This is my instrument making workshop. It's a separate garage, about 13' x
21'. I bought the house in May 2002, and it was more than a year before the
garage was ready for use as a proper shop. I can't say it's "finished,"
because a good shop is kind of always a work in progress, but anyway it's fully
functional. :)
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This is as close to a "before" picture as i have, unfortunately.
When i got the house, this garage was bare wood studs on the walls &
ceiling, the far and right-hand windows were free of glass and boarded
up, there were remains of all kinds of trash. My Dad & i have put
tons of work into this space, and i'm filled with gratitude for all his
help.
Here, we've insulated, drywalled, painted, repaired some large cracks
in the foundation & floor, replaced & finished the windows, and
installed plenty of electricity for the power tools. It's on the verge
of becoming a nice, useful place to work.
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Here's the same view with a new floor, and all
the stuff moved in. The lathe is the heart of the shop, of course, and i
had a real adventure getting it here. The movers damaged it, so i had months
of wrangling with inspectors and insurance agents, until finally the movers'
insurance coughed up for a new machine. Even that wasn't the end of it,
but i finally have a working lathe again. When the replacement arrived,
and it was pink instead of green, i had to paint it with flowers;
i'm calling her 'Daisy.' |
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Here is the opposite view, out the garage doors.
The table in the middle of the floor, and the bench on the far wall were
in the garage when i moved in, and are quite servicable after a little shoring
up and tweaking here and there. |
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On the long wall, we've built a 21' workbench,
which makes life so nice. There's plenty of shelving and storage
underneath, and the view from these windows is of the bamboo thicket growing
in my backyard. |
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(15 Aug 2004) Today's the day to replace these
old, rotten, ill-fitting carriage doors. The gaps around the doors let in
wind, leaves, bugs, probably even cats could get in if they wanted. Also,
in the wintertime, i lose lots of precious heat around these crazy doors. |
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(15 Aug 2004) ...So we took out the old doors, and walled in the space.
We installed a pre-hung, steel-clad door, and it fits great. There's a
deadbolt lock and weatherstripping and everything. My Dad and i had to
do this work in one day because otherwise there would be a big open non-wall
(or non-door) into my shop.
We haven't really decided what to do with the outside yet - probably
we'll have a go at stucco.
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(18 Sept) Here's the result of our stucco project.
You can never get a perfect match with an existing pattern, but i'm quite
happy with this result. It'll look even better with a fresh paint job. (Maybe
not for a while, though, give or take the weather...) |