I met myself in 25 years time.

I bought a table saw from a bloke on eBay and went to pick it up the other night.
Ray and the missus were moving out of the home they lived in for 49 years and going into an ‘assisted living’ place - vs ‘assisted dying’, I guess.
He had an oversized double garage and was getting rid of his tools and bits and pieces.
Boy, he had a lot of stuff, including an unfinished project – an old Buick. One of those big things with a bonnet about 10 feet long. I felt sorry for him. The outside bodywork was mostly done, but nothing was done on the interior, the brakes and suspension were buggered, and the engine didn’t run. I bet he has spent 15 years or so on it so far.
We both stood there and looked at it probably thinking similar things.
My sheds are at risk of getting out of hand. Some of the recent additions were given to me by my favourite uncle - various tools and materials that were his and my grandfather's. I now have nine timber planes of various sizes.
I told my girls when I got home from Ray's that if in the next ten years they get wind of me thinking about buying a big old car to do up, they need to slap me.
The thought of one day having to downsize fills me with dread - especially given my teenage girls, despite my repeated suggestions, have shown no inclination to take up a trade.

 

I thought you were going to say you bought that car off Ray.

 

No. I hope I mostly got the 'doing up a car' bug out of my system years ago when I did a 57 VW and a 62 Merc. I've done a couple of timber boats, too. And some properties. I do like a project, though.

 

At least you live in the inner west so you're somewhat restricted. Imagine you lived out west on acres and had a 10 car garage.

 

Yes, a ten car garage would be a dangerous thing to have. But we do have an odd inner west property - big house, attached two storey warehouse, an office and two sheds (the old stables) and a 70sqm building in the yard with a long term subsidised resident. I'm hoping down the track to die in my shed in the middle of a project. If my wife died simultaneously in her studio that would be ideal. Boy, she has a lot of stuff - more than me. And most of it isn't nearly as useful as my stuff.

 

Scott I feel your pain! The thought of de-cluttering makes me feel ill and to make it worse, I live on acreage We are bower birds at times and just can't help ourselves.....

 

If I had an acreage, it would mostly be sheds and there would be real problems down the track.

 

We'll be cleaning our shed out come sale time but it's not going to be easy

 

Haha - if i had a shed it would be empty, except for a whole lot of paint and dried up rollers

 

If I had a shed i'd put it on a block, some hardstand & lease the bugger out!

 

I got a 3m x 3m shed from Bunnings. Its depressing

 

Or reassuring

 

I know it's depressing Colin, 3 x 3 isn't big enough.

 

We're moving into one of my IP's next year and already started the decluttering process.

At first it was extremely difficult to toss out, give away, or sell 'stuff' (that deep down I knew was superfluous to our needs).

But now, I find it extremely liberating to free our space up and eager to cull as much as possible.

 

That sounds awesome.
I've been itching to buy 2 pre 1980 cars recently.
Forgot how much time and money they take up.

 

My neighbour had been doing up an old Ford XD. He was working on it well and truly by the time I moved in, and only recently finished it.
Took it to one car show, and while he walked away to get some food for 20mins, some a**hole stuck a washer into the carby, then when he returned someone asked him to start her up. Completely stuffed it. The poor guy was devastasted. 4+yrs of work, $80k+ and it was only running for a couple of weeks.

His garage is decked out like a proper shop. Tools and storage on either side with a built in work desk. A proper car hoist.. everything you need apart from a dyno. Really really cool. Then you walk into the backyard/side of the house and see mountains of carparts etc. Crazy. He needs a warehouse.

After seeing this, I don't think I could ever work on an old car, as much as I would love to.

 

What you need is people who are really keen on doing up cars, and have all the gear that can do some work for you.

 

No wonder there are no reasonably priced pinball machines on the market, as all of you are probably hoarding them behind old vehicles in your ten acre double story sheds.