I start a lot of projects, and it’s quite rare that I’ll get around to finishing them for several reasons (time, waning interest or a lack of money to persue them further, just to name a few). In this post, we will look back at some of these projects, discuss their impact on the year as a whole, and whether or not I’m looking to finish them at a later date.
The Organ
Back in June I saw an organ for sale on Facebook marketplace. It looked as if it was sat on a stage in an old working men’s club. After some back and forth with the seller, they finally agreed to allow me to collect it to save it from going in the skip. It turned out to be a beautiful example of a Yamaha HX-5, the little brother of the more popular HX-1.
The idea was for me to get back into playing (I’d dabbled in the keyboard in the past), but I never fully got back into it. I put the dust cover over it after a couple of weeks and that was the last of it. I’m very happy to have saved it from getting thrown away, but I’ve not yet decided whether I want to keep it due to the size. I think at some point I’ll run some MIDI files through it, as appartently it’s got some great DX7 samples which I’d love to hear.
The Vega+
A couple of years ago, a bloke on the Sinclair for Sale Facebook group popped up, selling the unused parts (mainly shells and buttons) of the ill-fated ZX Spectrum Vega+. Around November of 2024, he popped up again, this time offering screens, PCBs and more shells of the console. It turns out he’d bought the majority of the liquidation stock back when RCL went bust. When I put the various parts together, the sharpness of the screen absolutely blew me away, so I decided that I wanted to build a decent set of buttons in order to make the console usable. I ordered some bits from China, but I’m still waiting for them to arrive, hence why I’ve not gotten around to starting the project. Something for 2025, maybe?
The Garage
This one is simply down to money. When I moved into my home in February 2024, I decided that the detached garage would serve as my man-cave. The work was to begin at a later date, but due to water getting in through the brickwork due to inadequate drainage, I was forced to begin earlier than I’d anticipated. Firstly, I added mortar to any holes I could find in the wall, ripped out the plumbing (A tap was connected to the garage, which is something I didn’t need), and added waterproof tanking to about 1.5feet from the floor. After some very precise testing (splashing water up against the outside of the garage), I deemed the water ingress issues fixed, so I could then move onto painting the brickwork white in preparation for future plans. Below is an image of how the garage looked after I’d cleaned it up a bit and taken out the plumbing. The building was a bit dank and was rather echoey, which made it a bit unpleasant to be in there. There were also a lot of things left by the previous owner who stated he’d pick them up at a later date, which to be fair to him, he did.
The next job was to lay a floor down, which involved laying down a plastic waterproof membrane, followed by polystyrine and then 18mm OSB, which is serving as the floor currently. This improved the dankness of the garage my a mile, and it meant that I no longer had to wince every time I dropped something on the cold, concrete floor. Me and my brother managed to get this done in a single day. At this point, the garage was coming together very nicely, but it wasn’t long before the white walls were covered by a more colourful hue.
So after carefully choosing the perfect paint colours, I got to work painting, which I did over the space of about a week and a half. Note that this image was taken straight after the painting was completed, so all my stuff was still in the centre of the room.
Why did I go for neon Green and Orange for the walls? Well why not? My initial argument was that the walls would eventually be covered up with studwall anyway, so why not go absolutely mental? I bought the paint from B&Q, and chose the colours “Neon Apple” and “Bengal Tiger”. Once I’d got a couple of coats of the Neon Apple on the walls, I instantly fell in love with it. It helped add to the feeling of escapism from the modern world that I was so desperately seeking, and took me back to the early 2000s where everything was lavished in bright colours.
Since then, I’ve aquired some more shelving, added stud wall on one side of the garage, and added some bright strip lights across the roof beams. The next steps would be to finish the studwork and then divide the garage off so there’s two sections, which will hopefully allow me to keep the man-cave side warmer in the winter through insulation. I’m also wanting to finally lay down some carpet tiles I bought yonks ago, but this wouldn’t be until the garage has been plasterboarded and repainted (And yes, the neon colours will be returning).
The Gnome
In December, Storm Burt wreaked havoc on most the the UK. There were a couple of fatalities, one being my grandparent’s garden gnome. They threw it in the bin before telling me what’d happened, but I was adamant that I would be able to fix him back up. They refused to take it out the bin as they didn’t believe it would be possible with the state he was in, but I disagreed. After some bin-diving and careful gluing, he’s now back in one piece, but his fininishing and painting will have to wait until at least March due to other projects that have a rather tight deadline. I also want to write a short story of the gnome’s escapades, which will be a laugh.
In Review
All in all, the projects I didn’t complete weren’t in vain. Most will be completed eventually, and others taught me something I didn’t know before, so I don’t tend to dwell on the missed oppurtunities too much. When I look back at what I’ve managed to accomplish, I have a sense of pride as I’ve continued to better myself throughout the entire year.
I will look to make this post an annual tradition, where I’ll be able to look back on each year as a whole, and provide updates on projects from previous years if any progress has been made.
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