Motorman55's Garage...The Beginning

[Motorman55]

Got waylayed on the new office project over the summer. After the intial start of tearing down of the bench in the office, Iife projects got in the way, that is until yesterday.

Worked hard over the last day and a half and managed to get a lot of things boxed up and removed from the room. Emptied the large and small display cases. Also emptied the five stack barrister book case which I removed from the office and restacked them in the former dining room along with a lot of the packed up items from the office. The former dining room acting like a temporary storage space.

Going to miss this space, but have to turn the room into a bedoom for the wife's elderly mother's use. Oh well, a new office project is in the near future.

 

[Motorman55]

Having spent a good deal of time packing up the old office, I spent the last couple weeks moving the garage around to accomodate the new office space. I'm loosing about 1/3 of the motorcycle work shop area, but its no problem as I still have room to work on the bikes when needed. Its tight, but I'll manage.

Today I helped to install the new attic ladder. Finally got it installed. This was holding me up as I needed to measure for and actually see where the drop down ladders swing and unfolds to figure out where to place the dividing wall and door to the new office. I already moved a lot of the equipment/cabinets/tool boxes and of course scrapped a lot of old metal stuff.

Now to pick up some lumber and get to building the wall.

 

[Motorman55]

So far the hardest thing to move in the garage was the big tool cabinet. The cabinet sits on small blocks of wood and was up against the back wall. I needed to move it away from the wall and about 8 feet towards the center of the garage. The new office will be 8' deep by 12' wide. With no wheels to roll it and no desire to remove all the tools either, I broke out the big Mayhew pry bar and leveraged it inch by inch, working one end then the other, until I got it into its current position. Getting it away from the wall took a little thinking, but once I got it far enough away the slow march to its new postion began.

With the big box now in its place and the new attic ladder installed, I can now layout the lines for the new wall and start building it, that is once I get the 2x4's.

 

[Motorman55]

Day before yesterday, I volunteerd the wife to help me move my old red gas station cabinet/oil pump display out into the new office space. It still has its original steel wheels so no rolling it over the oak floor which meant we had to lift and carry it. Its as heavy as it looks. Also cut and installed a new black rubber mat while I had a few minutes. Except for moving it once more to install the flooring, it's pretty much staying where it is.

 

[Motorman55]

WOW!...Five months later and I'm finally getting around to framing out the new office space. Long time overdue.


Weather's been crappy today, so I couldn't move anything outside, leaving me to work in and around a lot of stuff. Still, I managed to get most of the framing done. Actually, I only need to add some supports and its ready for sheet rock and insulation.

The left side of the wall will have a 32" door leading into the new office space. Then a slight offset where it meets the right side that encloses the large tool cabinet, kind of like having a large built in hutch. The wall over the tool cabinet extends up to the 9 foot ceiling to match the left side. There will be a small window in the wall behind the box so I can see out into the shop.

Part of the new layout plan is to create a lot of storage space wherever possible. Looking at the wall from inside the new the space, the wall behind the tool cabinet only extends up 7', leaving a full 2'H x 2'D x 6'L upper storage area over the tool cabinet. This will be more obvious once I install the sheet.


So that's where I'm at right now. More to come.



Hard to get a pic right now, but the drawing will give you an idea of what the wall/divider will look like when its done. I'm losing 1/3rd of the workshop space to the office, but it'll work out.

Here's a couple pics to give you idea of

 

[Motorman55]

Finished all the framing today. Started cleaning up the mess and temporarily putting some stuff up on the storage shelf over the tool cabinet to make some room to work. These pics will give you a better idea of how the work and office space is divided.

Have to decide what type of facing to use over the studs. Not sure if I should go with sheetrock, OSB, or thin paneling.

 

[Motorman55]

Today, I only had time to consolidate some tools and put some motocycle parts up on the large storage shelf. Tomorrow I'll make a run to the dump/recycler and perhaps a quick stop at HF and HD to pick up a few things.

 

[Motorman55]

Yesterday I picked up the sheetrock, insulation and a few more 2x4's plus some sundry at HD for the new office/garage partition wall. Today I'll get started with the sheetrock on one garage side of the wall.

 

[Motorman55]

Made a little progress today on the interior side of the office wall. Installed the fiberglass insulation and sheetrock.

 

[Motorman55]

Got a lot more done on the workshop side of the wall yesterday. The doorway and tool cabinet enclosure area is basically done, just have to add a couple small pieces of sheetrock and cut out the sheetrock covering the window opening behind the tool cabinet.

Also finished enclosing the door entrance on the office side and installed the metal corner strip. Only thing left on the office side is to add the fiberglass insulation and 2' x 6' sheetrock over the shelf section of the wall which means taking down all the stuff I temporarily put up there to make some room to work.

 

[Matias]

Getting along nicely! Will be a nice transformation when finished. That's a good idea to have as much as storage space as possible... there's never enough!