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

[nicholam77]

So in thinking of how to incorporate my new vice into the relatively shallow work surface depth of the miter bench, I decided to put the miter fences on perpendicular T-Tracks.

Of course (even though I practiced on some scrap first) the first dado I tried to route into the surface I made it 1/4" too wide. Oops. I guess I will be getting another plywood top for it and trying again.

I did proceed to do a second one just to prove to myself I could do it without screwing up. (The slots need to be 3/4" wide and I only have a 1/4" router bit, so it requires some accurate measuring). Anyways second attempt worked just fine with a nice snug fit for the T-Track.

So... needs to be re-done but here's a little preview:

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There will be 4 T-Tracks in all, two on each side of the saw. This way the fences can be moved forward or back, aligned, or removed to allow room for the vice. Can also use with other little clamping accessories and such. Since I don't have room for a bunch of benches, I'm trying to make this one somewhat multi-purpose.

 

[driftpin]

Your garage has come along well. It looks functional, and you dressed it up, too. The living room and the bath are looking like a tasteful plan was formed, then done. I bet you enjoy the spaces much-more.

About the floor cracks in the garage, while it was all cleared-out, I think I would have done something to address them. A one or two day rental with a demo hammer or an electric jackhammer could have 'V'ed' out those cracks wider, until you had a good stable opening, and then some sort of bonding agent, and concrete to fill the 'V.' I'm not an engineer, I'm not a G.C., but making the cracks wider, making sure you have stable sides, using a bonding agent, and then some type of small aggregate concrete I think would make the floor better. I know you've probably thought of what to do, while it was open and bare, I think you could try your hand. You could always solicit some professional advice, and then just try one area, to see how it comes-out. If you're happy with it, "carry-on, Garth!"

And, here's an example of a female Vice:
say 'hello' to Gina, who was in many living rooms during the 1980's. That's Biscayne Bay over her left shoulder.

 

[nicholam77]

Your garage has come along well. It looks functional, and you dressed it up, too. The living room and the bath are looking like a tasteful plan was formed, then done. I bet you enjoy the spaces much-more.

About the floor cracks in the garage, while it was all cleared-out, I think I would have done something to address them. A one or two day rental with a demo hammer or an electric jackhammer could have 'V'ed' out those cracks wider, until you had a good stable opening, and then some sort of bonding agent, and concrete to fill the 'V.' I'm not an engineer, I'm not a G.C., but making the cracks wider, making sure you have stable sides, using a bonding agent, and then some type of small aggregate concrete I think would make the floor better. I know you've probably thought of what to do, while it was open and bare, I think you could try your hand. You could always solicit some professional advice, and then just try one area, to see how it comes-out. If you're happy with it, "carry-on, Garth!"

And, here's an example of a female Vice:
say 'hello' to Gina, who was in many living rooms during the 1980's. That's Biscayne Bay over her left shoulder.

Thanks. I am happy with how the bathroom turned out. Now gotta figure out the other bathrooms!

I'll probably need to deal with the floor eventually, at least to hopefully keep it from getting even worse. I'm not as concerned with the looks as I know it will never look like a nice brand new floor. To be honest I haven't considered what to do in detail yet. Ran out of time / warm weather this summer and have been focusing on other things.. I'd be more inclined to tackle it if the cracks were smaller and more level, but they are pretty bad. I appreciate the suggestions.

RE: the bench, I went and got a new plywood top at Menards last night. Also picked up a 3/4 inch router bit to be more accurate (was $10 and didn't want to screw up a second top). Went much better. Would have been perfect if I'd had a better fence and clamping system to hold it in place.

T-Tracks have been installed and top was brad-nailed to the bench with 16-gauge brads. Will probably add some screws here and there, and around where the vice will mount. The screws holding the T-Track in go all the way through the plywood and into 2x4 supports underneath, as well.

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Next up will be building the fences I think.

 

[nicholam77]

Used the space to do some work on the car last weekend:

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Definitely can't wait for it to be summer again...

 

[Travy]

Nice work Nick, huge upgrade from when you first moved in. Looking forward to more updates

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[nicholam77]

Nice work Nick, huge upgrade from when you first moved in. Looking forward to more updates

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Thanks!


Here's another updater for ya -- I finished the miter bench fences:

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I don't have a table saw (yet!) so I used a piece of steel tubing and some C-clamps to get more accurate cuts with my circular saw. It worked well enough.

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Construction was pretty simple and just used the same 3/4 plywood as the top of the bench. I brad nailed it together, and put in a few wood screws here and there.

Because I wanted to incorporate my new vice on this bench I had to get creative with the left side fence and the depth of my work surface by making a cutout for the vice:

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I plan to smooth it out with some sanding and maybe even put a metal trim on it. Haven't mounted the vice yet but you get the idea. Maybe not ideal but due to the small space the bench is only 24" deep.

Added Kreg Top Trak to the left fence:

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Need to pick up a stop and measuring tape for it still. Above you can see how the fence works with the T-Tracks, making it both adjustable and removable.

The fences are level with my other bench so I can extend really long pieces like baseboards across both benches if need be. Also the gap between the benches leaves a nice gap for my small compressor and maybe a hose reel in the future:

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Haven't mounted the saw yet or test cut anything but I think it is taking shape:

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Relaxed the rest of the weekend and spent some time modeling for another bathroom update:

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Lastly, got the car washed. Oh how it feels good to get the salt washed off.

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[sdavis622]

Great job on the miter saw bench and Kreg additions. I’ve been watching a ton YouTube videos on miter stations and going to be doing my own real soon!


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[nicholam77]

Great job on the miter saw bench and Kreg additions. I’ve been watching a ton YouTube videos on miter stations and going to be doing my own real soon!


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Thanks!

Still have a ways to go on it. I got one of the Kreg stops in and somehow I made the back of the fences too tall so I have to fix that. And still trying to figure out all the pieces I need to route some shop vac dust collection. Also going to make a drawer or two for it. I feel like trying to incorporate the vice wasn't my best idea so I'm still trying to figure out the best way to mount that, too. I do need to get it finished and usable soon though because my next big house project is going to involve replacing ALL the baseboard, door, and window casings in 3 rooms and a hallway after I have floors refinished on the main floor of the house.

Two main floor bedrooms are currently 1 1/2 inch white oak, but have a dated shiny honey looking finish to them. The connecting hallway and living room are carpeted... but I recently discovered that underneath the carpet was dark stained parquet flooring, and under that is... more 1 1/2 white oak! So I'm ripping it all out and getting it sanded and finished with a natural look.

Removing the parquet is not fun.

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Since I have to rip out the baseboard anyways, I'm taking the opportunity to replace a couple of interior doors and all the trim. Current trim is beat up and traditional Craftsman decorative style. I prefer simpler, cleaner, contemporary. It's going to be a lot of time on the miter saw!

 

[tweidman]

That looks really tedious

 

[nicholam77]

It IS! I thought it would take me 1 or 2 days. So far I've spent over 8 hours on it and not even 1/3 done yet. Each square is 5 strips that have to come off individually and they keep splitting because of the adhesive.

There are machines that take it up quicker, but I need to be somewhat delicate so as to not ruin the flooring underneath. Which I've already done in areas where the adhesive was too strong. Floor guy should be able to replace some boards here and there, though.

I can't WAIT until this part is done, but it will all be worth it.

 

[MNSam]

It's looking good, I really like the miter station. Replacing flooring in a home you live in ***** to have work and live around.

 

[PDACPA]

Garage is looking great and so is the VW. I am a fan of the German cars. I just found your thread and my garage is about the same size (though filled with way more stuff that I keep trying to get rid of and new stuff finds it way back in).

I noticed you have no drywall on the ceiling. Did you take down the ceiling or was it exposed when you purchased? My garage has a drywall ceiling that I was considering taking off to expose the trusses and create some storage. There is an attic access, but it is small and difficult to get things through and with no plywood, I have to balance tubs.

Was curious what your thoughts/plans were for that space as I am looking for ideas for that area that feels unused.

The joists/rafters create some issues, but I am sure I can create some support and remove some and create some storage.

 

[nicholam77]

It's looking good, I really like the miter station. Replacing flooring in a home you live in ***** to have work and live around.

Thanks!

Garage is looking great and so is the VW. I am a fan of the German cars. I just found your thread and my garage is about the same size (though filled with way more stuff that I keep trying to get rid of and new stuff finds it way back in).

I noticed you have no drywall on the ceiling. Did you take down the ceiling or was it exposed when you purchased? My garage has a drywall ceiling that I was considering taking off to expose the trusses and create some storage. There is an attic access, but it is small and difficult to get things through and with no plywood, I have to balance tubs.

Was curious what your thoughts/plans were for that space as I am looking for ideas for that area that feels unused.

The joists/rafters create some issues, but I am sure I can create some support and remove some and create some storage.

Thank you. Nice list of cars you've got there. Super jealous of that Carrera -- an older 911 is one of my dream cars, but sadly out of reach for the foreseeable future. Before the GTI I was strongly looking at used 1 Series as my brother had one for a couple years and I LOVED it, but had a hard time finding one in good shape with a manual transmission. Plus he got a bad egg and put a ton of money into it, so it scared me off a bit and went with the sensible decision with the GTI. It's a great car, and a great daily driver, but someday I'd like to own something a little sportier, unique, and probably older.

Having a small garage is definitely a challenge. Having a storage shed has been a saving grace for me to store yard tools and clutter. I'm trying to keep the garage as clean as I can to be used for it's primary purpose -- parking the cars. But as I'm wanting to do more on the house I keep accumulating tools and needing more storage.

The ceiling of mine was exposed when purchased. In fact, everything was exposed...

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Funny you ask because I actually want to close off the ceiling with some metal paneling or the like for a more finished look. The reason I put in the gable vents is so I could drop the insulation down to ceiling height and close it up. Would retain an access door like you, but I fear the same thing -- that it actually wouldn't be that useable, especially for long items. So, I guess I'm still deciding whether it's more important to me for it to look good and have better light reflection, or to retain the storage space up there.

 

[ILLuSioNz X]

Funny you ask because I actually want to close off the ceiling with some metal paneling or the like for a more finished look. The reason I put in the gable vents is so I could drop the insulation down to ceiling height and close it up. Would retain an access door like you, but I fear the same thing -- that it actually wouldn't be that useable, especially for long items. So, I guess I'm still deciding whether it's more important to me for it to look good and have better light reflection, or to retain the storage space up there.

Attics make a great place to store your stock parts.

 

[nicholam77]

Attics make a great place to store your stock parts.

I thought that's what my parents' garage was for?

The only big thing I've taken off is exhaust, which actually is at their house, haha. But jokes aside, that is a good point! If I do close off the ceiling I'll definitely have to make a plywood platform and make sure there is a way to have a large access opening so I don't completely lose that space.

Another reason I want to close it off is I want to drop the insulation down. Last summer I was getting some condensation up against the roof, and at ceiling height it would be a smaller working space to heat or keep warm.

 

[nicholam77]

Miter Bench Update:


After getting one of the Kreg production stops I found I somehow made the fences too tall. I tried to rip it down with my circular saw without disassembling, and unsurprisingly I measured wrong and cut it too short. This, combined with the fact that I decided putting the vice in the way and having the fence cutout for it was not my best idea, I decided to start over with the fences.

Fortunately I got a table saw recently! A Dewalt DWE7490X jobsite saw. After configuring per the instructions, the rack and pinion fence is dead on and I was able to remake the cuts for the whole miter bench fence in about 15min. So cool.

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It's finally starting to feel more like a workshop.

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Next I added a cutout for a dust trough:

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It's not hooked up yet but wanted it in place before attaching the saw. It's more for backup dust collection anyways, or brushing sawdust into it. I also got Rockler's small dust port and hose system for the actual dust collection output on the saw.

The new table saw fits perfectly on the shelf I made. I am planning on making an open faced drawer for it to slide in and out on:

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As well as a general purpose drawer in the space above:

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I also have plans to make a mobile cart for the table saw and an outfeed table solution in the future.


Living Room Update:

Got all the parquet up after a LOT of hard work. Flooring contractor let me borrow his demo drill, which worked much quicker than doing it by hand, but the adhesive was so strong a lot of the bricks still split or damaged the oak strip flooring underneath in spots.

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More Rockler pick ups, a dust cyclone and respirator:

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And here's the current state of things:

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I calculated the grand total of individual parquet strips removed based on the square footage. 7000. Yes, Seven Thousand. So happy to have that behind me.

 

[GoldCar]

Hey Nicholam77 your garage and house looks great too

 

[sdavis622]

Nice job man, really like the dust port you put into the back of the bench! I've been thinking about a dedicated vac for my miter saw station with an auto on switch. The new Dewalt saw i got shoots stuff everywhere and right now i'm switching the vac between the table and miter saw as i cut but that's becoming a pain. I need to get a respirator also, been looking at the RZ mask for easy on/off.

Nice job fitting the table saw down there, it'll be nice on a slide out drawer! Good work!

 

[papp101]

Nice Job man!

Phil in S. Mpls.

 

[nicholam77]

Hey Nicholam77 your garage and house looks great too

Thank you

Nice job man, really like the dust port you put into the back of the bench! I've been thinking about a dedicated vac for my miter saw station with an auto on switch. The new Dewalt saw i got shoots stuff everywhere and right now i'm switching the vac between the table and miter saw as i cut but that's becoming a pain. I need to get a respirator also, been looking at the RZ mask for easy on/off.

Nice job fitting the table saw down there, it'll be nice on a slide out drawer! Good work!

Thanks! The dust port was pretty cheap, too, only ~$8. Most of the sawdust goes out the port on the saw, but I figured it would be useful for cleaning the bench off from time to time. I'm considering the auto switch, too, just trying to plan the rest of the dust collection plumbing. I know I want to be able to switch to table saw as well, and I've even considering running tubing up to the ceiling with drops for vacuuming out the cars. We'll see.

Nice Job man!

Phil in S. Mpls.

Thanks! Can't wait to be done with winter!

 

[nicholam77]

Have been on vacation out of the country last week so not much new.

While I was gone I had a guy rip out my bathroom wall. Going to be re-doing the bathroom later this summer and wanted to delete a closet to get more space on the interior of the bathroom as well as in the hallway.

BEFORE:

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NOW:

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Needed to rip it out now so the floor guy can patch in the floor.

It will just become a wall and a door. Here is a rough mockup of my plans:

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I'm not 100% on the mirror cabinet and floating shelves. It's not a big space so I know I want it to feel bigger and minimal, but still have some utility. Not sure about lighting yet, either. If anyone has ideas feel free to comment

Also the floor guys are starting on the floor today. Excited to see what it looks like when I get home from work.

 

[CombatNinja]

That is a lot of effort and expense to go through to gain 6 inches to the left of the toilet. That is one of those "Is the juice worth the squeeze?" conversations that I have with myself right before I decide to not do something.

 

[nicholam77]

That is a lot of effort and expense to go through to gain 6 inches to the left of the toilet. That is one of those "Is the juice worth the squeeze?" conversations that I have with myself right before I decide to not do something.

In my case it was worth it because I'm already re-doing the bathroom and the floors. If I was just removing the closet alone I'd probably agree with you. But it was not a big deal for the floor guy to patch in that little area in the context of the rest of the work they are already doing. And the whole bathroom will be gutted in July so it's not much more work for the drywall. Just need to frame up that small wall and door which is not that hard.

It might not look like much in the pics, but I'm gaining 10 inches on the bathroom side and 12 inches on the hallway side. You are right it doesn't really allow for anything useful except making both spaces feel bigger visually, but that's my purpose in doing it. Even a little can go a long way in that department. To give you an idea -- the closet was so close to the toilet before it wasn't the 15 inches away required by code. Made reaching for the toilet paper very awkward if you know what I mean


Floors Update:

Most of it has a first pass of sanding done and they patched in by the bathroom. Quite a few divots from the parquet removal unfortunately. Will have to be repaired with a combination of board replacements and wood filler.

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Living Room:

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Their big sander and 16 grit sandpaper!

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One of the bedrooms:

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The house is a mess right now. Can't wait to get things back to normal.

 

[Finallygotit]

I'm very surprised that the PO covered that hardwood with parquet.

What are your plans for finishing the floor?

 

[nicholam77]

Yeah I'm not sure what the story was with the parquet. I don't think the PO's put it in -- I think they covered it up with the carpet. Although i wouldn't put it past them because they made some other questionable "style" decisions throughout the house. In the hall I found someone had tried to start scraping it up and then changed their minds and put down a plywood spacer and then the carpet.

The floors underneath the parquet had never been finished -- it was just raw wood, so it's possible maybe the parquet was original to the house? It was built in 1941, not sure if that woulda been "trendy" at the time or not. I always thought it was more of a 70s thing.

For finish we are doing Bona IntenseSeal sealer and Bona Mega Waterborne finish. No stain. The IntenseSeal does give it a little bit of color, though. Originally I had wanted an even lighter, more natural looking finish (almost kinda what the boards look like without finish at all), but we did the IntenseSeal upstairs with new flooring so wanted to keep it the same. There is MUCH more variation in this old flooring in terms of light and dark boards. In the living room there's even a bundle of random red oak mixed in with the white oak. So the finish really brings that out and it's a deeper look. In the the end though I actually think it looks really nice and has good "character" as they say, and fitting for an older home.

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Here are some pics of one bedroom with the finish on -- hard to accurately replicate colors in photo but you get the idea. In the first pic it was still wet, second is dry:

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In total they did 53 board replacements to fix all the damage from the parquet removal. And ended up filling a lot of holes and sanding out even more. Ended up being a bit more of a restoration that pure refinishing but I'm glad I was able to save the original floors and I think they will look great.

 

[dubber]

Nice work on those floors. Night and day.

 

[MNSam]

Wow, the flooring looks fantastic. Great choice!

 

[tweidman]

What a transformation. Nice work.

 

[nicholam77]

Nice work on those floors. Night and day.

Thanks dubber!

Wow, the flooring looks fantastic. Great choice!

Thank you. After paint and trim it will feel a lot different!

What a transformation. Nice work.

Thanks -- I'm excited to see it all finished.

 

[nicholam77]

Floors are finished:

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Hard to capture what it looks like on a smartphone camera. Even with the few anomalies I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

I'd like to get back to some garage projects but I have a LOT of work to do to put the house back together.

First up is getting the bathroom wall framed up and door installed. That will be happening early next week. In the meantime I'll try to start patching the walls and picking out trim.

 

[nicholam77]

Had some family events this weekend but got as much done as I could in my spare time.

I went to Home Depot and picked up 176 linear feet of baseboard. I decided to do 1/2 inch by 5 1/2 inch primed MDF.

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They painted up real nice with some semi-gloss.

With all the trim off the living room I am taking the opportunity to run some speaker wire behind the baseboard. I am going to build a cabinet to the right of the fireplace that will eventually house a stereo system, and will be putting two 8 inch rectangular in-wall speakers on the opposite wall.

To do this I had to make a little channel at the bottom of the drywall in places with my Dremel and dry-wall cutting bit.

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Then I tucked the speaker wire under and behind the flooring. Two runs of 14 gauge. I found this super flexible speaker wire on Amazon. Made traversing corners easy. Good stuff.

Also on Amazon I picked up a new FastCap tape measure for $10. I got tired of having to look at the tape 5 times to be sure of my measurement and often made mistakes. I'm also terrible at adding / dividing imperial fractions. This tape has a lot of great features -- it's smallish, you can write on it, built-in pencil sharpener, it has auto-lock but the release is on the front not the bottom, and the belt clip has a handy thumb push that bows it out so you don't struggle sliding it onto your belt. But by far the best feature is the highly readable scale with both imperial and metric scales.

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I already had two tape measures so I didn't really need this, but I figure it's going to save me a lot of time and less chance of messing up.

After running the speaker wire I made the inaugural cuts on the miter station. Wore a respirator since it was MDF, but even so the dust collection system did a pretty good job. Will be even better once I get the bottom port hooked up.

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Concluded Sunday evening with some HBO (Silicon Valley is back!) and one of my favorite beers lately, Able First Light.

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[sdavis622]

Wow great stuff man! Definitely going to get one of those tape measures. I am the same. Check my measurements twice or three times. That one seems awesome. I like the auto locking feature and the belt clip sounds better too.

Look forward to see how your dust port turns out once you hook it up completely.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[nicholam77]

@sdavis Thanks!

In other news I now have a bathroom wall and door:

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Had the door custom ripped to 26" to accommodate future 1-piece toilet we want. Looks like there will be plenty of space.

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I had the bathroom contractor leave sheetrock off the interior for now so I could do some electrical things (moving the bathroom fan switch to where the light switch is in a double gang box for one). Might add another switched outlet for future under cabinet vanity LED lighting.

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[nicholam77]

Small progress here and there. Used the garage to change my wife's oil last weekend. It was freezing!

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Then I started fixing the passage way from living room to hallway. Previously it had casing, but I decided to make it a plain and simple untrimmed passage. I screwed on 1/2 plywood to the frame to space it out because there was a small wood base plate to account for, then 5/8 drywall on top of that.

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Picked up an impact driver awhile ago. It's not that powerful or fancy, but it's super handy to have a drill and driver separate and not be swapping bits.

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Then corner bead.

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Next up will be LOTS of mudding.

I also finished running the speaker wire. Below you can see I don't have a stud finder... I just drill into the wall a million times.

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Final placement will be a stereo pair about 8 1/2 inches down from the ceiling and 30 inches away from the wall ends.

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Hope to get more done this weekend. It's getting tiring living with tools all over the place and all our furniture stuffed in the basement.

 

[nicholam77]

A few updates:

Two weekends ago I put in a new bedroom door to match the bathroom door.

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We ended up painting them white, but I almost wish I didn't -- they looked so good as is.

Have also been steadily chipping away at baseboard and casing. At first I was excited to be using my new saws and bench, but after the 20th board or so it's becoming a bit of a drag. Plus with the saws out in the garage I have to run back and forth to dial in the lengths. Ends up being a good workout. I am happy with the way it's turning out, though.

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This past weekend we got dumped on in the Twin Cities. Happy "Spring" And so much for putting the summer wheels on.

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Well over a foot of snow. Drifts in some areas were ~3 ft. I'm still sore from shoveling.

But with the crappy weather I decided to do some things in the garage. Only 32 degrees out there but at least it was shielded from the wind.

First up I made my first cross cut sled. It turned out okay, and seems to do the job.

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I used my table saw to try and mill some 2x4's flat for the fences:

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Leaving a bevel gap for sawdust on the front fence:

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Here is the finished sled:

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Pretty utilitarian so far but I'd like to add a safety block where the blade comes out, coat it with some poly, and perhaps add a t-track and stop block system.

Next project was my first ever drawer. I wanted to make a slide out drawer to house the table saw under my miter bench. Previously it was just on a shelf but weighing ~50 lbs it hurt my back to slide in and out carefully. So an extension drawer makes it easier.

I built it out of 3/4 ply for the bottom and sides, and 1/2 ply for the front and back. I dado'd / slotted the front and sides for the bottom shelf to slide into. The sides and front are held together with pocket screws, and the bottom is screwed into the back from underneath with countersunk wood screws. It was also my first time doing pocket hole joinery, and cutting dados on the table saw.

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Everything actually worked really well and it seems really strong.

Got some full extension 1" overtravel 100 lb drawer slides from Amazon and mounted it up:

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And a short video:

It definitely makes it easier to access. Now I gotta make some more drawers for above it and the other side. I also want to get some false fronts on there and trim out the bench so it looks a little nicer sometime.

 

[nicholam77]

The weather did a 180 this weekend (sunny and 60 F!) so I was able to get a lot done.

Mudding... sanding... mudding... sanding... this has been my life lately. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

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The dust cyclone has been amazing sucking up all that drywall dust. Still gets in the vac filter a bit but at least 90% of it goes in the bucket.

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I didn't take as many pics because it's just more of the same, but this weekend I trimmed out two doors, finished the living room passage way, and put down a good handful of baseboard sections. The living room is basically finished and I was able to move all the furniture back into place.

I've run into one area where the floor has a lot of curvature, so I'm trying to figure out how to deal with that.

Had to make a Menards run at some point and picked this up:

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It was just too tempting. Haven't used it yet but looking forward to it.

Lastly I was able to swap over to my summer setup.

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Now the car needs a good wash and detail.

Still a LOT to do with the house, but any progress feels good.

 

[Deezler]

OOh, I like those BBS wheels. Please stop subjecting the GTI to woodworking dust though, lol.

I'm going to copy some of your table saw sled and miter saw setup ideas once I finally get my pole barn interior build-out together. Thanks for sharing!

 

[nicholam77]

OOh, I like those BBS wheels. Please stop subjecting the GTI to woodworking dust though, lol.

I'm going to copy some of your table saw sled and miter saw setup ideas once I finally get my pole barn interior build-out together. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks!

I do move the car outside most of the time but I don't have a private driveway (it's a shared alley space) so I have to put the cars in the front on the street when doing garage work. I don't always like my car out on the street if it's dark (I worried about it getting hit) or if the weather is crappy. But I'll probably be more diligent this summer when I can keep it clean on a regular basis.

In other news I borrowed this small plane from my dad to take some material off the baseboards in a few areas to scribe to the uneven floor in a sense.

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I'd never used a plane before but it did the trick nicely. Thought I would share because most of the tools I own are new, which I enjoy because they typically work really well, but I always enjoy borrowing some older stuff from my dad. I'm guessing this he probably inherited from his dad. It seems pretty old, and the only marking on it is "Made in USA". I also like the color. Anyways, kinda fun using something with battle scars and a history to it, and shows you don't need the latest and greatest to achieve a task.

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[fourmotioneer]

Nice thread here. Garage is coming along nicely. I bought a similar home in the Detroit area 4 years ago and this has been good motivation to get back into some home projects (spent all winter rebuilding my Alfa Romeo's V6 engine...).

Do you have a tile selected for the bathroom? I am planning a veeeery similar remodel for mine. Almost all Detroit small ranch home bathrooms look like that.

 

[nicholam77]

Thanks!

Sorry to hear you also live in a bitterly cold winter state

Wow, I checked out your blog a bit and you certainly have had some exceptionally cool cars! I'm jealous of your skills... I'm no mechanic but I've always wanted to have a project car, something older. My dad had some interesting cars when he was a young man (Audi Coupe quattro, 944, Triumph TR6 he imported from England, etc). I grew up around the Audi, and I always loved it. It was the last manual transmission car my parents bought and it's what made me knew I only wanted to drive manual transmission cars.

I don't know if I've settled on exact products yet but the bathroom floor tile will be a dark slate in larger squares, something like this:

https://www.allmodern.com/bath/pdp/montauk-16-x-16-slate-field-tile-in-black-mvp1038.html

Then the shower footprint will be tiled tub-to-ceiling with white 3x6 subway tile with darker grout, like this:

https://www.tileshop.com/product/imperial-bianco-gloss-ceramic-subway-tile-3x6in.do

The rest of the walls will just by drywalled and painted white. With baseboard.

I've found it challenging to design a 5x7 bathroom. Can't move the toilet. I wanted to nix the tub and just do a shower, but it's our only bathroom with a bathtub so we didn't want to get rid of it. Not a lot of options to switch things up. But going with a glass pane instead of a shower curtain should help make it feel visually larger. I'm also not a fan of pedestal sinks, so I'm going to be building a cabinet to size. This way I can work around the plumbing and customize the storage a bit. My latest design actually has another smaller cabinet box to the right of the toilet where the old closet footprint was. I'm planning on bridging the two with a glass shelf like this:

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That should give a bit more space to set things.

I also decided to put some 4" recessed lights in the ceiling and just use a single sconce for task lighting to fit a larger mirror.