I'm A Multi-Tasking Procrastinator. I Can Put Off Multiple Projects At The Same Time Almost Indefinitely!

Happy Easter Everyone!

One of the projects I had been putting off is my workshop.  I inherited the space with nothing but some wire shelves and taped drywall.  Recently however, I've been using the cold weather as an excuse to stay in and work on putting my shop together.  I have a series of pictures showing what the space looked like before we purchased our home, when it was a blank slate getting ready to paint, and what it looks like now.  I was going to wait until the shop was completely finished to pen this blog entry but two things motivated me to share my progress now.  First I have a confession.  I enjoy woodworking and piddling in my shop but what I enjoy the most is making stuff for my shop.  So in theory, my shop will never actually be complete.  And second, I just haven't written anything in a while.  So this is it!

Just as a reminder, here are a couple of pictures showing what the lower garage space looked like before we purchased the house.  As you can see the space is just storage for junk and not set up as any kind of usable work space.  There were a couple of wire shelves attached to the wall that were left after the family moved out but that was all.  

The first order of business was to remove the nasty wire shelves, clean, patch and paint.  In an earlier blog entry I professed just how much I hate to paint. That hasn't changed but I wanted a nice space to work in and this space needed some serious TLC.

As you can see I struggled to paint around all of my tools and boxes of stuff from our move.  The one cabinet in the third picture of the group above is the only storage left after I had cleared out the space and that wasn't holding much.  So next I had to build some basic cabinets with shelves to get boxes and stuff off the floor so I could work.

 These simple cabinets were built from an article in Family Handyman but they served the purpose. My shop stayed like this for some time while I got busy with other business of settling in our new home here in Western North Carolina.  As I brought things from my mom's house (tools and whatnots that I've inherited from my dad) I did build a second set of those simple cabinets just to get those boxes off the floor.

My next task was to build base cabinets to support a workbench.  That seemed to be a daunting task that would require a great deal of material, time and effort so I put off that task for quite a while.  I'm not sure where I got the idea but one day I went down to the Habitat for Humanities Re-Store and as luck would have it, two days before they received a shipment of cabinets that had been salvaged from a house demo, so I bought four of them (8 feet worth).  After laying out where I wanted the workbench and considering some options I decided I needed one more cabinet.  Back down to the Re-Store and dumb-lucky, they had just received as second set of cabinets identical to the ones I had purchased earlier.  

I mounted the base cabinets against a masonry wall and set to building my workbench.  I used a plan for a torsion box style bench which is supposed to create a perfectly flat work surface.  

Between the 8 foot bench top on the left and the two foot work top on the right I mounted a shelf just the right height to install my compound miter saw so that my workbench also serves as work (out-feed) support in both directions.  In this photo you can also see some of my handy electrical work.

My entire shop was previously powered by one 15 Amp circuit.  I could not run my table saw and shop vac at the same time without tripping the breaker.  When we had our service panel switched out to accept a portable generator for emergency power, I had the electrician provide me with a 100 Amp sub-panel in my shop.  So now I have plenty of power available. 

In addition to the outlets I added some LED work lights over the workbench that are plug connected to a switched outlet.  Then I furred out the masonry wall with some 2x4s so I could mount some peg board above the bench.

 Then more painting of course!

While I was at it with the peg board I used the excess under my second set of simple cabinets just because I could.  A bit of "Bulls-Eye Planning." Which resulted in yet more painting.

And last, I trimmed out the unfinished window because I hadn't painted enough.  I also had to scrub the blinds clean.  In the picture below I'm halfway done.

My most recent "storage" type project was a quickly thrown together wheeled lumber cart.  I tired of moving my material back and forth over and over to make room for whatever I was working on at the moment.

Constructed with a little help from my buddy!

I hesitate to say my "Final Results" because as I indicated at the beginning, I really don't plan to ever be completely finished.  But here is my "Work in Progress" Man Cave.  An enviable work-space if I do say so myself.

BEFORE!

AFTER!!!

  

So although this may be a marathon project I've not been completely idle with my time.

My next update is in the works.  It has been one year since my Type II Diabetes diagnosis and I have a follow-up doctors appointment at the end of this month.  So I will have my progress to share.  I also have a class I've signed up for through the local community college that will be beginning at the end of this month that should be a blast.  You won't believe what types of classes are offered in this area.  I'm positive I'll have at least a couple of stories from that.  All-in-all, after this winter, I'm looking forward to another beautiful summer in the Western North Carolina Mountains!

Our best to everyone!

Rick