Love-Hate Relationship

I have a difficult relationship with my garage. When it's stormy or cold weather, nothing beats the wonderful feeling when I pull the car into that safe haven and close the door to the outside. But when I try to build, paint, or repair something in the garage, I hate it. It's a simple fact that a standard 2-car garage isn't made to accommodate all those extra things that we have in there--riding lawnmower, cabinets, bikes, table saw, dirt bike, shovels, rakes, air compressor, kerosene heater, wood, etc. (Not to mention a full-sized car and a pickup truck!) So when I try to add one more thing--like a makeshift worktable--I always end up cussing and throwing things around.

Today, I set up a work area to finish off the above-the-window shelf that's been waiting on a borrowed biscuit jointer. Thanks to my generous co-worker, I finally had a jointer to use. The shelf boards are about 7 feet long, and they needed broad support. Yet, there's almost nothing you can do to make our two sets of sawhorses level with each other. (One set is wooden and non-adjustable; the other is steel and adjustable, to a point.) At any rate, I ended up using two steel sawhorses and one wooden one, the latter topped with about five smaller pieces of scrap wood to try to bring it up to the same level. I was able to cut the biscuit slots relatively easily, but when it came time to glue . . . all you know what broke loose. The glue was dripping, the boards were slipping, and the scrap wood finally went flying across the garage. (Some of that was of its own accord; some was me throwing it in frustration). I eventually joined the boards on the garage floor, then got my husband to come help me lift the single piece back up to the sawhorses to clamp. Since I only had two clamps big enough, that turned out to be yet another frustration.

The shelf is now "setting" before I go back to caulk the joint and sand. I'll have to put another coat of paint on it because it got so banged up during the jointing process.

I wish I had a nice, large worktable always set up, ready to go. Something with lots of electrical outlets would be nice, and rolling stands for all my tools. I'd love a permanent router table so I don't have to cram it back into its case every time I use it. Of course, all that would mean I'd have to have a dedicated workshop, and I know of no way that will happen in the next 10 years. So I guess I'll have to get used to my current way of rigging things and put tape over my mouth the next time I'm doing a project.