All my life's a Circle......

Full speed ahead,Gordon! You're busier being retired than when you were working…well, maybe not, but close! 

Gordon.

You're an inspiration for what I have to do with my garage.  I need to partition off a section, insulate and heat it, and then I'll have a nice winter space for working.

I did get a new cupola this summer, as the old one leaked like a sieve.

Kudos to you.

The impetus for all this was last winter - it was so cold for so long and whenever I went out to the shop to work on something I could only take it for 15-20 minutes before I had to head back to the house to warm up.  That sucks big time.  

So THIS winter I hope to at least have insulation in there and some way to interim heat it.  Ultimately, I want to get some decent, flame-less heat out there to at least take the edge off it.  That means at least insulating the ceiling, even if I don't get the ceiling sheet rocked this year.  If I could get four volunteers for an afternoon, we could get the ceiling rocked, but we'll see.  Even better would be to find someone who does that stuff and could use an afternoon filler job and just let them do it.  We'll see.

Bob!  Really nice cupola.  I built one for Chris for his garage a few years back.  It was about 2/3'rd the size of yours, looked huge when it was in my shop and almost tiny when it was up on the roof.  I had to make it in three sections just to keep the sectional weight down so we could get it up there to assemble in place.

Jimbo, I might even be looking at a gig as a manufacturer's rep in this area starting later in the Fall, just to keep busy during the winter (and make a few bucks to let us take some bigger trips).  Remember what Ogden Nash once wrote:   "To Sit....is to Rot."

I would help you Gordon, if I didn't live 3,074 miles away.

Well!  As of today, the walls are all done - insulated, sheet rocked and painted and everything is back where it belongs.  I re-mounted all of the open shelving and added a bunch of wall organizers to make it all work and look nice.  Also reorganized a whole lot of the floor area to gain some more space.  I have one plastic bin full of old metal things (I tend to throw stuff in there "just in case" I need it sometime) - it now weighs about 100 pounds and keeps getting in the way so I'll figure out another storage method later today to eliminate that, too.

Not bad for exactly a week.

I also found a good local contractor who will sheetrock and paint the ceiling in 1/2 day for $1,100 bucks, so he's coming sometime in the next couple of weeks.  Have to borrow Chris' truck to use as a portable scaffold to put up the insulation, but that shouldn't take more than a day and then it's ceiling time!

Now.....What can I do for the rest of the Autumn??

Oh, I know......Find a place for the damn canoe that I used to hang from the ceiling!!

Or, you can come up here and help me do my garage now...

Free room and board and good Canadian beer.

Vancouver?  

I could go to Chioppino's Grill again?

Don't tempt me!

Actually, I'm in the middle of a debate over whether to re-install the 4' flourescent lights I had hanging over the benches and cars or replace them with recessed, LED fixtures.  They would be at 9' elevation and I'm wondering about lumens available at bench level with them.  We put ten, 1400 lumen units in our kitchen and they are way more than we need, but with a 7' ceiling.  Something to think about tonight, before I get going with the ceiling insulation this weekend - looking forward to another itchy time.

This was an easy, quick and straight-forward project that really makes the garage look more like a room and less like a bomb hit it.  It's hard, though, because I have more "stuff" (tools, mostly) than places to put it so it's been an effort to make everything fit.  This garage is now as nice as my son's new place, although he did one of those scratch-resistant, epoxy floors before he moved in.  I guess I'll have to consider some of those  nifty shop-floor-tiles for the purpose, just to keep up with the kid.....

Quick update!

I went for the hybrid lighting scheme of LED recessed units right over the benches and then re-purposed my 4' fluorescents to over the car areas but on a separate switch.  Throw both switches and it looks just a bit darker than the strip in Vegas.  I like it.

I did all the walls in the first week, then found that doing a ceiling is about twice as much work as all four walls (and then some).  The ceiling has now had the lighting fixtures modified, been insulated (THAT was an adventure as every other "bay" was either 24" or 21" because of the joist configuration and all of the fiberglass dust falls right on you) so that involved more work, but it's now done.  Along with the insulation, the entire ceiling has strapping (all 42 of the buggers) for the sheetrock and it's ready for the crew to come in and sheetrock and paint it and THAT will be done.  I'm hearing "sometime in the next two weeks" or something like that, but I told them I could be a filler job - I just need a day notice to empty the garage.

Lastly, I'm debating whether to deplete the "car fund" to put in a "Cadillac" heat-pump system out there to both heat and cool the place.  THAT is a lotta bucks, but would be really, really nice.  If we also go solar like Dave Mitchell it might make sense.

Soooooooo......three walls completely done in the first week, ceiling insulated and ready for sheetrock the second week.  Absolutely every muscle aches, now.  I may have to take a few days off, read Max's first book and learn how to be an introverted Mormon kid.......Sounds kinda good, right now...

Gordon- Unless you're getting a worthwhile price break, never tell a tradesman you are a "filler" job. 

Yeah, that's how Pearl spent 1-1/2 years sitting in a body shop.  I learned, right there.

I'm not in that much of a hurry for the ceiling, and being a "filler" job gets me about half off the price.  All I have to do is get everything out of there the day they show up and that I can do in less than an hour.

But the place is looking GREAT!

Gordon,

Good on you, and your aching joints.  When my house was built, the garage was insulated and sheetrocked and taped, but not primed or painted.  That was 30 years ago, and so it remains.  I have discovered that if you do not paint mud and tape, it slowly comes off.  Damn.  So the taping job will have to be redone.  I too am itching these days to get that all done.  I have a plan.  wonder when that gumption that nicked you the other week will get me too.  But the insulated walls and ceiling allow me to run a small 230 v space heater that will warm the air enough to allow working in the winter.  it ain't great, but it can be done.  If you aim at where you are, things can be managed.

Also, I recently got some fluorescent shop lights at Lowes or HD that use T8 bulbs (green ends, small diameter, 4' jobs).  These are the cat's pajamas.  Very bright, somewhat less energy than "std" 40w tubes, instant on, and work right away even down to -10F.  Not sure what you paid for those LEDs, but these units were like $10.

I think you should investigate using what they call  a split for heating/cooling.  A through the wall heat pump, like they use in motel rooms and such.  Bruce Stumpp has one in his garage, and it works really well.  Mitsubishi is a leader w/ these, but others make 'em too.  Shop around.  W/ such a thing you could even have cool in the summer -- just sayin' . . .