It's true that I've not written much in the last several months, but it doen't mean that we weren't busy. In late 2012, we started to plan for our move from Wellington to Nairobi. Not the first time we've done a major move like that -- this time so that my wife, Suzanne, could take up a new challenge.
Mind you, transporting a guitar-making workshop to the other side of the planet is not for the faint of heart. Fortunately, we had access to moving services that included complete wrapping. Two hardworking blokes wrapped absolutely everything in the house and workshop in special bubble pack. They admitted they'd never wrapped so many bundles of timber!
An uneasy driver backed a 40' shipping container down our steep gravel driveway to the garage/workshop door ...
As it turned out, he'd brought the wrong one, so had to return to the depot and return with the correct container! Then the big crew arrived to load the workshop, kitchen, bedrooms and everything else we owned into the container -- including six guitars! That was on December 17, 2012.
Suzanne and I arrived in Nairobi on January 4, 2013, after making a detour to see family in Canada. Meanwhile, the shipping container was at sea, moving slowly from port to port, including an unexpected 1 month stay in Port Elizabeth, SA, while tensions around National elections eased in Kenya (welcome to Africa!). It finally arrived in Mombasa in mid April and arrived at our newly rented house on April 21 ...
The movers in Nairobi had never seen a load so well wrapped. Damage in transit was limited to a single broken brass fitting on the air compressor. Even the six guitars came out of the container in perfect condition -- I was truly amazed! The movers were very curious about some of the strange things they uncovered in the load! The two-car garage at the house would house most of the workshop tools and machinery ...
Then began the task of organizing things so that guitar making could resume. I installed additional strip lighting to improve work illumination and arranged storage and equipment to make for convenient access from the main workbench area ...
Finish work was allocated to an unused domestic staff room next to the shop. I arranged my knock-down spray booth inside the small room and set the exhaust fan at the window with duct tape!
Then it was a matter of finding a suitable place to store wood. Ideally, I wanted to keep all of my wood and guitars in-
progress in a space where relative humidity could be controlled. A full bathroom located next to our family room was set up with my dehumidifier (draining into the tub) and an electronic controller I'd built in New Zealand. The counter is large enough to accommodate my "go-bar" deck so that bracing and other sensitive glue ups can be done under controlled humidity.
So Mullin Guitars is now up to full speed with work conditions that are better than what we had in New Zealand. The first instrument completed in Kenya was strung up in September, but there are 3 others in various stages of completion currently underway.
