Do you ever just sit in your shop and enjoy it?

[Bill Space]

Hi!

I was just sitting here at the moment and feeling warm and fuzzy about my workshop. It is in an above ground basement with a lot of windows...but it is dark and I was not looking outside.

I was just enjoying my "man cave" I suppose. Not doing any work, just hanging out with my tools...and feeling real good about it!

I do have an old computer in the shop with internet access...from which I am writing this post.

Am I the only one????

Just wondering....

[Mark Draper]

You are not alone. I practically live in my shop. I have computer w/internet, Bose, refrigerator, bathroom, garage and shop are in a separate 32 x 64 building. Got a woodstove and a border collie that goes everywhere I go. And yes I spend a lot of time just poking around. I get a good view of the Wind River mountains and routinely see deer and antelope out the window. Being in the house is just for sleepin, eating and showering.

[Tony Haukap]

Am I the only one????No. :)Someone said the feeling men get from tools is exactly the same as women with shoes/handbags... I can believe it.

[Mark Bolton]

Add a beer fridge and your in heaven

[Bill Space]

Add a beer fridge and your in heaven

Oh! I forgot about that! I have one with four taps (used to homebrew a lot) but only one is active...

Ha, ha...wonder what else I forgot about....

[Frederick Skelly]

Definitely not alone. I especially enjoy sitting there looking over the results of a day's much-enjoyed work.

Fred

[Marc Myers]

I sit in my shop and daydream about moving into a bigger one. More 220v plugs. More floor space. Central dust collection. Finishing room. Aahhhh:) Tomorrow can't come soon enough.

[Ralph Butts]

Frequently! Always thinking how to make things better, how to work smarter and just taking a moment to just think about how far along my tools and I have come in a relatively short period of time.

[Bill McNiel]

You are absolutely not alone, well maybe in your shop, but but I have the same feelings in mine. It is where I spend virtually all my time and I love just being there. I even have a flat screen so I can enjoy ballgames in the shop.

[Peter Quinn]

Oh, I've spent many a warm fuzzy moment in quite solitude of my basement hovel, contemplating the work that has gone into turning the damp spider den under the house I purchased into a dry comfortable wood shop. You are not alone. I wish I had more time to spend contemplating and dreaming presently.

[Michael Dunn]

Here is a funny video that demonstrates this sentiment… It also demonstrates why it's best (for a married man…) to have a stand alone shop.

http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/videos/episode-2-the-king-and-his-castle/

As for me… Absolutely! I love being surrounded by my shop. When It was only a hobby I used to find excuses to go in the shop (then it was in my attached garage). Now that I'm a full time WW I do not get as much passive time to bask in the glory of my shop. However, I do still feel completely elated when I'm in the shop working. I sometimes find myself giggling. Especially after I built my festool systorage carts for less than 1/2 of what it would've cost to buy ONE festal systorage cart.

[Jim Neeley]

Most people hate glue-ups, but not I. Once everything is clamped up (assuming it's large and takes most of your bench) there's nothing to do but wait.. :)

[Dick Brown]

I'm in the shop, foot of fresh snow outside, paths all shoveled, fire in the wood stove with glass door, Fred the dog curled up in one glider rocker, me in another, music going, 68 degrees inside, 16 outside, wife of 61+ years coming up with some marshmallows to toast in the stove. Things are rough but someone has to do it.

[Charles Coolidge]

Yes if a day spent cleaning and organizing counts.

[mreza Salav]

I guess I have done it in the past when I had more time. These days when I'm down there i'm running like a headless chicken to get as much done as I can, but I do get a moment of pause to look at things I have achieved making there.

[johnny means]

No. My shop is a pretty dismal train wreck of a place. I hate looking at it and hate being there. The only way it can bring me any joy is when it's fulfilling its purpose. When I'm lost in my work, focusing on the task at hand, not seeing the rest of the world and all the troubles and hardships attached to my work and life.

I do, however, remember a time when I could admire my shop. But, alas, you know what they say about jobs and hobbies.

[Ed Loudermilk]

Sounds like a perfect day. Life doesn't get much, if at all, better!!!

I'm in the shop, foot of fresh snow outside, paths all shoveled, fire in the wood stove with glass door, Fred the dog curled up in one glider rocker, me in another, music going, 68 degrees inside, 16 outside, wife of 61+ years coming up with some marshmallows to toast in the stove. Things are rough but someone has to do it.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Do you ever just sit in your shop and enjoy it? (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?213897-Do-you-ever-just-sit-in-your-shop-and-enjoy-it)
One in a while I'll just zone out and stare at nothing for a brief time when I'm in the shop and supposed to be working....

'Course, I zone out a lot in other places too.
(It drives my wife nuts when I do it while I'm driving - especially when I start to snore ;). )

[Jim Andrew]

I don't have room for a recliner in the shop, or I'd probably take a nap.

[Mark Bolton]

No. My shop is a pretty dismal train wreck of a place. I hate looking at it and hate being there. The only way it can bring me any joy is when it's fulfilling its purpose. When I'm lost in my work, focusing on the task at hand, not seeing the rest of the world and all the troubles and hardships attached to my work and life.

I do, however, remember a time when I could admire my shop. But, alas, you know what they say about jobs and hobbies.

That's where the beer fridge comes in.. ;-)

I hear you though. I still hang on to little whiffs of enjoyment but they are fleeting at best. It's work.

[glenn bradley]

I don't sit in the shop except a few times a year when I am scrolling. I do stand around in the shop and just breathe. It is my decompression chamber whether I am actively working on something or not. It is my imperial fraction sanctuary from a decades-long career in binary, octal, decimal and hex. I actually find working fractions in my head soothing. Its like meditation. :)

[Rod Sheridan]

I'm in the shop, foot of fresh snow outside, paths all shoveled, fire in the wood stove with glass door, Fred the dog curled up in one glider rocker, me in another, music going, 68 degrees inside, 16 outside, wife of 61+ years coming up with some marshmallows to toast in the stove. Things are rough but someone has to do it.

Excellent post Dick, a Norman Rockwell moment............Enjoy...............Regards, Rod.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I love how just sitting out there staring at something creative you did helps put the world into perspective. Especially after a chaotic day at work.

[Bernie May]

I have heat and AC in garage. In the evening I get a glass of wine (or two) and put up my feet in the recliner and watch TV, my companions all the tools I have accumulated. Wife pokes her head in occasionally to ensure that I am still alive and it's not time to sell my tools yet.

[Rick Moyer]

Oh! I forgot about that! I have one with four taps (used to homebrew a lot) but only one is active...

Ha, ha...wonder what else I forgot about....
A good cigar could be added to your list.

[Larry Browning]

Maybe I need go spend some quality time with my tools.
Lately I have really lost my mojo for working in the shop. It has been quite some time since I had a project that really got me excited.
Lately I have just been exhausted when I get home from work and have no desire to go into the shop. I just seem to sit my sorry butt on the couch and watch TV. Just the thought of going to the shop seems like too much effort. At this point I am just waiting for spring.

[Rod Sheridan]

Yes Steve, it's very rewarding.

That said I don't normally sit in my shop, it doesn't have any seating.

I don't have a computer, a radio or television, I like my shop to be a quiet place (when the machinery isn't running).

If I need a break I go sit in one of the Morris chairs in the living room, with a nice mug of Earl grey tea, and watch the birds in the feeder.

Now. if I had Dick Brown's, I definetely would sit in it...........Rod.

[Mike Wilkins]

Sat in my shop on more than one occasion, with cigar in hand and cold Blue Moon in the other, just staring at my surroundings. Thinking of how to best rearrange the place to get better use of the limited space(16 x 24). Of course no machines are in use when the brew comes out. Jazz on the satellite radio makes it even better.

[Keith Hankins]

No you are not unique. I do this all the time. I've got a fridge, TV and basement exit. If I had a bathroom, I'd stay down there. The wife calls it my pout house. I love it. Nothing like communing with my tools and lumber pile. :)

[Steve Rozmiarek]

No radio Rod? I like classical, so I like to have it on out there, all the time. Don't think I've shut it off in years, one of the three xm stations will always have something good on. It's silly, but sometimes the music actually seems to push me too a higher level of work, kind of like it's perfectly choreographed soundtrack for whatever is going on. +1 on the Earl grey though.

[Rod Sheridan]

No radio Rod? I like classical, so I like to have it on out there, all the time. Don't think I've shut it off in years, one of the three xm stations will always have something good on. It's silly, but sometimes the music actually seems to push me too a higher level of work, kind of like it's perfectly choreographed soundtrack for whatever is going on. +1 on the Earl grey though.

Steve, I like classical music as well, it would be my choice for the shop.

Maybe I need to try it out?

Regards, Rod.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Steve, I like classical music as well, it would be my choice for the shop.

Maybe I need to try it out?

Regards, Rod.

I recommend it! Vivaldi, Haydn, Bach and Berlioz are fantastic shop company. Mozart isn't bad either, but watch out for Rachmaninov. His stuff tends to cause me make way to much work out of a simple task. :)

[Jim Finn]

I also sit some and contemplate the world in my shop. I have a TV and a toilet in this separate building air conditioned and heated shop also. I spend about 35 hours a week in it. Life is good!

[Loren Woirhaye]

Sometimes, yeah. After I've done a lot of cleaning and fixing things about it that bug me usually.