Time for building?

[capt jake]

OK, I have wondered this for a while. How and when do people find time for their building projects? I ask this as I have worked and unorthodox schedule for many years and wonder how people who work a standard Monday through Friday schedule do this and the impacts upon the other areas of their lives (how is it balanced).

I am assuming most of you are working a standard work week and build in the evenings and weekends; while others are retired.

[Craig]

I am supposed to work M-F; however, flight test takes what it can get and I put in many 12 hour weekend days. Building time has been scarce the last few months. It should slow down after the first of the year.

[Charlie Jones]

As I said in another thread- I've finally started on my shop here at the house. Once that's built I will be working here and not having to do that 38 miles each way drive every day. THEN maybe I can get some time off from building OTHER people's boats, to do some of the building projects *I* want to do

I figure just the savings in drive time alone will give me one full day a week back. Plus I'll have the shop right there during the evening hours.

Let's see- I want two sets of oars, a B and B Birder 12, that glued lapstrake canoe for Laura (that the molds have been set up for, for 5 years now) and that nesting Spindrift 10 for us. Besides that, Laura wants me to convert our Sharpie into a tri like the Seapearls.

I think that's the list.

[capt jake]

I figure just the savings in drive time alone will give me one full day a week back. Plus I'll have the shop right there during the evening hours.

See, that is one of my concerns (potential position change) also. I presently communte, but it is in the off hours and minimal times per month. The 'new' postion will require a conventional work week (or nearly) with a commute; thus limiting my time here at home.

Up side is that it would be a promotion, a bit more salary (which would help toward retirement) and not physical. I enjoy the physical aspect of my present position, but I ain't getting any younger.

Hmmm? ponder, ponder.....

[Guest]

I have on average six jobs. Proper planning allows for me to build as I build. One must always remember that when they work at home, the person must be diciplained enough to work and not stay on the computer all day or watch Opra. In the case of husband and wife being at home at the same time, one must seperate business from pleasure. Thats a pretty hard one to do in some cases.

[Barry Pyeatt]

I'm envious of Capt. Jake and his fine shop at home and for Charlie's new digs being built "at home". I'm currently without a shop or space to work on projects other than really small things and it is really dragging me down. Got plenty to do, would like to have a lot more related to serious building and projects but such is life.

I'm fortunate in that my time is pretty much my own unless I'm facing a deadline of one sort or another occasionally and then it gets right hectic. But I get to travel a bit, meet some really interesting people and of course do some great sailing on a fairly regular basis in some facinating places. Nothing quite like a 30 second commute in your socks to keep time managment a bit easier to handle. Not sure I would like commuting 38 miles one way to get to work and Capt. Jake has a long one. Sure like the backyard shop concept.

But then, I do like working on the beach, close to the water, when I get the chance. 8) Nothing quite like getting paid to go to warm water destinations and doing research with time to get in a local sailing trip or two. :wink: Always good for the spirit and once in a while having the company of a good friend to keep it more interesting.

[Charlie Jones]

Barry - have I ever mentioned that my house, and therefore my new shop, is 5 blocks from the launch ramp? And 6 blocks from the beach where we launch smaller boats right off the beach on Matagorda/Lavaca Bays? In fact, I can sit on my front deck and watch the ships come and go in the channel. Sometimes at night we sit out there and watch the channel markers flash.

If I've never mentioned that, perhaps I'd better not- might make you jealous

[capt jake]

You just have to rub it in, don't ya Charlie! I would love to live on the water, or very near to it. Cant' afford the blasted taxes though. :shock:

As of the past 48 hours, I have convinced myself to take the postition if offered to me. That will be in about 6-8 months, the test is in about 6 weeks. :shock: If I take the position (some of my decision is still awaiting some more information, namely here) I suppose My 'major' building will slow down until retirement. Of course by then I may not be able to afford to build. :roll: :shock:

[Barry Pyeatt]

Ahhh Charlie,

Not Jelous at all. I look right down on Puget Sound from a couple hundred feet up. Watch the boats going to and from Port of Everett and can look past the Southern End of Whidby Island and watch all the marine traffic heading South to Seattle, Tacoma and South Sound areas as they head past the mouth to Hood Canal and of course it isn't far from Port Townsend either. When the Abraham Lincoln is heading either into or out of the Port of Everett it goes right infront of me. Not all bad! Would be nicer to be right on the water, but most of the shops I've had have been on the water with direct launch access at hand. Can't complain about any of it. It has all been good for me.

San Juan Islands are only a hop skip and a jump away and an easy run in a power boat but can take all day sailing due to tidal flows. I face West so the sunsets are pretty spectacular (when we can actually see the sun.) 8)

The immediate area is referred to as the Puget Sound Convergence Zone. All the lower level winds are split by the Olympic Mountains to the West and then pass to the South and the North of them and reconverge right were I'm at. So we get more moisture here than most all of the rest of Puget Sound area. But there is great crabbing here.

Have a number of wonderful saltwater launch sites close to me and up on Whidby Island or one of the mainland launches to get into and out of the San Juans. Port Townsend is a favorite place to go to sail with good air and relatively protected bay. Ferry traffic thru the middle of it but main channel traffic is away from it a bit. And of course a great number of wonderful wooden boats that call it home.

Not far from Lake Washington, an easy 20 min drive to several good launches and good dockside restaurants and afternoon - evening sailing.

South Sound is about an hour and a half drive to go sailing with Capt. Jake and truly beautiful sailing waters. But hairy currents around the islands with a lot of water passing thru the channels on each tide.

Still, all in all, a bit jelous though about the shop, cuz I can't have one here, have to find a place to relocate to with some property to build one or else find one with an existing shop. Got most everything in the way of tools and equipment in storage right now and that is sad.. I hear the tools calling to me all the time but mostly at night.

[wentzzee]

Thought i'd chip in here for what its worth. I had to wait to retire to have any time to speak of. I drove over the road for 41 years and i would spend 3 - 4 weeks out and then be off 3-4 days. Every once in a while I would buy a tool or piece of equipement for a shop. I put it in a storage unit then when I retired I got a good deal on a small house. But the selling point was the metal carport with the 12 x 15 interegrated shop on the end. Now I got place ,time,tools, and can't make up my wishywashy mind on which design to build.

[adla]

What is wrong with watching Oprah all day???

a.

[Guest]

Oprah is only on for an hour. A person would need to keep rewinding the tape, and wringing out the tissues, waiting for them to dry, to replay the tape, loosing valuable daylight building time.

[Ken_Potts]

The problem with watching Oprah all day is eventually she runs down to the magistrate's office and gets a restraining order :twisted:

I try (and fail) to do ONE THING a weeknight on the boat. If I find myself watching "America's funniest videos" I have something more rewarding to pull me away from the teevee. Once I finish this boat I'll have to go through the agony of picking another project, so why rush? (Oh, wait - I've already got 30 other projects started - But you know what I mean, Right?)

Weekends are for either having fun with friends or more extensive work on the boat depending on what's available. I'm building on a screened-in porch so I have to stop building during the interminable North Carolina winters (the Northern folks on this forum just don't know what it's like to have to suffer the torture of TWO WHOLE MONTHS of winter)

So Capt Jake - If you're agonizing over the job change, I'll tell you that I HATE it every time I walk out of work to see the sun going down on a beautiful boat-building (or sailing or fishing) day, but as a consolation I get to build my boat slowly enough that the cost of the materials is, well, immaterial. Everything's a trade. I've always either had money or time and I've tried to enjoyed each when I had them.

[Frank Hagan]

I chose the "Monday - Friday" choice because it was closest ... most of the time that's my schedule. But the last 6 months have been brutal and are just now settling down some. The company felt so bad that they sent us flowers for our 30th anniversary (I worked 12 hours that day, and the weekend before it and the Saturday after it). I'm also taking a comp day this Friday and Jan and I are going for a little R&R weekend for a couple of days.

Its all I can do to try and steal some time to work on the cradle I'm building for my daughter. I'm forging ahead, and actually got quite a bit done this weekend. But I have to try and find 3 copper roves and rivets to finish the thing (may just leave those out to see how smart the kid is), and find the time to finish the "davits" (stand).

Work interferes with real life ... I'd love to be able to build a power cruiser like Tom's Blue Jacket, and get out on the water more often.

[Wild_Dingo]

ooooohh I love that!!! "Work interfers with real life"

Presently Im workin 2 weeks away 1 week home been this way for several months now and am presently looking at 4 on 1 off as the moneys better but its further away like the other side of Aussie so for the 7 days off I will only get 5 since the other 2 will be flying to and from site... as I said better money like triple what Im getting now doing the same job so retirement will come quicker if I go there... just a few short years verses a fair few short years

Im getting things done... very gradually!! The keels done and waiting the bottom ply is done and waiting... the wheel is done well other than putting together and varnishin that is... and the tiller is done mmm well other than steam bending it a tad and varnishing it that is... the missus new sewing centre thing is half done and waiting... Brie and Jacintas new cupboards are cut out and waiting... Joshys new wardrobe/desk thing is cut out and ahem waiting... and Tiffany and Bens boat cradle has ground to a major halt!! bloody ply wouldnt bend around the flamin base!! gggrrrrrrrr so Im on the prod now for a cot instead!

I have somewhere around 20 different projects on the hop at one time... I figure Im pretty organized since if I get a hold up somewhere I can just move on to something else... if I get a moment or two theres always a little job to be done

I havent mentioned the house as I thought we were just alking about woodworking boatbuilding things... ah well the house... lessee levee banks still being built new bridge being built deck out the back being built verandah around the front to be built pergola around the side to be built gardens to be re-established bathroom to be renovated totally gutted actually and rebuilt but hey thats another story... and then theres the bedroom that needs new floorboards new doors to about 4 rooms plus new wall paneling to replace the broken ones from the flood...

Sigh... Now I dont ever expect to get these finished just started would be good... I do take some chunks of wood with me and Ive got a few hand tools out there that I use when I want to make something while Im gone... but mostly I get home and its frenzy time!!! :twisted:

By the way I get distracted very easily... not terribly focused I must admit unless I do my narna then I get things done but usually that takes her highness having a go at me... but we have this understanding I dont tell her how to use her sewing machine and she doesnt dictate what job I do!!

yeah right like that happens!! :roll: