Well……this is not the way I would have expected to find time to work on the garage. Just like everyone else in the world right now, my life has been turned upside down by COVID19 and I suddenly have LOTS of free time. I want to be very clear and upfront though…..I understand that I have been incredibly lucky and blessed in this situation. My wife and I are both being paid our full wages to stay home and we are in no way suffering and we are so thankful for that. I completely understand that many many people are suffering through a terrible upheaval in their lives right now. I don’t want anyone to read this and think that I’m some privileged person trying to tell everyone to relax and have fun….maybe put back a pint at the Winchester while we wait for this to all blow over. I’m not privileged, just lucky, and as I say to my wife all the time…..I’m just some f*%king guy. I really do hope this can all be over soon and the people that are suffering can be the first to regain their normal lives.
SO! On to the topic at hand. The garage.
I have been able to get a lot done. I built a set of stairs to replace the ladder. That was a big project! I make exactly ZERO claim to being a carpenter or even a talented chimp when it comes to woodworking. I’m bad at it and I always have been. But I really wanted stairs and I was not willing to pay the original contractor the $2000 he wanted to build them so I figured I’d do it myself…..how hard could it be, right?
It. Was. Hard. I have a new found respect for carpenters and contractors. I am planning to enclose the space under the stairs and make it into a closet. I can put my air compressor way at the back and then my welding cart will roll in and I put two shelves up high for spray cans and other chemicals. When I did the electrical I ran a dedicated 20 amp circuit over here with the intention of using it for the air compressor. I still need to enclose the closet…just waiting for the motivation to go back to Home Depot. After finishing the stairs I could finish the floor upstairs. Its been very time consuming because I have to cut notches out of each sheet to fit around the rafters…..its not fun. I am almost done with the floor…..just two more pieces!
I needed a distraction from the floor so I made some shelves and hung a cabinet under a workbench downstairs. The cabinet used to be in my sons room. When we decided to get rid of it I knew I needed it for my garage…..that was 4 years ago. Ive been storing the stupid thing ever since and it was really nice to finally put it to work.
I have done some decorating as well and tons of other projects on the bikes and we have done a lot of projects on the rest of the house too. Its been really nice to have this time off and the blessing of not having to worry about money. Today is my birthday and tomorrow is my first day back at work in 6 weeks….I predict a less than fun day.
O dip! I was too right on that last line!
-Tony from the future