Bob: With all the other things I had to do and buy, the last on my list was to spend a lot on the garage. Except, this is going to be my workshop. The first one I've ever owned, over thirty years in the making! I scoured the local lumber yards (all two of them) and found eight sheets of used 3/8-inch plywood for $5 a sheet. I'd call that a bargain, the best I ever had, and perfect for sheathing these old walls.
Nan: Procurement. That makes Bob sound like a supplies officer in the army. But, especially
here, we wanted to save as much money as possible, and still be able to make the garage usable
and nice looking.
Bob: Here is the corner between the alley and the patio, where that long L-shaped shelf was. I pulled it down and used all the wood again. The overhead junk has been pulled down from the ceiling, as well as all the ugly support boards. You see the sheathing, marching down the alley wall, screwed in with all the salvaged spur-tip screws that were too worn for other jobs.
Nan: I'd be raging too, if I had to use this as my sewing room. Yuk!
Bob: All sheathing up, in the same corner as above.
Nan: Yes, it's still dark looking, but just you wait for the transformation. A little
primer and paint will work a miracle.
Bob: Again, paint hides the age and indiscretions of the past. This is the primer
coat, and already, the big change is taking place.
Bob: Now, this corner is looking a LOT better. The white walls will reflect light and make it much easier to work in here. This is only coat one, of two coats of paint.
Nan: By the time we finish with all the painting we have to do, we'll feel like we've
painted the entire town.
Bob: The garage door with two coats of paint, and what a transformation this is! Definitely a much nicer environment, conducive to all kinds of crafty, creative projects.
Nan: White, Bright, Light and Right! That says it all.
Bob: These are the two lofts on the south wall. The upper one has now been resurfaced with the top from the workbench, a big improvement from being shelved with furniture!
Nan: Bob says, "Aloft." I say, "A loft." Either way, this provides lots of storage space for now, and will hold a many supplies for Bob's projects after the stored items are dispersed.
Bob: Po-TAY-to, po-TAH-to. ;-}~
Bob: I resurfaced the workbench with the solid-core door from the trashcan cover from outside (see Outside page/Side Entrance shot for its past life.) I used the casters to make the rolling workbench, the rest of that cover went to the dump. The remainder on the left got filled in with two-by-eight 120-year-old wood from the opera house (see the More/Opera House Wood page). I pulled down those old kitchen wall cabinets, too; my style doesn't include having them above the workbench, a wall far more useful as tool panels. Those eight sheets of plywood didn't reach this far, so this wall hasn't been sheathed, yet.
Nan: Lotsa work to make this a "working" workbench.
Bob: Here are all those wall cabinets, outside in the patio. After we washed them, I removed and discarded the doors; they were too far gone.
Nan: A little bit of cleaning goes a long way, but this proved to be too much for the
doors. They swelled at the edges from all the water it took just to get them clean. But,
at one point in time, I'm certain some woman looked with pride upon these cupboards
hanging in her new kitchen. These are the old metal "Youngstown" kitchen cabinets (with
chipboard doors). They will be around for a great number of years yet.
Nan: Every thing that goes in these cupboards is one less item in my dining room. Yay!
Bob: These cupboards will make a darn fine place for all my fasteners, one of the things
I ALWAYS save when discarding anything. Screws, nails, nuts and bolts will live here. To the
right, you already see a hint of the next improvement...
Bob: ...a long chunk of shelving, along the alley wall, for storage of lotsa stuff. One of these shelves was made from the OSB leftover from the L-shaped shelf that used to be here. We reuse all we can; there's never enough money to buy everything new.
Nan: The more shelving we have, the more boxes we'll be able to (finally) unpack and sort,
and find a home for all the stuff we've probably forgotten we have.
Bob: Here, those shelves have been finished, completed with strips of 120-year-old opera house one-by-two as reinforcing strips for the legs. That's 56 linear feet of sixteen-inch shelf (70 feet if you count the floor, and I do).
Nan: Bob keeps mentioning 120-year-old Opera House wood. We have a page dedicated to
explaining that wood. We even have a link to a picture of the stage of the Opera House
the year after it was built. And an explanation about how we garnered some wonderful
old wood for some projects for our house. Including two (or more) kitchen window shelves
for my African violets that are now residing on the kitchen table.
Bob: Fortunately, Menard's had a sale on quarter-inch luan plywood for eleven bucks a sheet, just in time for me to complete the resurfacing of the walls. This shot shows some of it above the workbench, finished off with a nine-foot piece of quarter-round moulding I found in the ceiling. To the left is a rectangular pipe rack I designed and built to store PVC drain pipe and other long objects safely out of the way.
Nan: We bit the bullet and paid a little more for more plywood to sheath the garage,
but it was worth it. Eventually you'll see how much difference it makes.
Bob: This is a shelf specifically for tool boxes, a touch I stole from the garage at Little House. I liked the idea so much, I made it my own.
Nan: When youse finds a good idear, youse steals it, don't youse? :)
Bob: The south wall, sheathed and primered. About a third of the way through this side of the room, it suddenly hit me what a wonderful thing I'm doing to my workspace. This is going to be a great productive environment!
Nan: Primer and Paint, primer and paint, primer and paint... you all know what a cover-up
that can be!
Bob: I built barriers surrounding the bottom portion of these lofts, to serve as a bin for scrap wood chunks. The painting is done and it is time to move in!
Nan: Hey! This bin could hold a twin-sized mattress. Hmmm...
Bob: Pipes in the pipe rack, wires back on the wall, and the first tool panel mounted as well. More tool panels will follow.
Nan: Someday soon this will all be Bob's work space. I'll have to put in an intercom
just to be able to talk with him!
Bob: The pi shelf has found a home next to the workbench (I found that lawn dart while cleaning out the garage). The first toolboxes are starting to filter in. It's finally time to empty the first floor rooms into here, and get to work, repairing and painting the living room, dining room and first floor bathroom.
Nan: I love this pi shelf. Bob was considering removing the nails and sawing this into useful wood. I suggested he use it as is; it makes a wonderful conversation piece, and also a useful shelf.
Bob: Someday, Nan, I can still saw it up, if I need to.