Garage Ceiling and Lights Part 1

If you read the last post, you're probably expecting to see some gutter installation....well, um...I haven't done that yet. Instead, I've been working below the deck/inside the garage. As mentioned back in February, we didn't get the deck finished before the monsoon season, and so the deck/garage ceiling leaked water all winter. The ceiling first went moldy, and then partially collapsed. About six months on it has properly dried out, and, with the deck finished (except gutters, railings, etc.) I can do something about it.

Step 1. Make some more space at the rear of the garage. This was achieved by taking down the lower couple of shelves at the rear wall and punting their contents into the table saw room: 

Moved the refrigerator in there as well, and pushed the '68 all the way forward....

.... which leaves plenty of space to work in:

Pulled down the ceiling from the first four (4) feet at the front of the garage:

The old insulation and assorted debris came down with the ceiling:   

Debris transferred into trash bags:

It is work noting that the structure of the garage roof/deck has been severely weakened at this point. Before we started, the structure consisted of LVL joists spaced at twelve inches on center, plus at least three (3) layers of 3/4" plywood, several layers of roofing material and a layer of deck boards. Now it's just joists and deck boards, and even the limited shear strength of the ceiling has been removed. 

I knew this was going to be an issue, which is why I only took down the first little bit of the ceiling. Before I can take down the rest, I need to add some strength, which means....blocking! I'm using sections of 2" x 8" doug fir, which are about 10.5" long. Each block is secured with 3.5" nails fired from the cordless Dewalt gun:

I'm installing blocking every 36" across the garage, which looks like this: 

To give myself a three (3) wide nailing surface for the ceiling drywall, I'm adding 2" x 4" scabs to the sides of the blocks:

Which looks like this when complete:

Pulled off (!) the next bit of ceiling as far as the first pair of strip lights:

Cut out the sections between the lights:

The drywall at the front left of the garage was stained, so I ripped that off too:

More bags of trash to get rid of later:

I set up the laser level to help me keep the blocking straight: 

Time to remove the automatic door opener - it doesn't work, and I'll be replacing it with a different style.

I was working on my own, so I had to support the heavy end with the step ladder and a box of trash bags during the lowering process:

Finished up installing all the blocking:

Then I removed all four antiquated strip lights. I'm replacing them with 10' long LED lights which are clip-mounted and easy to move around. The strips can be coupled together or connected with cables. To start with I have four lights at the remaining section of ceiling....

And another five where I just removed the ceiling...this is a temporary arrangement since the lights will have to come down when the ceiling is replaced.....but that is a few months away at the moment, and in the interim I have plans that need decent lighting in the garage.

The wiring for the new lights is super simple. Previously each of the four strip lights had an incoming cable: 

I just put an outlet at the end of the cable which the new lights can plug into. Power is controlled by the same wall switch as before. 

The lighting in the garage is much improved:

Back wall:

Sam Sheep's Bedroom

I mentioned in my last post that I had been struggling to write it - one of the reasons it was finally completed was that I wanted to move on to writing about the Great Bedroom Switch. When we moved into our current pad a little over three (count 'em) years ago, Quinster and Samuel Sheep wanted to share a bedroom - getting them set up with platform beds was the first real post in this blog as it happens. 

They've both grown a lot bigger in the last few years - such that I've lost my place as tallest member of our quintet - and the desk spaces are not designed to accommodate anybody over five foot six. The upshot of all this is that Quinn Sheep shipped out to the spare room in the basement,* leaving Sam and myself to spruce up his new bedroom!

This is what the platform beds looked like with the trimmings removed. Sam and I had two of these to dismantle and stow away. Once the beds were removed it was clear we would have to make some repairs....!

I patched the walls up one night after work, and then the following saturday we hoiked all the furniture out of the room and got to work with the paint brush and roller. We started with the ceiling and I had Sam do the cutting in while I worked the roller.

After the ceiling was done it was time fort quick cup ot tea an a slice ot doins. For the walls Sam took over with the roller and I switched to the brush.

All done with the first coat - time for a spot of luncheon over in the dining room. Amy Sheep was AWOL so Sam had to step up and make the toasted ham sandwiches.

All done with the second coat!  By this time Amy Sheep was on hand to put t'ettle on and hand out the wagon wheels.**

There was just enough daylight left for us to put the furniture back in the room and construct Sam's new bed. 

And not a moment too soon! All that working the roller wore him out!

A couple of weeks later the LED lighting Sam ordered showed up and we spent Saturday morning installing it.

The colors can be changed from the comfort of one's bed with a remote control.

(*yes, this is bad news for guests, if we ever have any again....)

(**ok, so I haven't had a wagon wheel since I left the uk, but that doesn't stop me from thinking about them...)

Display Case

I have been tinkering with a display case that a friend gave me, on and off, since Day #33 of the fireplace remodel, even though it has nothing to do with that project. At the time I got it, I needed another project like a hole in the head, but the cabinet was free and it had real potential. This is pretty much what it looked like after I got it back to the workshop and tore off the original base:

After some reconstruction, the cabinet was sanded and panited with primer/stain blocker...

And it was last seen in this blog after I painted the accents white, and then the cabinet black:

The intersections of black and white paint didn't come out quite as sharp as I wanted them to, so I had to do a bit of touch-up with the white paint and one of Ruby Sheep's small brushes in order to get the result I was after.

When that was all properly dry, I applied some bright red sign-writing paint to the radiused parts of the accents - I tried using masking tape, but it wasn't very successful, so I actually painted the red on freehand. I stared on the side of the cabinet that will go against the garage wall; the second side and the doors came out better after this practice run.

The red paint took 48 hours to properly cure and after sitting in the 'shop for this time I discovered that the black paint has an electrostatic attraction to fine dust: there was fine dust was on every surface of the cabinet and it was just as thick on the down-facing sections. This doesn't bode well for anything that's going to be sitting in a corner of my garage, and the dust wasn't easy to get off. My solution was to wipe the cabinet down with distilled water and then slap on two (2) coats of some quick-drying varnish. The next photo was the result, and both the cabinet doors got the same treatment.

This is how the upper section of the display case looks with the mirror in situ. The mirror is only held in place by the glass shelves, which go in last.

I didn't like the relative instability of this arrangement, ao I crafted a trim piece from a scrap of old baseboard and installed it over the top edge of the mirror (after painting and varnishing it, naturally).

Time to re-install the glass panels! The lower panels were originally fitted with some diamond-pattern mesh. Honestly, it belongs inside the box that also contains Adam Ant and those two idiots out of Bros.

Much better without it!  I had to modify the fasteners which secure the glass panels to accommodate the reduced thickness.

The larger panels are held in with rubber inserts which are not exactly color coordinated, but whatever...

The original cabinet came with the crappy lighting fixture shown below in the top cabinet...this was last seen in tut 'shop bin along wit sithers.

I had something a bit more modern in mind: LED tape lighting.

I've seen quite a bit of this at work lately, particular under kitchen cabinets, although not in this color, I must admit. I'm a novice to LED lights, but I did my usual research on tut interwebs, and it's pretty easy to install and connect. The wiring can be done with crimp-on connectors, but I soldered mine and used some heat shrink tubing to make it look super professional. I bought a sixteen foot reel of LED single color tape with 36 LED's per foot and some connecters online for about $50. I had an old 12 Volt power supply kicking around so I didn't have to buy one of those. I already had the paint and other materials on hand, and the cabinet was free, so if my time is worth $50 and hour, my total investment is still less than $7,000.

The lighting was installed in two loops around the front of each cabinet.

The upper loop reflects off the mirror which doubles the effect.

Once the lighting was all buttoned up, I re-installed both the cabinet doors and the rest of the hardware and moved the display case into the basement.*

Looks even better with the basement light off:

(*The display case is destined to be installed in the garage/man cave, but right now that area is the subject of another project.....stay tuned to find out more!)