Did you ever have an idea for a WW project that...

[Two Much]

you want to make for your own home, but you have no where to fit it in,
because of space constraints?

I do, and I've been wracking my brains -- on how to fit this idea into my
kitchen (that has No space left for this project)

Have you ever had this experience? ...and did you manage to circumvent
the problem and make it fit?

[leehljp]

. . . you want to make for your own home, but you have no where to fit it in,
because of space constraints?

Yep! sure have. That is what my daughters get!

LOML likes manufactured stuff and won't let go of it because someone or her parents gave it to us. Fairly nice furniture, but it is obvious to a person with an eye that it is far more surface than underneath. LOML is always upset because our kids don't really want our furniture but they do want items that I make, especially my middle daughter.

I made a breakfast (42" square) cherry table about 35 years ago. We took it to Japan and brought it back. It has not been re-assembled since we returned. LOML wanted a round table for the kitchen about 40". It is dark pine, (more dark than pine) and cheap hinges underneath. We have space for things that I want to make but LOML has this idea that "hand/custom" made is cheaper than factory made, no matter how well made it is. Again, my middle daughter called a few weeks ago asking about it. We have room, but not without getting rid of something else.

[Richard in Smithville]

Too often I want to build a project just for the sake of building. It looks like it would be a fun project even though I really don't have room. Case in point, I want to build a harvest table. I don't have room to build the table in the shop and I really don't have room for it once it's finished. I have most of the material and that in itself is taking up room. I might wait until our Canadian weather starts on the upswing again and design it in such a way that it can disassemble easily during the build. Then sell it!(LOL)

[cwsmith]

You bet!

Space, is like time, there never seems to be enough... and I suppose it's all relative to not wanting to throw anything away! (Can I call that Charlie's "Theory of Relativity?" )

Really, we don't throw stuff away and I guess I blame that on the fact that we buy things only after long periods of thought (and saving). We still have the original living room furniture that we bought in 1967 when we got married! I've re-finished both the Lane coffee and end tables, which were both American Walnut... why would I ever throw those away? Likewise, I refinished the one chair, also walnut, but still have the couch which I presently have sitting in my garage wanting to refinish it someday.

We moved them from our first home up to Painted Post in 73', where we lived in a duplex for awhile. When we bought our second home there, we went out and spent a small fortune on new furniture, mostly Kling which was built in Olean, NY. Kling was later bought my Ethan Allan, and the plant closed. Among those purchases was a round pedastal pine table, that expanded. Though a beautiful dining room set, we used it just in our kitchen there, buying a handsome solid oak trestle table with six upholstered chairs for the formal dining room. We also bought new fully upholstered furniture for that living room and the old, first set moved to the TV room. The newer set of furniture was also Kling and we had the upholstery custom ordered to match the dining room chairs. At 1440 sq. ft, that house was fully furnished.

So here we were in 2005, out of a job and deciding to just retire. So we bought our third home here, back in Binghamton. It was built in 1887 and is 2800-plus sq ft.; and, we kept the house in Painted Post, because there wasn't much of a market. So here we decide we want a new living room set, with new bedroom furniture, etc., keeping the Painted Post house mostly furnished as it was. We eventually moved the oak dining set to Binghamton. Now, I want to sell the house in Painted Post... and though we've given away that original bedroom furniture (walnut veneered stuff) and the Kling upholstered furnture, I still want the original 1967 Lane walnut tables, and matching couch and chair. While I refinished the tables and chairs several years ago, the original couch is here in the garage, waiting to be refinished. Problem of course is that there's no where to put any of them. I'm thinking that round pine dining room set w/ four chairs could go here in the basement, as soon as I move my shop out to the new building I just ordered last week (another story).

So, what do we do? The whole idea of a new shop is to get all that dust and finishing stuff away from the house so it doesn't bother the LOML's allergies. But once that's done, the second objective is to get back into things I want to do: refinishing and then start building new furniture. But where am I going to put these?

Problem is now been compounded by the loss of my recently departed MIL. So we've been cleaning out that house and once again, there's just too many valuable things that we don't want to part with. (Understand that when I say "valuable" it isn't the monetary worth of anything, it's the memories and the family value of it all.) For example, I have a turn of the century Singer treadle sewing machine... no one in the family sews now, but this baby belonged to my wife's grandmother and was one of the first things she bought when she arrived here from Europe, making all their clothes, as well as bringing money into the family.... You just don't sell or dump something like that! It weighs around 100 lbs and needs refinishing, as well as restoration of the machine parts. It will make a great project.

Like I said, it's not only a lack of space, but also a lack of time too.

CWS

[Two Much]

Glad to know there are more people out there that have the same
problems as I do.
Too many ideas, not enough room.