Bathroom Renovations.
We seem to be bombarded with images of things looking perfect, perfect houses, perfect furniture, perfect meals, and even people looking perfect. It is easy to think that this perfection is the norm. If you make things, design things or even bake things, you will probably be familiar with aiming for perfection, but often not quite getting there. Maybe left pondering “I probably should have added this, or done that.”
At the end of 2017 we finished up this small job in Mount Eden. This Sunny bungalow was already fully developed and renovated so it was hard to believe any more living could be squeezed out of this home for it's growing family. The challenge in the Architects words were to “Shoe Horn” the last little bit out of the house. And the last bit was the back of the garage on the dark side of the building.
Had a DIY disaster? I have seen plenty and even some professional disasters. The funny thing is most tasks in carpentry or building work are actually quite simple to do if you know how.
People have read The Smithery brand byline - Builders & Makers and looked somewhat confused at how the word “make” co-exists with ”build”. It might be that the building trade has evolved so far that your average builder no longer makes anything. Builders are becoming assemblers simply cutting prescribed manufactured parts to length and nailing them together. Or installing pre-hung doors with pre-installed hardware, pre-made timber frames, pre-made stairs and pre-made cabinets. The list goes on.
I have an old saw in my daily tool kit that is from the Golden Age of saw making. Long before the introduction of awful orange plastic handles, before disposable hardened point teeth that cannot be sharpened, quality manufacturers focused on making the best possible products they could, as reputation meant everything.
I hope 2017 will be a happy and healthy one for all. After a couple of weeks of decompression from 2016, I have been slowly acclimatising myself out of holiday mode and getting organised for what I hope will be a productive year. Part of this was to sort out a new tool tote to carry my day to day site tools. I wanted it long enough to carry a full sized saw and my #8 plane when required.
