Post #300 - A Celebration

It took this blog just over two years to clock up 100 posts, and of course that moment was properly celebrated milked here. Article #200 passed without being noticed, but today, almost eight years on from the first post, we hit the #300 landmark! 

While this blog covers some eclectic themes, it's raison d'etre is documenting the improvements/modifications we've made to out house since we moved in in the middle of 2017. Here's a summary of some of my favorite projects from inside and outside...

Kitchen:

Living room fireplace:

Dining room side of the fireplace:

Garage:

Workshop:

Table saw room:

Driveway: 

Side yard:

To be continued...

Garage Ceiling and Lights Part 3

The primary reason for the recent progress on the garage is my new-to-me minivan. We used to have a metallic red 2001 Honda Odyssey and it was the perfect multi-purpose vehicle. If the catalytic converter hadn't been stolen, we would probably still have it. A couple of weeks ago I came to the conclusion that the '67 F250 is still some time away from taking the place of the old minivan, and what we really need is a stopgap: something we can use to move building materials and be a backup for our other cars. The result of this decision is the silver 2014 Odyssey below. Apart from being newer, it has eight seats instead of seven and has the modern backup camera and Bluetooth connections I didn't know I needed.

I made a run to the big box store on Friday morning for more OSB sheathing and insulation material and then the first task was installing insulation at the rest of the left side of the garage:

The next logical step would have been to cover the insulation with sheathing...but there was nobody around to help so I moved over the right side of the garage and ripped out the rest of the ceiling. The next photo was taken after removing all the old screws and having a MASSIVE cleanup.

Moved on to installing blocking; this photo was taken part way through the process:

Then more insulation installation (!) There is a spot above the Mustang that I can't easily reach, but otherwise I'm done with the fiberglass. This felt like a good stopping point.

The next day was very wet Saturday. I got started by making a trip to the dump in the 2014 Odyssey. There is so much space in the minivan that I was able to get rid of ALL the debris from removing the garage ceiling and all the broken siding and whatnot that was left over from the deck project. This also gave me a lot more space in the garage to work with. 

Sheathing installed at the left rear quadrant with help from Amy Sheep:

The left side of the garage is finished bar painting and re-installation of the lights, so I had another big cleanup and then I moved the '68 over to the that side of the garage.

Finished off the insulation: 

The last little bit of Saturday was spent installing sheathing at the rear with assistance from Amy Sheep.  There is space equivalent to a couple of sheets still to do:

I had a leisurely start on Sunday. By mid-afternoon I had the rest of the sheathing installed, all lights put back and most of the dust swept up. The sheathing will be primed and painted at some point in the future; don't hold your breath!

Cabinet Saw Room Refinements Part 1

For some context, this room is located next to the garage and is connected to the main workshop at the other side. This area was mostly filled with dirt and rock when we first moved in, but has since been converted into a very functional area (see elsewhere in this blog, natch): 

Apart from the table saw and the jointer, everything else is on wheels, and it's all capable of being connected to the dust extractor.

So, no problems with any of that, but there is some room for improvement to the storage options. The top edge of the foundation that we spent months installing makes a sort-of shelf and that is it:

This is how the concrete looks with everything cleared off.  I've wanted to make this area more storage and display friendly for a while. The first step of this process is installing a level timber shelf which I can build cabinets or more shelves on top of. 

The top edge of the concrete is actually more or less level, but the front face is far from straight or flat. I broke out the laser level to help assess the situation: 

As usual my shop cat was on hand to help with aligning the laser.

I'm taking measurements from the edge of the sill plate which is the only consistent datum point:

The shelf is made from some pieces of leftover siding and will extend 12-1/2 inches from the sill plate. It is difficult to line up the edge of the board with the laser, so I am drawing a pencil line half an inch from the edge of the board and aligning that with the laser:

As I mentioned above, the top of the concrete is more-or-less level...I want my shelf to actually be level, so I ground down the high points and planned the underside of the boards as necessary to achieve this:

I used countersunk tapcons to attach the boards to the concrete: 

I'm adding a perpendicular panel in front/below the shelf. This board is just a backer for anything I want to wall-mount below the shelf.

The front edge of the concrete has a lot of variation - some of the early forms were not strong enough and suffered some bowing when we poured the foundation.  I had to make some custom shims to keep the backer board flat:

The shims were anchored to the concrete with tapcons and then the backer board was attached with brad nails:

Far end done:

Where the concrete was bowed the most, I had to use a mixture of 1/4" plywood and some pegboard instead of the 3/4" siding to keep everything flat. 

This is with some of the tat restored. I will be building some cabinets in this area in the future.