Back to long overdue projects, starting with the workshop.

In order to fit the water cylinder and other equipment for the heat pump I had to remove some storage and the units built by the previous owner of the house. The engineers kindly left me a big square of wall space that I could work with. The next thing was getting the time to do anything with it. Months passed, and things were thrown into piles waiting for something to change.

Something did change. I finally motivated myself to rummage around and find enough wood to make a backing board for the tool wall, inspired by a YouTube video. Ideally I would have gotten one big piece of plywood but it was too big for the back of the car, so a compromise was born. The Franken-wall! It’s a little patchwork-y, but it does get better. The final piece was made from three spare bits glued together. I secured the panels to the wall with rawl plugs and screws and made a shelf out of some other spare bits. Many of these pieces were part of the original jumble that was built around the boiler. I have sacrificed some shelving space but I’m going to put up some small shelves elsewhere in the workshop.

One of the motivators was getting some of my tools out of the drawers and making them more accessible. I have a set of Torx screwdrivers which were purchased for a specific purpose and rarely get aired. For this one, I opted for a simple design with different sizes of holes drilled in a piece of wood which was glued to a block which could then be secured to the back.

Branding is everything. Or nothing. I just fancied adding the Newforge Rings logo to the wall. A relic of the days before universal AI image generation. My quick stencilling job didn’t come out perfect, but it wasn’t bad for a few minutes work. You can also see the addition of a few hammer holders and spaces for saws.

Jump forward to a few hours later and I’ve added another screwdriver holder and a few more hammer holders. I’m still planning on making some boxes for drill bits and I might squeeze in another shelf. It’s not perfect but it has come together relatively well considering how disorganised everything was before.

The rebuilding of the workshop has gotten quite exciting. I never really liked working with my blowtorch around the gas boiler for obvious reasons, and it was a little bit awkwardly placed in the middle of everything. Getting rid of it has allowed for a lot more logical approach to organisation. And to finish up, enjoy this salt beef bagel from Hutong in Royal William Yard.

The photos you’ve seen in the post (barring the ones below this point) were taken on my new compact, the Panasonic Lumix LX15. I have long been an interchangeable lens fan but sometimes simplicity wins over quality, and this is primarily for work. I have been looking for a good quality camera that’s easy to use at the same time. The LX15 fits the bill with a big sensor and a fast lens. I have taken some excellent shots with it so far and I’m looking forward to cutting some video together too.