I would claim that my tardiness in posting a blog entry here is because that I've been busy in the workshop, but that would be a stretch.  I have been busy, but it hasn't been in the workshop making toys.  Instead, it has been a split between my job search, and home restoration work.

The job search doesn't need explaining.  The house work does.  As I probably mentioned in one or more previous entries, my youngest son finally left the house a couple of months ago (Marine boot camp), and my wife and I have been working to restore his room, his older sister's room (she's been out of the house for four years... but motivation was lacking), and eventually, another bedroom that had been set up as an office.

We have made lots of progress in the past two months, including stripping both bedrooms down to plywood, patching and repainting walls (just about complete on second room now), and soon to put in new flooring (bought and paid for a load of laminate flooring today).  We hope to have most of the work complete in the next two weeks, since our son will be coming home on leave after boot in three weeks.

Where does this lead to working in the workshop?  Well, the first bedroom mentioned (our daughter's) is the designated guest room.  My wife has claimed the second (our son's) as a sewing room [hers!].  This leaves the final bedroom, which currently is full of furniture and stuff that normally would be in the other two rooms.  AFTER we rearrange everything, and empty this room out, I will strip it down, refinish and repaint walls, and re-floor as I have done with the others.  This then becomes my office... or more particularly, Santa's Workshop.  This room isn't on the same deadline as the other two...  Mostly likely, won't finish it until Spring, to tell the truth, since we're just about ready to move into the holiday season, and during that time, I know I will be too occupied in other ways.  But next year... I hope to have a basic studio ready to go, with backdrop and so forth.  Ho ho ho!