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I had built up quite a bit of momentum assembling the NASAMS, but you may have noticed that I haven’t made much progress lately. Why? Well… the workshop is moving 👍

From this point onward, unless stated otherwise or obvious from the context, all abbreviations in the original Bulgarian post are written in Cyrillic.

In fact, my life at home revolves around the kitchen. It’s where I cook, eat, work, build models, watch films and TV series, and generally do all the things people do at home (I’m even writing this post in the kitchen right now 😉). Apart from sleeping—I sleep in the bedroom, although Nadya sometimes finds me asleep on the kitchen chair after I’ve been watching a series 😂

As you can probably imagine, this isn’t the most convenient arrangement. To use the kitchen for my hobbies, I have to work around the family. Before I can bring out a model to work on, everyone has to have finished breakfast, lunch, or dinner—which, in a family with three children, doesn’t always happen at the same time. And if I want to film a particular step, I have to set up two camera tripods (actually, three now) and two lighting stands. All that equipment takes up space, and once it’s set up, getting around the kitchen table becomes quite a challenge. And, of course, one of the children will inevitably develop an unquenchable thirst and need to come in for a glass of water… That’s also why I haven’t uploaded a video to my channel in over a year…

Well, I’d had enough, so I took the plunge: I’m moving the workshop somewhere else!

At the beginning of the month, a friend and I rented a space of around 80 m², where I can move all my hobby-related things and enjoy my hobbies undisturbed!

The idea is to have two desks: one workstation for assembling models and another for painting them, with the lighting and cameras more or less permanently set up. Basically, my dream man cave 🤣

Of course, real life differs slightly—just ever so slightly—from our dreams 😭

First, there was a small delay while the owner renovated the space, but nothing too serious. Then we got the keys, and it was time to furnish the place. And that’s where the headaches began…

I picked out some desks from IKEA (160 × 80 cm, so I’d have plenty of workbench space to spread out), checked that they were available at their Sofia store, and arranged for my brother to help me collect them yesterday in his Forester. And… it turned out that the desks I’d chosen were a new IKEA product, and “available” actually meant “ordered, awaiting delivery”… No such luck! I was pretty annoyed, but ordered them online anyway…

Today we literally filled the Forester with a few models (about ten), the compressor, various tools, and the lighting equipment. Fortunately, the cameras, tripods, lenses, and audio equipment are already in the office next door to ours. So the move has officially begun.

And here’s a little Catch-22: to have the desks and chair delivered, I need to be at the address that day. But to be there, I need to work “from home” that day—which means I need a desk and chair there… So I’ll have to rope my brother in again to collect the desks from IKEA’s Sofia store. I’ve ordered the chair for delivery to my home instead (I’ll work from home that day—at least I have a kitchen table and chair), and I’ll take it to the studio unassembled…

And literally as I’m writing this, IKEA has emailed me to say that my desk order is ready for collection 🤣