Hobby space rework: The reset button has been pushed!

I have not posted here since last year but sometimes it is healthy to step away from things to come back re-invigorated. There has been some sporadic hobby time in there but nothing made it to the blog yet. With this on and off hobby time my desk became a bit of a dumping ground. Eventually it hit the critical level of messiness where it was simply too much effort to sit down and do anything there. Not only was it a cluttered mess but the desktop board 
had bowed badly because I hadn't put a support beam under it when I build it. I always planned to add it but never got around to it. 

Last night after a particularly hard week of work I looked at the sad state of my hobby space and decided it was time for a literal and metaphoric fresh start.

Here is all of the junk that had found a home on my desk.

Let the Defraging begin!!

With that photo I feel like a lady posting a selfie without makeup on! - Don't judge me!

(No Colonel Ackland - you are just messy!)

Next up I lifted out the desktop board to assess how bowed it really was.

It wasn't great.

 

I carefully bent it straight again with some weights and gingerly waited for a loud crack! 

Luckily there was no snap.

At this point I went off mission! The back of my desk was hard to utilize because of the low top. There was not a lot of room there and it was hard to see what was hiding in the back.  So running with an idea I built a lower shelf at the back. I used some scrap wood which happened to be the same colour as my desk.

Here is a closer look.

Happy with my new addition I cut down my desktop board, nailed and glued it back in.

I didn't show it in the pictures but I added a few more cross supports too. A stack of WD's held it all flat while gluing.

Seeing that I was putting in the effort to clean up my desk I splurged all out and got myself a cutting mat! I've never had one - and OMG totally worth it!

(umm no Colonel, that's just wearing glasses) 

The lower shelf works really well. Now it is easy to see what is there, it is perfectly in my line of sight when sitting and there is more space. There is also a nice divide between my hobby/painting space and my equipment/supply space. Everything with a nice new home!

Here it is, all set up and running beautifully. Pity I had to go to work the rest of the weekend!

I'll make sure I get back into this blogging shindig. Writing this post makes me realise how much I miss it!

Tallyho gents!