Welcome to the Frugal Workshop!

As you can see, it's a mess and not really a workshop yet.



My name is Jason and I love wood working/fixing things. Fortunately, since the economy is swirling around the bowl, my hobby is going to be pretty useful.

I grew up in a family of contractors and building material professionals. Even my mother is famous for saying, "Let's buy an old house and fix it up. It'll be fun!" It was for all 10 years we renovated the homes we lived in until I enlisted in the Marine Corps.

I spent over a decade in the Marines and between formations & deployments I was able to do a good deal of wood working. I even received a Navy Achievement medal for designing a mobile command post that could be inserted into the back of a Humvee (HMMWV) with all of the radios already set up and ready to go.

About 2 years before I was honorably discharged, I married a wonderful and extremely tolerant woman who means everything to me. So if I'm not blogging or doing things to blog about, I'm either at work or doing my best to keep her smiling!

When I got out we decided Maine was the place to be, so we moved up there and set up shop. I got a job selling and designing custom (ish) wall paneling and millwork. That job really opened a door for me as it was there that I was a guest on "Home Again with Bob Vila."

Here is a link to the episode on Bob's site: http://www.bobvila.com/BVTV/HomeAgain/Video-1517-01-0.html If you are in the market for some really great wall paneling at a great price, the company worked for is New England Classic and here is their web site: http://www.newenglandclassic.com/

Now, I have a great job working which leaves me lots of free time to "tinker in the garage," which is what this blog is really all about. I will be showing you how to fix or outright replace stuff for little or no money as well as setting up a functional workshop as inexpensively as possible.

Over the course of the summer and fall, I will be building tools, making projects and repairing things. As I move into winter, I will very likely shift to designing projects as the garage is unheated and Maine winters tend to get a bit brisk.

So come back often and I will begin by offering a tour of the shop and where I got the cheap or free things in it. Also, I do have a few items I paid full price for or as gifts so I'll tell you about those and how to squeeze more work out of them than they can do right out of the box.

This afternoon the tour begins!