I leave for England tomorrow to teach for two weeks at the New English Workshop and am looking forward to the break from the real estate game.
During the last few months we have been on an Unfun House of Mirrors adventure through the land of commercial real estate. We almost ended up with a new headquarters building last month until the sellers decided to act like the crazy I’m-getting-a-divorce people that they are.
It was a crushing disappointment (read: we finished that box of wine), but I have been touring buildings every day since and have been making real estate agents somewhat miserable (sorry, not sorry).
While we are dedicated to the Covington city center, we have widened our search a little. We are still looking only at commercial buildings, but now we are including law offices and the like. These don’t always have a formal storefront, but they do have a big open front public space for benches, books and whatever else we cook up for the space.
But for now, I can stop thinking about zoning overlays and focus on nailing things in England. With a big hammer. Joy.
— Christopher Schwarz
Hi Chris,
Two things; looking for real estate, at least to me is just a horrible experience. I’d rather have needles stuck in my eyes!
Secondly, I was wondering if there was anything else that you may need for the Immersion Class?
Since I’m getting rid of everything that I won’t be able to use going down the road, I’ve found more tools. Imagine that, more tools hiding on me? So please let me know if you would like me to send anything else.
Since I can still carve, I’m keeping them and just enough for the very smallest of projects.
Have a great trip and if we could talk when you get back, let’s arrange that.
Michael
Good luck Chris. We’re looking at moving houses and that’s a bear. I can’t imagine what commercial is like.
You’ll find it. And when you do, [hear: James Earle Jones]: “Chris. People will come, Chris. They’ll come to Covington, for reasons they can’t even fathom. They’ll turn up your street, not knowing for sure why they’re doing it. They’ll arrive at your door, as innocent as children, longing for the past. ‘Of course, we won’t mind if you look around,’ you’ll say. ‘It’s only 2 hours per person.’ And they’ll pass over their time without even thinking abou it. For it is time they have and peace they lack. And they’ll walk back to the benches, and sit in their work clothes on a perfect afternoon. And they’ll find they have a mallet, reserved for them, just like they remember from when they were in Grandpa’s workshop. And they’ll watch you make furniture. It will be as if they were dipped in magic waters. The memories will be so thick, they’ll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Chris. Its been the one constant. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers, its been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But woodworking has marked the time. This bench, these tools, they’re part of our past Chris. They remind us of all that once was good, and that could be again. Oooohh, people will come Chris. People will most definitely come.”
That made my morning!
That was great. When I make it down I won’t let my little girls chew on anything just in case Moonlight Graham isn’t in the shop that day.
What can some American chap teach the Brits about working wood with hand tools? I’m not being cheeky, just curious. Cheers!
I have no clue.
French woodworking techniques. (Old French)
Humility, perhaps?
snort
Maybe you’ll come back and Lucy will say, “Guess what I bought while you were gone.”
It is definitely a buyers market in general. You taught one more seller that emotional attachment to brick and mortar does not pay.
Although, unlike tools, buildings love personification. 🙂