It's done. On May 30 I closed the door on my store, and sixteen years of my life, for the final time. It would break any framer's heart to see what I disposed of but most of the hard stuff, some moulding, matboard, saw, matcutter, thumbnailer, etc. are stacked in my garage while my Trooper sits on the driveway. The day after closing I took off for beautiful Montana for a week and since my return have puttered around the house like a retiree. I have one or two jobs to finish up for customers and sometime I'll get around to them. But honestly, the desire to frame just isn't there at the moment. I feel this incredible sense of freedom, like an immense ball and chain has been cut from my leg. The reality is, I know, that at some point I have to start making a living again. I have one or two irons in the fire and who knows, at some point I may have to fire up the matcutter, but right now the call of the blade is not there. I'll check in from time to time to see how everyone is doing. In the meantime I'm enjoying, for now, that feeling of rejoining the "normal" world. I recall an ad some years ago (I think for Hertz) where a dazed looking businessman wanders through an airport saying "I'm walking through airports." That was me the last two Saturdays...."So this is what Saturdays are..."
free at last, free at last...
- Thread starter woody
- Start date
Good luck in whatever you do: and do you think you'll be able to resist the "call of the blade" forever? Maybe you should be a consultant or an "overflow-er." It would be a true shame to waste all that experience!
S
Scarfinger
Guest
Congratulations!!!
It would be interesting to follow your next few years. Your mood is bound to change back and forth from joy to fear. I wonder how old you are and how complicated you responsibilities are. But for now I hope the joy is high and lasts a long time. I am working towards the end of my framing days and even know the date. I can imagine that feeling of freedom and am looking forward to it. In my younger days I would quit my job on 28 Feb every 2 years. But then all the responsiblities set in and 25 years later, although I have enjoyed it all, lts time to move on again.
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162,000 Frames
It would be interesting to follow your next few years. Your mood is bound to change back and forth from joy to fear. I wonder how old you are and how complicated you responsibilities are. But for now I hope the joy is high and lasts a long time. I am working towards the end of my framing days and even know the date. I can imagine that feeling of freedom and am looking forward to it. In my younger days I would quit my job on 28 Feb every 2 years. But then all the responsiblities set in and 25 years later, although I have enjoyed it all, lts time to move on again.
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162,000 Frames
Mel
MGF, Master Grumble Framer
Woody,
Enjoy yourself, whatever you end up doing. And please don't be a stranger. We'll continue to need the benefit of your 16 years.
Enjoy yourself, whatever you end up doing. And please don't be a stranger. We'll continue to need the benefit of your 16 years.
Woody, I too have my frame shop in storage. (In my mom's garage) I know you will enjoy your time off, you deserve it after 16 years of dealing with the public. My family has owned a store for 22 1/2 years, and although I am glad to have some time off I miss it.
Good Luck, and keep in touch with those people who made it worth it during the 16 years.
Sue May
Good Luck, and keep in touch with those people who made it worth it during the 16 years.
Sue May
Bogframe
SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
I closed my shop way back in 1989. My "retirement" lasted all of six months, and I found myself with the framer's itch again. Soooooooo, I decided to go back to working for other people. It's been one of the best descisions I could make. I now have a loyal client base, creative control of the framing process, but none of the headaches I used to have running my own business! As for my equiptment, with the exception of my beloved 1980 Keeton mat cutter, and my Gene Greene Oval Machine, I sold all the rest to pay for a nice vacation...Woody, YOU'LL BE BACK!
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Seth J. Bogdanove, CPF
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Seth J. Bogdanove, CPF
Don't bet on it. I have been thinking lately how foolish we are for being so nearsighted as to design, manufacture, and manage a company where physical labor is involved. Most of my customers don't do anything for a living, yet they make more than I do while making it harder for me to get my work done. They are redesigning the world to look like it came from the pages of goodhomecleaning. At the same time I am seen as stupid because I work with my hands. I'm getting tired of suffering fools and I'm ready to get even my own self.
M
Marc Lzier
Guest
ouch.
Le, where do we apply for a job like your customers have? (Some of my friends think I already have it since this is golf season and all, but then I think that's just petty jealousy.) If you get revenge on your own self, will it be as sweet?
S
Scarfinger
Guest
"stupid because I work with my own hands"?
My son-in-law recently watched me do some woodworking rebuilding an old front door. He is a high end computer programer with a masters degree. His comment: "In a few years you'll get paid twice as much as me and every high school kid will be able to do my job."
The old skills are redeveloping all over North America and are valuable. Custom framing should be following this movement and detail, skills and prices should be rising.
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162,000 Frames
My son-in-law recently watched me do some woodworking rebuilding an old front door. He is a high end computer programer with a masters degree. His comment: "In a few years you'll get paid twice as much as me and every high school kid will be able to do my job."
The old skills are redeveloping all over North America and are valuable. Custom framing should be following this movement and detail, skills and prices should be rising.
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162,000 Frames
Mel
MGF, Master Grumble Framer
A very dear older friend whose name is listed first on the largest, oldest law firm in Portland loved refurbishing the interior of his beach house with his own two hands so much that he turned down the position of Attorney General of the United States when asked by Jimmy Carter. He used to talk about the silk pillow of position and power and how easily it tilts and slips you off into oblivion.
My whine for the day isn't suffering the fools who are customers, but the smashed up materials delivered by the fools who work for package delivery companies upon which I am dependent.
Back on point: Maybe Bogframe has the answer, but only if you could be your own creative and quality-control boss.
My whine for the day isn't suffering the fools who are customers, but the smashed up materials delivered by the fools who work for package delivery companies upon which I am dependent.
Back on point: Maybe Bogframe has the answer, but only if you could be your own creative and quality-control boss.
Bogframe
SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
"Maybe Bogframe has the answer, but only if you could be your own creative and quality-control boss."
That wasn't all that hard to accomlish, really, I went into the shop with an armload of samples, bragged about how great I was, and then proved it...LOL
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Seth J. Bogdanove, CPF
21 years framing and still loving it
That wasn't all that hard to accomlish, really, I went into the shop with an armload of samples, bragged about how great I was, and then proved it...LOL
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Seth J. Bogdanove, CPF
21 years framing and still loving it