Tag: Shed

As it remains hot and painting is not easy, and as I remain off work for a few more days, I have decided to keep myself busy (and sane) by trying to tidy the shed up a bit.  Hopefully that will make it more usable when I can finally get back in there.

I have also had too much time on my hands to think.  Never a good thing.  It has led to me becoming paranoid that the shed is probably not the safest place for the last 15 years of toil to be kept.  The issue of insurance and protecting a collection, like we probably all amass, has started to play on my mind.  Therefore I have decided to move the more valuable items back into the house for ‘safe keeping’.

My daughter has recently left home and the spare room has been cleared of excess junk.  This has now afforded me the space to put up a cabinet for all my miniature boxes to be stored more safely and, more importantly to the lady of the house, out of sight…

The unit is a cheap Ikea modular wardrobe frame that has been fitted out with simple shelves and a pair of doors. Total spend £115.  What makes it better, is that it came as a clip together kit.  I only needed a screwdriver for the door hinges…  Far less swearing than usual was heard during its construction…

Fragile, large or just plainly odd shaped items will be up top with cases of regular miniatures below.

So far that is all the boxes in from the shed. Neatly and safely now stored indoors.  Not sure how to break it to the good lady that there are another twenty boxes in other cupboards around the house that are likely to remain where they are…

Now, all that remains in the shed are twenty or so boxes of scenery…  Oh, and all the unpainted stuff…

Out of sight, out of (the good lady’s) mind.  What she doesn’t notice she doesn’t worry about.

The trade off.  I had to put up a set of coat hooks for her to use in the small dead space between units…  A small price to pay for piece of mind!

With all the new Imperial Knights base coated I have no excuse but to start to paint the details on them. This should be a simple job, as none are due for a complex paint scheme.  That said, I still don’t feel up to sitting and painting, so I am avoiding it by making excuses and finding other things to do that allow me to avoid painting.  The latest excuse comes from a recent comment by Faust of Double Down Dice. Who got me thinking about how we each set out our workspaces.  I know what works for me, but I wonder if I am ‘the norm’ or if others have come up with other, better, ideas.

One corner of the shed is my official painting station. In regard to position, it is where the power enters the shed and next to a window, so it stands to reason that it would be the best place to work.  An old writing bureau is the base of my operation.  A nice flat workspace and lots of cubby holes of various sizes help to keep me organised.  Never tidy but always usable.

I may be alone in this, but I do not have a screen or computer near my workspace.  This is something I see on many other workplace photos and I know from Faust’s comment that his setup has one of these. I may be old fashioned but I can only look at one thing at a time so would get very distracted (and get even less done) if I put mine out there.  I do have a smart speaker in the shed and can often be heard chatting to Alexa while I work. She has introduced me to a wide range of music outside of my ageing CD collection…

A second bureau stands almost hidden to the rear of the shed and is supposed to be a display space as well as a potential second work point. Currently it is neither as I seem to have slightly more stuff in the shed than it can actually hold…

The Shed is not a small space.

I do find that I can fill it very easily.

When I started using it for my gaming den I had a set of boards and trestles that could be put away between games and the space used for other, more mundane, things.

After a while I noticed that more gaming than anything else was being done in the shed.  A small table was then setup that could be used to support a 4 feet by 4 feet  (or 6’x4′ at a push) tabletop.

When I realised that the 6 feet by 4 feet table was setup on more days than not I decided that a permanent table would be a better idea as then the space below the table could be used for storage.

Hence the current renovations in the shed.

Still lots to do as I still have to find homes for the larger and more fragile items in the shed.

Sorting out what should be reboxed and stored together is the next job.  That way I can ensure that when I am looking for it, I am not searching in 7 different places at once.

Overall its unlikely that I have increased the actual storage capacity in the shed but it may be more organised from this point on…

Off Plan

Score for post -1 point/ Total score +8

 

So much for getting refocused on ‘The Plan’.

First thing I have done after rewriting the plan was to pop to a DIY store (at the request of she who must be obeyed) to get a new bath side (oh how I hate DIY) and ended up starting a bit of a renovation project in the shed.

I blame a short period of sunshine that showed me I should get tidied up and that led to renewing the whole area of my game table.

Storage has always been an issue in the shed and I obviously have too much ‘stuff’.

Ikea has come to the rescue with a set of storage that fits my existing boxes almost perfectly.  It will also act as a base for a new gaming table (I am a traditionalist so I has to be 6 feet by 4 feet).

Still lots to do, and with me moving piles from one side to the other as I work (I have never managed to work that smart), it has taken longer than ever I planned it would.

But its getting there, slowly (and I haven’t broken anything, or cut myself as yet).

Off Plan

Score for post -1 point/ Total score +9