Having the Right Equipment For Your Obsession - or what do you really need to make a loaf of bread?

The thing about obsessions is that they can be very costly.  You've got to have the right equipment right?  Sometimes, (after I've spent a ridiculous amount of money on something I thought at the time I HAD to have) I wonder if it wouldn't be better to just try and use what I have on-hand while I'm deciding if this is something I even want to try to do again.  I'm reminded of the summer I decided to grow my own tomatoes.  In all practicality I should have just thrown a few plants into the ground and watched the tomatoes wither and die before I remembered that no, I don't have a green thumb.  Never have and likely never will.  Instead of taking the prudent path though, I began my obsession by spending hours on the interwebs and pouring over countless catalogs before I came to the conclusion that I HAD to have the very highly priced specialized tomato growing self-watering planters...with climbing cages...and special soil and food...and the special red plastic sheeting that covered the special tomato growing soil.  I have no clear memory of what all this cost - because I try to quickly blank that out of my memory when it happens; but I do remember thinking after successfully harvesting the one tomato I had managed to save from blossom rot that this was indeed a very expensive tomato!  Each slice probably cost me around ten dollars.  SO not worth it!

It's the same with every obsession I have.  It will be the same with the bread.  Going on the various sourdough sites I determined that it was essential to have a little stone bowl/oven - otherwise I will NEVER get a golden crust with velvet crumb.  I found several online from various sites but ended up with this one from Amazon:

The Sassafras La Cloche Brick Oven

Round Bread Proofing Basket

Of course you can't make home-crafted bread without a specialty bread proofing bowl like this one.  A regular round basket (like the many I have in my cupboards) would never do.

And in all honesty as long as you are going all out, you would be very remiss not to include the important little tools like a special Danish dough whisk, plastic bowl scrapper, and stainless steel dough-scrapper (because your regular old mixing spoon and pizza spatula would constitute a dough-handling failure).

 So there you have it.  I haven't even made one loaf yet - but I sure do have the proper tools for the job! I have no real idea how much they all cost - but once that beautiful loaf is made, I'm thinking that each slice have about the same value as a slice of home-grown tomato.