen and I have spent the last few days getting the garden and house into shape for that.
I imagine I won’t have the usual amount of time for turning and blogging. We’ll see, watch this space…
