Things to do in two-oh-one-two

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but I do have eight items on my woodworking to-do list for the year 2012.

1. As I noted last time, my most eagerly anticipated to-do item for 2012 is to build and install that window for my shop. Warmer weather is a must for that one, though, so I’m thinking April or early May for that project.

2. Time to start thinking again about paying those quarterly estimated taxes. For 2011. I know those slips are around here somewhere.

3. Redo the lumber rack. I built it about three years ago and immediately filled it up in a very organized manner that allowed me to easily get to whatever piece I needed by size and species. After three years of stacking stuff there it’s anything but organized. I’m not an organization freak. I’m lazy. But organizing stuff means it takes me less time and effort in the future to get things.

4. Our daughter in Connecticut got a piano last year, so we no longer have to keep her older one in our library, which neither Sally nor I play. I’ve wanted to build a Craftsman or Mission library table/desk for that room ever since we moved in seven years ago, which would go in the spot currently occupied by that piano. Now that we can get rid of it, my library desk project can proceed.

5. Get rid of the piano.

6. Design and build organizing shelves for my utility shed. Again, I’m lazy, and an organized shed takes less effort to get stuff out and put away.

7. Get rid of “extra” tools. I’ve upgraded and replaced a lot of tools over the past two decades, but unless they’re downright nonfunctional I’ve never gotten rid of the old ones. Always good to have backups, but finding places for all these I’ll-never-touch-them-again tools is getting ridiculous. I’m thinking about gifting all the functional ones to the local tech center where Sally teaches.

8. Come up with 103 more Over the Workbench blogs for 2012 – or 101 if the Mayans are right.

A.J.