First, congrats on the award. It couldn't have gone to a more deserving person.
Thanks very much. For the sake of future searches, I'll include some pictures here that I already posted in the thread about the contest:
My son and I flew to Florida for the presentation of the award at the International Builder's Show. We had a great trip, although I didn't once get to actually step onto the floor of the builder's show -- even though I wanted to, and even though that was part of the package that the magazine paid for. But I was with a three year old, and he had some definite ideas about whether a trade show would be as much fun as, say... the swimming pool at the hotel -- again and again and again. (For the record, it was pretty cold in that pool. The boy didn't mind at all.)
In any case, he did let us go to the ceremony itself. And it was a lot of fun. Here's the award:
The magazine got ex-Dallas-Cowboy Daryl 'Moose' Johnston to present the awards to the winners.
Johnston is a very nice guy -- and I've got to say it was strange to talk to a pro football player who already knew all about my garage.
Here's a picture with him, the publisher and editor of Family Handyman and yours truly.
And here's the whole group of award winners -- in addition to 'Best Garage,' there were two other categories and an editor's choice grand prize winner.
Notably, none of them got the kind of crazy vote numbers my garage got -- the power of the Garage Journal.
So, I wanted to thank everyone who voted for the garage again. I really appreciate the time everyone took to vote for the 12-Gauge Garage.
And the wheels are turning on the racing kart for the kid, although I'm trying to keep myself in check and not be the too-pushy dad with a kid who's still not quite old enough. But I'll post an update here when the wheels show up.
Here's the other reason I didn't get to set foot inside the builder's show. It almost didn't happen, but this is on Tom Sawyer's Island at Disney World. And for the record, I was running too -- just trying to keep up.
It was a LOT of fun. So again: thanks to everyone.
Interesting how stuff like the knobs will only look right in one way, and try as you may, often it refuses to look right until you do it right.
And then when it's done, I never give it another thought. But if it's not right (to my eye), then I can't walk away from it until it's fixed.
Jack is a helluva guy, and his garage is one for the hall of fame but this is exactly why his garage project is so great = he is a normal guy like just like the rest of us with a job, kids, and some hobbies on the side. He is...relate-able
It would be different if this garage project had a 1.2 million budget and he contracted everything out (no disrespect to those in that position either), but he's done the work himself and from what I've seen, where either the knowledge or skills were lacking, he learned it and charged right on ahead, having both successes and failures along the way just like we all do, but still making it a great time. It really shows just what a motivated person could do with a budget build.
When I look at Jack's build and realize that he did it all with a small budget, his own two hands, and learning-as-you-go...it makes me want to step back and say "Hey, I could do that too!" where maybe I never thought it was possible and that is the highest compliment I can pay him.
Well done, Jack
Thanks very much, Red Leader. I actually would like to think of the garage as having a $1.2 million budget, since that means I'm only like .003% into the money pile and I can continue to improve the place as long as I live.
But I appreciate your point and agree with you to the extent that what I've done (and maybe over-done) in my garage has some resonance with people because it's not simply a matter of spending a lot of money. It's really been a learning experience for me -- on a budget -- and I think that's something a lot of guys on this can relate to. I actually think I'm on the low end, in terms of skill set, compared to the broad demographic on this board. But that means just about anything I set out to do, readers on the board will know that they could do at least as well, probably better.
