After a fairly quick start, the progress on my new workshop has slowed. I had a few days of day job work that kept me from it, and I took a couple days off. I guess I was a little burned out after redoing the roof and getting the drywall on the ceiling (not to mention the new shed). That happens, and rather than fight it, I took the days off and relaxed.
With a break in my work schedule, I started in again by getting the drywall for the walls and finishing the insulation and vapour barrier. I also finished screwing the drywall on the ceiling, using nearly 400 – 2-1/2″ screws. When we put the drywall on the ceiling, I just cut 6″ holes for each light fixture (to get it up faster) and in the picture below you can see the spray foam I used to fill the gap around it:

Originally, I was going to make trim rings from plywood to fit around the fixtures to cover the gaps, but thought I do this instead. It’s faster and all I need to do is give it a couple of coats of joint compound after I trim the foam flush with the ceiling.

It’s a problem to do this kind of work with so much in the way, and nowhere else to put it (other than outdoors), and that’s another reason for the delay in finishing it. It would go so much faster if the shop was empty.

In my last blog entry, I said I would like to start building a new workshop by this time next year. Since then, I’ve reconsidered and I believe it would be best to get my house renovations finished before I start the new shop. I’m not sure how long the renovations will take, but certainly longer than a year. In the meantime, this garage / shop will have to do. It’s a little cramped, but many guys are set up in smaller shops. With some careful organizing and layout of the tools, I think it will be fine. Besides that, I don’t build many bigger projects and don’t need a lot of floor space for assembly.

So, with an extended stay in store, I have been extra careful to insulate the shop as well as I can. The headers over the doors, windows and garage door are set back 1″ (header made from three layers of framing lumber 1-1/2″ thick each and the walls are framed with 2″ x 6″, leaving an inch in the difference) and I’ve used more of the 1″ thick foam to insulate those areas. It may seem insignificant, but every little bit helps.

I finished hanging all of the drywall, and once again had some help from my brother to do the taping. I’ll give that a day to dry then put on one finish coat. The idea is to do the taping without sanding, but still have a fairly smooth finish. It’s good to remember that it is just a garage workshop and not a house. After that second coat dries, it’ll be ready to prime and paint.
Still about a week away from getting it fully finished and functional, but the end is in sight.

In other news, I have started renovations on my house. Due to a lack of time to devote to it, nothing major has been done yet, mostly some planning and exploration to decide the best way to proceed. As mentioned in another blog entry, I will be covering a lot of that work on this site and I will also be doing a lot of video on the renovation. To that end, I have started another YouTube channel especially for those videos. These videos will generally be longer than the ones on my main channel, and be more descriptive. Some would ask: why put them on a new channel? The answer is that many of the subscribers to my main channel are there for the shorter, more tightly edited videos that I do on small projects and probably don’t want to see long, drawn out videos on home renovation. This second channel will be for those that want more detail and are interested in that particular topic.
Ok, so what do I have to offer that is different from the multitude of other home improvement shows, magazine articles and videos? For one, I try to do things as economically as possible, and usually as simply as possible. I also don’t have million dollar sponsors that I have to push products for, so the materials I use and products I choose will be uninfluenced by any deals I have. I’ll use what I think is appropriate and I’ll do things the way I believe they should be done.
For those interested, please subscribe to my new YouTube channel.