I guess it's my dad's fault. He loved to tinker and build. When I was little, our "workshop" was a 10x10 metal shed. When he retired from the Marine Corps, he used his educational benefits to take all sorts of classes at the local community college. We built a variety of buildings, garages, and workshops around our place, including a small woodworking shop that was about 250 sf. When I was a teenager, I spent many hours in the shops making small projects, rebuilding engines, learning to weld, all sorts of cool stuff. But woodworking, specifically building furniture, is what I really liked. So, when I built my own house, we began making plans a new garage/workshop. I knew my parents would be moving up near us one day, so Dad and I could finally build a nice large workshop. We ended up designing a 2100 square foot building including an 800 sf garage and a 1300 sf workshop. I was really looking forward to finally having the workshop I'd always dreamed of. But then things got ... interesting. Our business took a serious hit when the Internet Bubble burst. Then the tourism slump from the recession and Sept 11 attacks killed off many of our clients, so by 2004 our finances had taken a serious step back. We had estimates for the shop building that ranged from $80K to almost $100K. Well, I didn't have that kind of cash burning a hole in my pockets any more, so I decided to build it myself. From all those years of working with Dad, I was pretty confident I could handle it. It wasn't complex by any means. The only thing I really couldn't handle was the concrete, so I planned to get a contractor to do the pad for me. Beyond that, I figured I could take care of it. Besides, I always had Dad backing me up if I didn't know what to do. Then the big bomb dropped. On a bright, sunny morning, when things had been looking up, Dad said "I have lung cancer". So, things went on hold for a while. I spent many hours in the cancer center as my dad endured surgery to remove a lung, then two rounds of chemotherapy and radiation that left him a weak, infection-prone, nearly helpless shell of the man he'd been, in constant pain from what I believe was a botched surgery. Meanwhile, I started work on the shop. It took a while, but progress was being made. Luckily, I have an extremely short commute to work, so I could work on it for a couple hours every morning. I had a few adventures, like the time I spent several hours keeping the winds from a hurricane from blowing down my just-erected first wall. At one point during the winter I was climbing around in the roof trusses before dawn, wondering why my shoes were slipping so much, only to realize that everything was covered in ice. The function of the building also changed. During the construction, it was clear that Dad was getting worse. My parents purchased a mobile home and put in on our property next to the house so we could help take care of my dad. Suddenly, what was to be our workshop became a storage building. We hurriedly move all his stuff from his workshops and garages into the building as soon as it was weatherproof so he could sell the old place. It was a chaotic mess. I finished the building after about 18 months, with a total cost of about $25K. Despite all the surgery, chemo, ER trips, ambulance rides, and hospital stays of weeks at a time, Dad died in late 2006. When he was moved to the hospice unit, he was given 6-12 months to live. He died after only ten days. I think he just couldn't take it any more. I think he just gave up. I think, no, I know he would have been much happier, lived longer, and had a better end to his life if we had just left the cancer alone. After Dad died, I didn't do a whole of of anything for a long time. I had to settle all his affairs and take care of Mom. The idea of the workshop just kinda died with him. But after about a year and a half, I began to think about the workshop again and settled back into planning. Most of Dad's old tools are low-end and worn out, so I needed to start from scratch. I also need to clean up and finish the inside of the shop, insulation, wiring, etc. I've started researching and decided that I wanted to tell my story of how this all comes out, the decisions, the thought processes, the mistakes. I wish there were more sites out there like that to help me out now. So, here we go ... July 30, 2008 In memory of Dad, Dec 7 1933 - Nov 20 2006 |
