Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT Nick's Two-Car Detached Vdub Garage

[Welshie]

Whats the program you use to draw that?

 

[nicholam77]

Whats the program you use to draw that?

Google Sketchup.

https://www.sketchup.com/

There's a free version, either via a downloadable app or browser-based. Plenty of tutorials on YouTube, etc. For a 3D program, it's actually pretty easy to get started.

 

[nicholam77]

Got the speakers in. Just some cheap 8" in-walls from Amazon. They sound pretty decent actually but I might have to add a subwoofer later. I don't think they look too intrusive and should suit my purposes for now as I love to have music playing in the house especially on weekends.

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And with that the living room is basically finished. Have a rug on order.

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With nice weather FINALLY, I chopped down some small trees and buckthorn behind my garage that was out of control:

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[nicholam77]

Still no time for work on the garage. The projects keep mounting up. But I did use the table saw to make some door stops. Cut some oak 1x2's to size to replace on an existing door frame. Then rounded over the edges with orbital sander.

Got this little guy in from Amazon yesterday (I love it when the Amazon truck comes!):

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It's the Greenworks GPW1501 electric pressure washer. Specs are 1.2 GPM and 1500 PSI.

Not a beast by any means but being the only pressure washer I've ever used, I was pleasantly surprised with the power. I think it should suit my needs for cleaning the patio, walkways, siding, and doing car washes. I have a foam cannon on order

I like it because it's small and should be easy to find a spot for it in the shed.

Here are a few initial tests, without detergent, just water:

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Not perfect but certainly better than a hose would do. I'm hoping with some concrete detergent/degreaser it will do even better. It also worked well on the vinyl siding. If it foams up nice for the cars I'll be very pleased.

There is something VERY satisfying about watching the dirt get instantly stripped away.

 

[BC1]

That tree needs a treehouse; er beer drinking view platform

 

[greyghost18t]

Very Nice.. I just picked up a SunJoe so i can powerwash the deck before i paint it.. oh and some Chemical Guys products just in case.. ha

 

[nicholam77]

That tree needs a treehouse; er beer drinking view platform

Totally!

It's a monster Silver Maple. Had it checked out last fall and they said it was in good health. But something like 60+ years old. Maybe even older. They can live a long time, but since it's getting pretty old and is so huge I think there is more risk of limbs breaking in a windstorm. It scares me because there are big limbs that go over our roofline. Was quoted ~$8k from one company to remove it entirely. I like the way it looks and it's home to lots of birds and animals but as time goes on I feel like it's a disaster waiting to happen.

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Plus if we stay here long term (which is the plan at this point), removing it would open up a possibility for something like a 3-season porch off the kitchen in the back with a walk-out deck on top.

All of this reminds me... "Whirly Bird" season will soon be upon us...

Very Nice.. I just picked up a SunJoe so i can powerwash the deck before i paint it.. oh and some Chemical Guys products just in case.. ha

Thanks! It's fun to use! Yeah I can't wait to try it out on the cars with some snow foam.

 

[Finallygotit]

I look at all of those beautiful branches but then my mind starts to wonder about the root structure and where do those go?

 

[nicholam77]

I look at all of those beautiful branches but then my mind starts to wonder about the root structure and where do those go?

I've thought about that too... they must go everywhere

 

[nicholam77]

Tool Update:

I picked up this little machinist / engineer's square from Amazon. Supposedly checked for square within .0005 inch from the factory. I have no ability to verify that but it came with a little dated certificate of inspection. Got it to help square up saw blades and check the squareness of cuts. My crosscut sled seems to be a little off so I may redo it or fix it.

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Project Update:

Getting the front sidewalk replaced! It's been a long time coming! We knew it would need to be replaced sooner than later when we bought the house, but have been putting it off to accomplish many other projects. Now it's time.

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Not only could someone trip or slip but shovels would always catch on the cracks when clearing snow which was super frustrating.

I've never had concrete work done before so that's kind of fun. Checked in on my front door security cam from work to see how it's going:

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[nicholam77]

Front walk getting the finishing touches:

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Still have a lot of house projects going on, but two garage projects I want to get done this summer are:

1. Build a table saw cart

2. Build a router table that fits onto that cart

I started drawing up the cart in Sketchup based on an idea I saw on Wood Magazine's website:

https://www.woodmagazine.com/projec...vert-tablesawrouter-station-downloadable-plan

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I modified it to fit my Dewalt. I also added a vacuum port and made the outfeed table longer with adjustable legs and miter slots. I think having more outfeed length will be valuable and the adjustable legs should be sturdier and work well on my cracked and uneven floor.

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My idea for the router table is to make a Jay Bates style lever router lift fastened under a table top that will both fit over the top of the folded table saw cart AND have a french cleat system to hang on a wall.

This way the router "table" can live in the table saw cart for compact storage (I'll still keep the table saw in the miter bench drawer), and I can use it free standing in the middle of the garage this way. But if I need to switch back and forth between the table saw and router I can set up the table saw in the cart and hang the router station on a wall. I think a french cleat system should be sturdy enough but I'll have to play with the design. Then I'll just have one cart to find a place for.

Open to suggestions or criticism on this plan. I'd like to get into woodworking more and find a place for a small drill press and band saw, too. But it's getting challenging finding places for stationary tools in my limited space.

 

[cash68]

Leaf the tree alone. Get it trimmed occasionally though.

 

[feisti11]

Put cables between the limbs?

 

[UN4GTBL]

Nice work!

 

[nicholam77]

Put cables between the limbs?

Yeah, that might be an option.

Nice work!

Thanks!

Had a fairly productive Mother's Day weekend in between family time.

First, here's a proper pic of the finished sidewalk. It looks so much better. Now I just need to get rid of that front door (should be happening this summer). Also have new lights waiting to be installed.

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Excuse the grass -- things are still greening up for us in MN and it seems Spring was completely skipped this year.

Saturday I made a "bunny fence" for our vegetable garden box. There are a million rabbits in our neighborhood and last year they ruined the plants so it's been on my to-do list for awhile.

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Used my table saw yet again to rip the frames. This is my makeshift outfeed table set up, two doors and some jack stands

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Pocket-hole'd the frames. I really like this Kreg Mini jig. It makes building so easy and fun.

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Then I made an effort to clean up all the wood and off cuts I had piled on my workbench. In the process I used a couple of pieces of plywood and the Kreg jig to make a quick hood for my miter station. It's removable so I can more easily vacuum in there if necessary, and should cut down on the sawdust spreading quite a bit. Although I have yet to test it.

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[Uber M3]

All I can say is thanks a lot... Now I have even more projects I want to complete. That bathroom you did was beautiful. You have some skills... My wife was looking over my shoulder and now I have to put in a rasied veg garden. Like I said, THANKS!

 

[nicholam77]

Ha, you're welcome

And thanks for the compliments

 

[nicholam77]

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Time for another little update. Life and work have been busy, but...

I did some work in the garage installing a stainless steel clutch line on the VW.

Got some more work done on the house. Mudding, sanding, etc. I've finished 95% of the baseboard at this point.

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Installed some schoolhouse lights in the bedrooms to match the hallway.

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Patching of the ceiling here and there. Planning on getting all new smoke / CO detectors for the main level that are Z-Wave connected and tied into SmartThings.

Then spent some time in the garage making another drawer for my workbench.

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I cannot stress how much I love my table saw and pocket hole jig. I also found I can use the lip on my miter fence as a quick clamping area:

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As you can see the finished drawer holds a decent amount of stuff. Not sure exactly what I'll put it in yet, probably measuring and marking tools for one. At least I finally have a place to put my framing squares!

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Unfortunately the install did not go well. It shuts, but not smoothly (some binding on the drawer slides). Frustrating, but will have to correct it somehow.

Lastly, I added some oak edge banding to my miter bench. I cut grooves to match where the T-tracks are to retain front access for bolts.

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One of these days I'll have to sand a bit and put on some wipe on poly.

Wishing everyone a productive and/or relaxing Memorial Day weekend if you're in the U.S.

 

[Deezler]

Nice work, as usual.

Un-constructive advice, since you already finished the drawers... but if you had made the front panel go the full width, you could have pocket-screwed them from the sides and not have those visible kreg holes on the front.

 

[nicholam77]

Nice work, as usual.

Un-constructive advice, since you already finished the drawers... but if you had made the front panel go the full width, you could have pocket-screwed them from the sides and not have those visible kreg holes on the front.

Thank you. I'm actually going to put some false fronts and handles on the drawers eventually so the screws won't be visible.

I might make one more upper drawer on the right side above the vacuum, too, so I'm just waiting until I have all the pieces in place since I'm sort of winging this as I go.

 

[nicholam77]

Didn't get anything accomplished over Memorial day weekend. But that was the plan. Sometimes it's nice to have a break from the rat race. Spent the weekend up in Duluth, Minnesota, and tried to enjoy nature a bit. Don't always get to living in the city.

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Got back Monday afternoon. It was a HOT one this weekend!

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Other than that just been planning and ordering stuff for the upcoming bathroom remodel.

 

[nicholam77]

Nice work, as usual.

Un-constructive advice, since you already finished the drawers... but if you had made the front panel go the full width, you could have pocket-screwed them from the sides and not have those visible kreg holes on the front.

Well, you ended up being right about the drawers, haha. I spent ~4 hours getting the top one's drawer's slides aligned. Even took the drawer apart, ripped it down, and put it back together. What a pain. Anyways long story short they aren't straight enough or recessed enough to do the false fronts like I was intending, and I refuse to take the drawer slides off again after they finally both work properly. I think I'm just going to glue some thin, quality plywood veneer to the fronts to cover up the pocket holes.

Weekend re-cap:

Cleaned up the GTI for the first Cars & Coffee I've been able to attend this season. Can confirm pressure washer + foam cannon works great.

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Then I set out to make a new cross-cut sled. My other one worked just fine for building the workbench drawers, but it's not perfectly square (thought of correcting the fence, but I think the runners are also too loose). It's also a little bigger than I think I need. So my plan was to make one that will fit on the table saw in it's drawer for storage, and one that is perfectly square.

To do this I picked up some new tools for when I'll adjust the fence:

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I also took some measurements of the table saw's miter slots with the caliper and was a little disappointed to find they are not perfectly equidistant widths throughout.

Either way I was able to make new runners (oak this time) with the grain going vertically and a tighter fit. I also decided to screw them in from the top vs. glue with weights. I think this worked better.

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Then I attempted to laminate three strips of 1/2" plywood together for a fence. It worked okay but the resulting glue-up is not 100% flat. I don't have a thickness planer and plus it's plywood. Maybe I didn't use enough clamps? Or needed to clamp it down to a flat surface? I don't have much experience doing this so if anyone has any tips...

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Overall pic of the shop:

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I'm still getting the hang of building stuff but so far it's turning out to be a usable space despite it's small size.

Moving onto the house, progress continues. I'm almost there. I've really slowed down lately as I worked so hard on it for weeks on end and got burnt out.

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Last thing on the agenda, I installed some exterior entry lights I've had sitting in boxes for a couple months. I've always hated the ones that came with the house. The previous owner's had one leftover strip of vinyl for the house siding, so I used that to install new accessory boxes for the lights and delete the old address (will be replacing). Going to delete the mail slot as well.

Old lights for reference:

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Some quick surgery (I'm a pro now after doing the garage!):

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Finished look:

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New door forthcoming... one that isn't purple

 

[nicholam77]

Was able to sneak in a *little* garage time this weekend. Continued on my new-and-improved crosscut sled.

I tried making the fences out of 3/4 MDF this time, laminating two together and hoping they would glue up flatter than the plywood. I also got some more clamps to help with this and used two straight objects (a level and a block of wood) to clamp the MDF between. I figured this might be better than just putting the clamps alone. It seemed to work well.

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The great part of the new sled is I made it smaller and off center so it will fit on top of the table saw when it's in it's storage drawer. This way the two are always together and I don't have to use precious wall space to hang it somewhere.

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I still need to put the other fence on, square it up, and trim the runners, but that will be a project for a different day.

On a house related note the new front lights I got don't have photocells, so I needed a way to control them automatically. I thought about going Z-Wave since I have a SmartThings network, but didn't ever want to worry about reliability so I found this cool Honeywell switch that uses solar tables to turn the lights on at sunset and off at sunrise (with an offset if you so choose). You just enter your latitude and longitude and it does the rest, and even compensates for Daylight Saving Time. It can also handle custom programs for times you set, do a random mode, and do different programs on different days. I don't need all that functionality but it's pretty versatile if anyone has the need.

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And, bathroom tub showed up:

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I pretty much have all the pieces now for our main floor bath remodel (gut job). I've been stockpiling them in one of the bedrooms.

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In the next month we'll be getting a new front door, and the bathroom reno will begin (which I will be building some vanity cabinets for), so stay tuned!

Lastly, I don't think I've ever done a progress pic, but thought it would be interesting to look back on the dump of a garage I started with. Still a lot of things I want to do and it's not perfect, but I'm happy with where it's headed.

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[old-air-performance]

great thread, great work and great pictures.
Whats not to like?

subscribed!

 

[dare23]

Hey I have that Honeywell switch and a GTI! Great job on your garage and house! Cheers.

 

[cash68]

Wow, how long have you lived here? That is a **** ton of progress.

 

[nicholam77]

great thread, great work and great pictures.
Whats not to like?

subscribed!

Thank you for the kind words! I've subscribed to your thread as well -- surprised I hadn't seen it yet but you have a very nice space and I love the bug and bikes.

Hey I have that Honeywell switch and a GTI! Great job on your garage and house! Cheers.

Cheers to good taste in cars and light switches haha. And thank you.

Wow, how long have you lived here? That is a **** ton of progress.

A little over 2 years

Sometimes it doesn't feel like a ton of progress, but looking back, I guess it is. There's just so much more I want to do...

The upside to wanting to change everything is you get to change everything. It's my first home and at the time of purchasing it I was just so excited to have my own place I overlooked a lot of things. I don't think I knew at the time how important it was to me to have things a certain way. But looking back, even a nice new house probably wouldn't have satisfied me in the long run. Being able to personalize and choose your own style beyond painting the walls is a fun experience, and I've learned a lot. Stay tuned as I have a lot more planned for both the house and garage as money and time permits.

Btw as you can see earlier in my thread I dug a small trench to help with drainage. Small, but still full of rocks and roots. Let me just say I do not envy the trench you've been digging.

I have been and will continue to be following your thread as I love MCM and am looking forward to see what you do with garage #2 and your other projects.

 

[dubber]

Hahaha, love the comparison shot from the change captured between a single bulb to an operating room. My kinda space for sure!

 

[nicholam77]

Hahaha, love the comparison shot from the change captured between a single bulb to an operating room. My kinda space for sure!

Haha, thanks Dubber. Yeah, the lighting makes a big difference. I actually just got 4 more LED banks from Costco for the rear half of the space. Once I get those up it should be bright enough throughout to detail a car with the door closed.

You're garages were a big inspiration for me. Trying to keep it clean and organized despite the small size.

 

[nicholam77]

Added 4 more Costco LED lights to the rear half of the garage on Sunday.

4000 lumens each

Now the whole space is nice and bright as the sun, even with the door closed.

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Since they will be covered when the garage door is up, I wanted to be able to turn them on independently from the front four. So I added a switch in the ceiling (with 8 foot ceilings it's an easy enough reach for someone who's 6"1' like me).

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I tried those blue plastic boxes for the first time and I have to say I didn't like them that much. For some reason the screws that came with the outlets/switch did NOT want to go in and the punch outs were super hard to punch out.

That's it for now...

 

[nicholam77]

Spent a little time last night finishing my small crosscut sled.

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When I was squaring up the fence I noticed the rip fence on my table saw was not totally square to the saw blade. I adjusted it and then made a rip cut, setting the fence to 3" on the dewalt rip fence scale (yellow):

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Then I measured the resulting board width at the front end and back end of the board.

Front end:

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Pretty much 3" dead on. I could hardly believe it.

Back end:

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3.001"

1/1000th of an inch is definitely within the margin of error of my caliper, so I was pretty pleased with that.

I then took that same piece and put the edge that had been just ripped up against the fence of my new crosscut sled and made a perpendicular cross cut. If the crosscut sled fence is squared to the table saw blade the two edges I just cut should be square to one another.

Looks pretty good with my little 3x2 machinist square held against the shop light:

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Now this is just 1/4" ply so it's not perfectly accurate but I decided I'd proceed with the "5 cut method" anyways. I continued rotating the board and cutting each side until 5 cuts had been made, making sure the last cut was along the long side of the board.

Then I measured the width of both ends again. Don't have pics but the results were:

Front end: 2.220 inches

Back end: 2.222 inches

It was a little tricky to get completely repeatable results with the caliper, and I feel like the same test with MDF or a hardwood would be even more telling, but that seemed to be the most consistent result.

The piece was 16" long so that means after 5 cuts my margin of error over 16 inches is only ~2/1000ths of an inch.

I was shooting for 1/1000th off but hey that's pretty damn good so I'm not gonna touch the fence again.

The reason I am bothering with all this is two-fold. Firstly I am going to be making some bathroom vanity cabinets out of maple pretty soon and I don't trust my miter saw AT ALL so I wanted to be able to get really accurate and precise cuts on the table saw. Secondly, I have some picture frames to make so I am hoping to either make a miter attachment for the sled I just dialed in, or use my experience to make a dedicated miter sled.

 

[nicholam77]

Another pic heavy update from July 4th break. I had 5 days off of work so I got a few things done!

Fortunately I fit in some relaxation too.

Kayaking with the wife in Cannon Falls, MN.

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Crappy pic but saw about 5 bald eagles including some fledglings. Fitting for the 4th.

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Did a lot of grilling. Including pizzas.

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Went to Cars + Coffee. Highlighting some of my childhood favorites: Ferrari 360 Modena with factory BBS CK's, Dodge Viper, and E30 M3.

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If those headlight wipers aren't German over-engineering I don't know what is.

On to the important stuff.

Front Door:

The house progress continues. We had the front door to our house replaced over the weekend by a handy man. Didn't feel like doing it myself. But I did paint it, and trim it out.

Hideous old door for comparison:

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The new one is steel so surface prep was key along with the right roller.

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I was worried anything but a spray gun would look bad, but it turned out fantastically smooth.

Also when I got the door from Menards the stock guy accidentally crushed the corner when lifting it upright. I didn't want to return the door and wait for a new one so I just glued it.

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Once installed there was a gap between the brick mould and our vinyl siding so I got some of those PVC wood grain "boards" I used for the exterior garage light mounting plates and ran them through the table saw and miter saw to trim out the outside:

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Still needs caulk and paint but here is the final look:

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Of course the inside needed new casing:

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As with every task it seems it's never a simple plug and play. The new door was just a hair wider so I had to cut back the baseboards by 1/4 inch each. Scored them with a Dremel cutting wheel and then hit them with a chisel. Worked okay. Didn't take a completed pic, but I'm sure everyone's seen a door before

Garage / Shop:

I got a router! Dewalt 618.

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And it's first task of course is a router table! After evaluating a number of pre-made options I decided to make my own. It's going to fold down from the wall so it's semi-permanent but also space-saving. Got the plans from a Rockler article:

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I glued two MDF sheets together for the core, and flushed them up with the new router:

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Nice and square.

Then I cut oak sides to rough length:

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The laser makes easy work of rough dimensions.

Then I doubled them up and glued together:

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I only have enough clamps to do one glue-up at a time so doing all 4 sides took most of a day.

I laid them out and made markings based on how they lined up vs. straight measurements.

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Then cut to final length in the crosscut sled. It was very precise.

The instructions said to attach the sides to the core with biscuits. I don't have a plate joiner so I got a cheap doweling jig instead. It sorta did the job, but I did not like it at all. I won't be using it again for anything nice because it's almost impossible to hold steady and drill at the same time, and difficult to clamp. Would not recommend.

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During glue up I realized the pipe clamps I borrowed from my dad were a few inches too short to clamp the long side!! Should have dry fit them first. Oh well, learning things all the time.

I'll be using Rockler's plate so to cut the middle out I drilled 4 holes with a Forstner bit and then a jig saw.

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Template with 1/4 plywood and double-sided tape:

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Again used the new router and flush trim bit to route out the rest of the hole for the plate:

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It's a pretty close fit. The corners aren't perfect like they would be if I bought Rockler's pre-made template for $10 but it's good enough.

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Another thing I skipped was proper leveling screws. I liked the idea of the Kreg plate levelers but for $20 figured I could just make my own out of plywood:

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So yeah, there's the finished product at this point:

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Next will be sanding the oak flush, giving the edges a round over, and then building the plywood cabinet and MDF fence.

More to share soon...

 

[nicholam77]

Main floor bathroom remodel has officially started. It was hard to say goodbye to all this beautiful (hideous) tile but it had to be done.

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[nicholam77]

Hope everyone doesn't mind the continued focus on the house. It's kind of the main thing I'm working on right now.

Bathroom update:

The first thing they installed was the tub:

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I'm happy with the height and the way it looks.

With that in place and the walls off I spent Saturday morning making a dimensionally accurate cardboard model of the main cabinet I will build:

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I set the toilet in place for a rough layout and to make sure the plumbing would fit with my design.

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Much more clearance on the door than the old toilet:

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I told my contractor not to get an electrician and that I would do the electrical to save some money. So I did that this weekend amongst other things. It turned out to be more work than I thought it would, as usual, so I pretty much spent my whole weekend on it.

As you can see in the previous post the original setup was one outlet, placed way too high, and an above-mirror tryptic builder's light thingy. Don't care for those at all. I think lighting of any space is very important but especially in bathrooms. You want to look good in a mirror and to me the appropriate way to do that is with a sconce (or sconces) slightly above face level. The outlet was also switched, for who knows what reason.

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So... I busted open the boxes for the outlet and switch and found some old-ish wiring and more of it that I was expecting:

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After determining what was what and went to where, I re-did the switch box and made some new romex 14-2 runs. The original switch got a new run up to the ceiling for some recessed lights, and then I added a second switch (made it a double-gang box) with a run over to the vanity for some future under cabinet LED lighting.

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Then I cut holes in the ceiling for the new 4" recessed cans, and ran wire to them:

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I'm a big fan of this "quick connect" plugs over wire nuts. Easy to use and don't come undone.

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Then I swapped the outlet box for a light box, moved it up and centered between the stud cavity next to what will be the medicine cabinet/mirror:

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It's now slightly above face level for the single offset sconce I will use.

Below that I put a new GFCI outlet closer to hand level and cabinet height. It is now always powered and not tied to the lights being on.

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Above you can also see I added blocking for my floating cabinet to attach to and also (not pictured) framed out the recess for the medicine cabinet mirror.

Fired up here is the overall effect:

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The middle recessed light is centered over what will be the mirror, the left centered over the shower column, and the right the same amount in the other direction.

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They are LED, but 2700k temp so look normal at night. And 650 lumens each so not overly bright. I will throw the whole lighting circuit on a Z-Wave dimmer eventually to control the light level even better.

Here's how it sat at the end of the weekend:

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[Welshie]

Nick, what colors did you use for the walls? Just finished priming my garage and want to go with a similar two tone look, except I'll have a red stripe.

 

[nicholam77]

Nick, what colors did you use for the walls? Just finished priming my garage and want to go with a similar two tone look, except I'll have a red stripe.

They were all Benjamin Moore interior paints in an eggshell finish. I thought semi-gloss would be overkill and matte too hard to clean, but the eggshell is a nice in-between that makes wiping marks off a little easier without looking shiny.

These are the colors I used:

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The white is just their standard white like one might do for plain interior walls (this is the same white you see throughout my house quite a bit). I thought about doing a very light gray on the top half to hide dirt and marks more, but I'm glad I did white because of the light reflection.

I will say that the bottom gray I chose is definitely a blueish gray, so if you're going with a red stripe that may or may not be a good match. Personally, I really like it.

Hope that helps,

-Nick

 

[sawduststeve]

I look at all of those beautiful branches but then my mind starts to wonder about the root structure and where do those go?

IIRC, a trees roots spread the same distances as it’s canopy
Some lovely work you’re done, buddy.
Regards
Steve

 

[Welshie]

They were all Benjamin Moore interior paints in an eggshell finish. I thought semi-gloss would be overkill and matte too hard to clean, but the eggshell is a nice in-between that makes wiping marks off a little easier without looking shiny.

These are the colors I used:

View media item 85187
View media item 85188
View media item 85189
The white is just their standard white like one might do for plain interior walls (this is the same white you see throughout my house quite a bit). I thought about doing a very light gray on the top half to hide dirt and marks more, but I'm glad I did white because of the light reflection.

I will say that the bottom gray I chose is definitely a blueish gray, so if you're going with a red stripe that may or may not be a good match. Personally, I really like it.

Hope that helps,

-Nick

Thank you. Yes I intend to go with a lighter gray, probably a lunar colour like Dubbers Double has. I like the aspect of a white upper half for better light reflection though, and if I don't like it I can always repaint it, thanks again!

 

[nicholam77]

IIRC, a trees roots spread the same distances as it’s canopy
Some lovely work you’re done, buddy.
Regards
Steve

Thanks for the kind words and thanks for checking it out.

Thank you. Yes I intend to go with a lighter gray, probably a lunar colour like Dubbers Double has. I like the aspect of a white upper half for better light reflection though, and if I don't like it I can always repaint it, thanks again!

No problem, sounds like a good plan!



In an effort to keep this thread somewhat garage related, here is a pic of an oil change I did on my wife's CX-5 the other night:

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I've done all the oil changes on both of our cars since new, over the past 2+ years. In fact I've never taken them in for paid maintenance at all. Only some recall and warranty work. That may change down the line... but I like knowing care is being given to a proper job and keeping maintenance costs to a minimum. Plus, this way they don't adjust my driver's seat and run it through the car wash when I tell them 20 times not to

With that out of the way, back to the bathroom.

We have drywall:

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And plumbing:

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I told the plumber exactly where to put everything and it looks like he did a great job. I did the shower head nice and high as I am 6'1" and one of my big shower pet peeves is too low a shower head.

Then the taper came and finished out the drywall, another job I was thankful to have a professional for.

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There were some annoyances, mostly with the hanging of the drywall, like they cut it too wide around a few of the electrical boxes. Then the taper taped and mudded them in but on one box he trapped my switches inside.

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Now I have to cut out holes (destroy) his work so the switches can sit on the wall surface correctly spaced for a cover plate.

And that's sometimes the downside to getting professional help. Fairly confident this little mistake amongst others would not have happened if I had hung the drywall.

Last night I framed out a recess for the shampoo bottle niches. There was a stud in the way, as well as some conduit going to an outlet on the other side of the wall which is a bedroom. I had to move the outlet over, so I could have enough slack in the conduit to move it over to the side more.

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I framed them tight vertically, but didn't put it horizontal bracing in the middle yet so the tiler can determine exactly where each niche should go (spaced evenly with the course of tile).

View media item 85241
More to come.

 

[Welshie]

Blue stripe in progress:

View media item 74795

Can I have more details on the thickness and height of the stripe too?

** Scratch that, started painting mine this morning and made the stripe just under 4ft from the floor, with the stripe itself being 4 inches wide, thanks.