The garage passed its final inspection yesterday. At last! The building permit was issued in 2018.
This concludes the permitted construction phase of my retirement. I still need to install tiles and shelves in the house, but it feels great to complete all of the structural work.
I told the project manager not to install shelves in the closets in the house because I want to do that myself. I have been interested in carpentry for a long time. In ninth grade when two of my friends and I tried to enroll in shop class we were sent to the principal’s office, where we were told girls were not allowed to take shop. When I graduated from college with a degree in psychology I thought becoming a carpenter might be more useful, but in the 70s it was harder for a woman to get into the union’s apprenticeship program than it was to get into law school, so I went to law school. Last month I enrolled in four woodworking classes at a local makerspace, and I have already attended two sessions. It was very satisfying to finally be able to pursue this interest without having to expend a lot of energy pushing back against misogyny. More than 50% of the attendees were women.
The makerspace is a LEED-certified green building, and as a matter of policy the materials in the woodshed are zero-VOC. A respirator mask not only deals with the sawdust but also blocks the fragrance in other people’s laundry and grooming products.