Getting Married - garage time plummet?

[Patrick Irish]

Getting married in October, mid 30s, kids will Be soon after that.

I’m envisioning my time in the garage to dramatically fall off. What’s been everyone’s experience?

Woodworking is a hobby. Make some stuff here and there and sell it. My two car garage is filled to that max. I don’t think I can add another tool at this point. About 20% of my time is wheeling things around due to space. I also reload and cast my own and haven’t touched that stuff in a year. It helps I have summers off from work which will give me time. As we’ve been planning and getting closer to our day I seriously look at some tools and think, should I just sell this all cuz when will I find the time?

[Matthew Brawley]

Will you have the same amount of time, the answer is no. However, your wife should understand that you enjoy your hobby, it helps you de-stress and she should want you to continue that as much as you can. I have been married three years and all she asks is that I make stuff for her or do the honey do list around the house. Good trade off.

[Bill McNiel]

Marriage should not reduce your "garage time", dating is a lot more time consuming. The kids will virtually eliminate any concept of free, or me time.

[Jerry Bruette]

Maybe she'll take some interest in your hobbies, spend time together making sawdust and punching holes in targets.

Never thought my wife would take interest in hunting when we got married, and she doesn't always go with me but we share interest in each others hobbies.

I wouldn't sell all the toys, if you start the kids young you'll have fun teaching and sharing time with your new partners in the shop and at the range.

[Nathan Johnson]

If you're in the garage with tools running you won't be able to hear her.

[Chase Mueller]

Short answer, expect less time in the garage. Not no time in the garage, but lett. Happy wife, happy life. Congratulations by the way

[Rich Engelhardt]

Getting Married - garage time plummet?

Maybe - but - count on time in the doghouse to soar....

[Tom Stenzel]

It depends on who you marry. My wife likes staining and finishing. Talk about a win!

But the comment about children is true too. I remember watching Norm on TV who could build a chest of drawers and have the first coat of stain on in a 1/2 hour show. It takes me an hour just to get the bicycles, toys and junk out of the way before I even start.

Yeah, you might spend a lot of time in the garage. In terms of projects getting done-not so much to show for it. Having the little ones help and teach them- you accomplish a lot right there. But that can't be measured in terms of projects done. Your goals change.

-Tom

[Jim Becker]

You may experience less free time, particularly if kids enter the picture, but it's very important that both you and your spouse have "some" free time to keep things in balance and help reduce stress. And that needs to be "regular" for both of you, so you and your partner-in-crime should be talking about it and planning for it now.

[Brian Nguyen]

Here's my experience as someone who's 38 yo, been married for 9 years now with 2 kids (5 y/o and 2 y/o):

Woodworking is your hobby, so take it from me... if you'd like to maintain enough "me" time in the shop then encourage your wife to take up some hobbies of her own. If she ends up taking on woodworking, GREAT!! If not, she's preoccupied and you get to be in the garage. Obviously, you would also take time for each other but a healthy marriage NEEDS some alone time otherwise there would be some frictions.

All of that goes out the window when you have kids. Kids will suck up everyone's free time until they're in basically out of the house. Initially, it's just taking care of them as babies but then it's a lot of driving them around to school, after school activities, weekend soccer games, etc. You'd be lucky to have an a few hours in the garage while they're running around playing in the backyard, but if you're me then you'd have a daughter that's almost attached to the hip so running a power tool is next to impossible unless her big brother can drag her away to a game of "tag".

It does get a bit easier though as the kids grow, but I'm also older and enjoy beer more so on nights when the kids are asleep earlier than normal instead of rushing into the garage to work on a project I'm finding myself choosing to just kick up my feet with an iced cold beer instead. Nothing stays constant in life, including hobbies.

[Matt Day]

Congrats on the upcoming marriage!

I’ve been married for 8 years. The first couple years of marriage and while dating I had plenty of shop time and time for other hobbies like mountain biking which I did seriously for decades, though less than when I was single of course.

After we moved to Ohio (poor place for mountain biking) and kids came along, I basically gave up mountain biking which was hard to accept. So hobbies will likely get adjusted. You kind of have to pick your favorite(s).

My situation is a bit different because I’m a stay at home dad. When they were babies and crawling and napping, I’d find a short burst of time here and there to get in the shop, baby monitor in hand of course. But, basically none. Those small people require constant attention. Thankfully for smartphones, I could educate myself and participate in forums like this one. That’s about as close to actually making sawdust as I could get for a while.

Meanwhile, for exercise I started running instead of riding, with the kids in tow in a double or single Bob jogging stroller.

After about 2.5 years I began to see the light, when my daughter started preschool. Then I only had one kid to take care of! The next year, I actually had a couple hours to myself, to run errands or exercise.

I’m now in my late 30’s and have a 5yo and almost 4yo. My my oldest starts kindergarten next year and my son will be in Pre-K. I’ll have from 9-2 to do household stuff, exercise, and work in the shop. Maybe even mountain bike every now and then.

But, in your case since your working, the best thing to do is plan to get shop time after the kids go to bed and before work. On weekends, tag team with the kids so you both can get free time. And if you have family in town, recruit them to help with the kids.

[John K Jordan]

I'm sure that will depend on her personality, yours, and how you both communicate, coordinate, and negotiate things. I think it's best to communicate about this now - for example, does she expect to park her car in the garage? Is the garage part of the house and will the noise and dust create a problem? And maybe she's concerned about having to cut back on some of her interests.

I've been married 48 years, since age 20. My Lovely Bride is very supportive of the things I do in the shop (and around the farm and elsewhere) although she has no interest in any of those things herself. (She did come down the hill and visit the shop once! I was shocked.) But she knew from the beginning I had a wide variety of interests. My "hobby" time did drop off significantly when the kids were young, for example I quit flying airplanes and invested the time (and the money) in the boys instead.

One shop suggestion - if you don't already, take up woodturning! I can spend just a few hours and make something on the lathe when something from flat wood might take me days or weeks. And woodturning can be done in less space - until I built a shop a few years ago my turning "shop" was 1/2 of a 2-car garage.

Also, whatever you do in the shop, be sure to make plenty of things for her! If you haven't already, start now. Surprise her with lots of things, they don't have to be big and don't have to be masterpieces. And when the kids are little, shop opportunities increase and both they and mama are happy. I made this soon after we were married and so far three sons and two grandsons have made good use of it!

rocking_horse_grandsons.jpg rocking_horse.jpg

JKJ

Getting married in October, mid 30s, kids will Be soon after that.

I’m envisioning my time in the garage to dramatically fall off. What’s been everyone’s experience?

Woodworking is a hobby. Make some stuff here and there and sell it. My two car garage is filled to that max. I don’t think I can add another tool at this point. About 20% of my time is wheeling things around due to space. I also reload and cast my own and haven’t touched that stuff in a year. It helps I have summers off from work which will give me time. As we’ve been planning and getting closer to our day I seriously look at some tools and think, should I just sell this all cuz when will I find the time?

[Stan Calow]

What John K said about parking. I could never get away with monopolizing the garage. Yes, your available free time will shrink. Also the time you can make loud noises. Dust control is suddenly much more important.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

I have spent a lot of very pleasant evenings with my wife sitting on the saw bench spending time with me while I worked on something in the shop. Works with hand tools. Probably not with a power shop.

[Cary Falk]

I would say that getting married wouldn't necessarily reduce your shop time. House improvements and honey do lists keep me in the shop. Little kids will probably kill it until they are old enough to be in the shop with you if they are interested.