I think my wife would actually be relieved if all I dragged into the house were a driveshaft. I started pushing the limits - as far as "separation of garage and kitchen" - many years ago. And to this day, even though I sometimes pay a heavy price, I continue to bring my work into the house when necessary (mainly the kitchen).
But as I got older, I got smarter. Now, to avoid conflict, I usually wait till late at night to bake my painted parts in the oven, degrease stuff in the dishwasher, etc.
I'll tell you one thing that really pokes the hornet's nest; I sometimes find it necessary to use the self-clean feature on the oven to burn off the rust/scale/paint from a salvaged part. Try it sometime, it works great. Six hours at 900 F will break down any type of deposit - right down to the steel. All that remains after the cycle is a fine black powder that can be easily scrubbed off with a Scotchbrite pad. Unfortunately, it also creates quite a bit of fumes. But a fan and a few open windows will help keep the peace.
Oh yeah, washing large body parts in the bathtub. That is always good for some serious feedback - about how our house is turning into a junkyard.
I think the strangest reaction I ever got was when she discovered that I was doing "rust removal by electrolysis" in the kid's bathtub.
The tub was filled with a water/lye mixture. The parts (a pair of D60 knuckles) and electrodes (just a couple of pieces of rebar) were wired to a huge battery - and were bubbling along pretty good. She just happened to be walking by and popped her head in the door. She hadn't been able to process what she was seeing yet and said in a cheerful voice, "Hey Jer, what're you doin?". But then as she looked around her face went kind of blank. I expected fireworks, but no. All I got was a shake of her head - and then - without a word - she closed the door and left. I think that was the day I broke her spirit.
I'm not proud of the examples shown in the images below, but sometimes "a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do" to get the job done.
One night I had painted this section of cooling pipe and it needed to be baked. After the curing and cool down process was over, I forgot to remove it and went to sleep. The next morning, when she went to heat something up for breakfast...there it was hanging from the rack. She didn't get too worked up over this one - I think because it was so clean and shiny.
You must be registered for see images attach
Here are a pair of inners and a radiator support frame (off my 1986 K30) fresh out of the pool and ready for posting on C/L. I tried to be discreet about washing them in the pool but she looked out and caught me. I had to listen to a long lecture on vinyl liners, how easily they can be ripped - and how stupid I was for cleaning parts in the pool.
You must be registered for see images attach
This one caused a
big reaction. I was working all by myself up at our tarpaper shack in the White Mountains and didn't expect her to come up She wanted to surprise me with fresh food. The photo doesn't tell the whole story. I took it just after driving the tractor up the ramp, through the slider and parking it in the boy's bedroom. When my wife came up a couple of days later, the scene didn't look like this - I had completely disassembled the tractor and the parts were stacked on the beds. Also, there was the expected amount of oil and grease soaked rags, hand tools and empty beer cans scattered around the whole lower level. What I think what really set her off though, was the fact that I was supposed to be re-doing the downstairs bathroom - not tinkering with tractors. But she got over it soon enough:
You must be registered for see images attach
