Workshop essentials

Last week I had to do some essential maintenance work on my workshop, or to be more precise the roof of my workshop. My workshop is in an extended shed, we bought one then found we had so much stuff between us we had to buy another for my own jewellery workshop area. Last year I had to get up on the roof and install a solid ridge . The problem with roofing felt on sheds is that it shrinks and gets brittle with age. This is exacerbated by our cat running around and sharpening its claws on the rough surface! Where the two sides on the roof join on the ridge there is a weak, unprotected area which got ripped last year , so we bought some guttering , turned it upside down , glued it in place with silicon adhesive then I glued two layers of roofing felt over the top , nailing and sealing the edges. Whilst I was up there, (and yes it was me not my husband, he claims to be too heavy to crawl around on roofs) I patched a few thin looking bits.

But this year his end of the shed was leaking again, and when I got up there, there was a huge patch of felt missing, blown off by the wind. So out came the left over roofing felt and felt mastic and I spent an afternoon scrabbling around on the roof, thinking what the hell am I doing up here, isn't this one of those jobs that you fondly believe will become somone elses when you first get married!

So I present my patched roof for your edification

No, it's not the neatest job in the world but the roof doesnt leak any more at the moment, so I'm quite pleased with it.

I also added a little essential internal modification........

Essential for Spot our cat that is, he likes to keep me company when I'm in the shed and recently he has developed the annoying habit of sitting on top of my fan heater and knocking it over all the time. So I put this shelf up in the corner under my bench . Its the warmest place in the shed, out of the draught from the door, a bit of foam to make it comfier and warmer and out of line with anything falling on him whilst I am sawing,filing etc. And when the fan heater is on in there I point it under the bench at my legs. And yes to the perfectionists among you it does slant a bit.......It was too dark under the bench to see what I was doing properly but Spot hasn't noticed and thats all that matters.

Now all I need to do is make some more jewellery!

So here is something I managed to make after doing these two maintenance works.

A spring chick brooch, somewhat neater than my building work!