I made my first dovetail joint over the weekend and I’m insanely proud of it. It’s ugly and barely fits together correctly, but I got it to work and that’s a big step. My measurements were sloppy, and my cuts were off and my wood wasn’t square, but despite all that I got it together (with some futzing).

So the reason for this attempt is that I’ve really been lusting for a house lately and more so a workshop inside that house to build things. I am on Pinterest a bunch and I see a lot of projects I want to make and that I think would be useful, but because I lack a workshop, I can’t really put it all together. Ellie and I have just a big enough apartment for our stuff to fit into it without much room for anything else. We’d be so cluttered if I decided to set up a permanent shop somewhere to build in.

I’ve looked into memberships at the local makerspace, but I can’t justify the $100/month membership. That hundred could go towards a down payment. Or food. And even if I had a membership, I’m not sure I’d have the space to put all the things I’d like to build anyway.

I could always work in my parents’ basement, which is the next best option because none of my friends in town have the space for me to set up a workshop in (nor would I want to invade their space with a bunch of noise). But my parents are an hour drive away and that’s just a little too hard to justify just like the $100 a month would be. But working at my parents is great because my dad has a wealth of knowledge I can get out of him and a basement full of tools to use.

For now, I guess I’ll just suffer and wait and practice until I have a space of my own. I just need that corner of a basement to tuck myself away in. Until then, I’ll keep making terrible dovetail joints in the hopes that I start to get the process down and it becomes second nature to me.