About 8 weeks ago, my girlfriend had asked me to move in with her. She has a garage and I don't, so it was a no brainier. We are planning for a full move in sometime in summer, but I decided to start moving and organizing my tools immediately. Over the years I have acquired a boat load of tools, as well as car parts, so if I was going to do this I was going to do it right...
Here is the garage, I would soon call my own...
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To Start, I needed a bigger tool box to fit all of my tools. I browsed Harbor Freight, Lowes, Home Depot, but everything l liked was $800+. I just didn't feel right spending that much on a tool box. Next stop trusty Craigslist and Facebook marketplace. After couple weeks a Kobalt stainless steel 41" box caught my eye, $260 and couple hours later I finally owned a decent sized tool box, or so I thought. Say hello to my "new" tool box!
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After buying the tool box, I decided a needed to add a work bench. I had a brilliant idea... restaurant style, stainless steel prep table. I was unable to find the desired size, priced reasonably. During the search for the right workbench, I started moving in my tools into new box, and soon it was obvious I have a lot more tools than previously thought, and 41” box was not going to suffice.
This is when I logged on here, as I usually do, for inspiration. "Bald is beautiful" is my favorite build thread, ever. if you haven't read it, I recommend you do, but allow yourself few hours, or a day
. I also noticed, on the home page, 2 part video of desk build, posed by Ryan. This gave me an idea.
Fast forward to April 11th, COVID-19 stay at home/social distancing etc. It’s been about a week of nothing but work and TV, so I decided to dig out my old graphing pad, an hour later I came up with a workbench + tool cabinet expansion design.
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I shared the idea with a local Facebook page, and wouldn't you know one of the members was a cabinet maker. He offered to sell me supplies and hardware at a discount, and even ripped all of the plywood free of charge. April 12th and I am ready to go...
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By the end of following weekend I had the butcher block workbench top finished and cabinets framed up. Unfortunately, butcher block top made of 2x4s was too high and too heavy. I decided not to use it for this project, but it was pretty.
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Now we are 2-2.5 weeks into this project, working on the new bench top...
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... Girlfriend approaches me and says, if you plan on working in on the cars, in the garage, I should probably protect the floor with epoxy or something. Me being a cheap ***, I know I don't want to spend money on expensive plastic tiles, or epoxy and floor prep, or eventually pay someone to do it. What do I do? I turn to The Garage Journal! VCT garage flooring, $0.70 per sq ft? Jason B, with over of decade of worry free usage? I can do it myself, with minimal prep? SOLD.
Once I decided to go with VCT, I started browsing Craigslist and Facebook marketplace. I find a guy that is selling VCT locally for $0.25 sq ft, and he had 3 different colors to chose from. Friday after work I go over, but he only has few boxes of each, and 10-15% have been damaged. I make him an offer and take all of it for $65. He accepts! Friday night I spent doing inventory and assessment, to see how many of each color I had, that were also undamaged.
Saturday I went out and purchased expansion joint filler, glue, glue trowel, and few other supplies. I also cleaned ½ of the garage. That evening I took out the graphing pad once again, and came up with few designs, based on what i had to work with. Here is the peek of the winning design...
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Sunday morning I laid down 1/2 of the pattern, just to make sure it looks as good as it did on my drawing, and proceeded with the install...
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Monday I was off, so I proceeded moving everything back, and rest of the stuff from the other side of the garage. Followed by rest of the install...
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Monday evening floor was done
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later in the week I picked up a project car, and installed the threshold... Both can be seen in this pic...
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Finally this weekend I secured the cabinets to the wall, built and installed front facia on the drawers, and the cabinet doors, finished the workbench top and secured it all together. 95% finished, and it took a whole month l...
<a href="https://imgur.com/kOEEIvq"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/kOEEIvq.jpg"
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Please let me know your thoughts, or if you have any questions about the project.
BTW total project cost was less than $850, excluding the beetle. That is how much I would have spent on a large brand new tool box, with taxes.
Here is the garage, I would soon call my own...
To Start, I needed a bigger tool box to fit all of my tools. I browsed Harbor Freight, Lowes, Home Depot, but everything l liked was $800+. I just didn't feel right spending that much on a tool box. Next stop trusty Craigslist and Facebook marketplace. After couple weeks a Kobalt stainless steel 41" box caught my eye, $260 and couple hours later I finally owned a decent sized tool box, or so I thought. Say hello to my "new" tool box!
After buying the tool box, I decided a needed to add a work bench. I had a brilliant idea... restaurant style, stainless steel prep table. I was unable to find the desired size, priced reasonably. During the search for the right workbench, I started moving in my tools into new box, and soon it was obvious I have a lot more tools than previously thought, and 41” box was not going to suffice.
This is when I logged on here, as I usually do, for inspiration. "Bald is beautiful" is my favorite build thread, ever. if you haven't read it, I recommend you do, but allow yourself few hours, or a day
. I also noticed, on the home page, 2 part video of desk build, posed by Ryan. This gave me an idea. Fast forward to April 11th, COVID-19 stay at home/social distancing etc. It’s been about a week of nothing but work and TV, so I decided to dig out my old graphing pad, an hour later I came up with a workbench + tool cabinet expansion design.
I shared the idea with a local Facebook page, and wouldn't you know one of the members was a cabinet maker. He offered to sell me supplies and hardware at a discount, and even ripped all of the plywood free of charge. April 12th and I am ready to go...
By the end of following weekend I had the butcher block workbench top finished and cabinets framed up. Unfortunately, butcher block top made of 2x4s was too high and too heavy. I decided not to use it for this project, but it was pretty
.
Now we are 2-2.5 weeks into this project, working on the new bench top...
... Girlfriend approaches me and says, if you plan on working in on the cars, in the garage, I should probably protect the floor with epoxy or something. Me being a cheap ***, I know I don't want to spend money on expensive plastic tiles, or epoxy and floor prep, or eventually pay someone to do it. What do I do? I turn to The Garage Journal! VCT garage flooring, $0.70 per sq ft? Jason B, with over of decade of worry free usage? I can do it myself, with minimal prep? SOLD.
Once I decided to go with VCT, I started browsing Craigslist and Facebook marketplace. I find a guy that is selling VCT locally for $0.25 sq ft, and he had 3 different colors to chose from. Friday after work I go over, but he only has few boxes of each, and 10-15% have been damaged. I make him an offer and take all of it for $65. He accepts! Friday night I spent doing inventory and assessment, to see how many of each color I had, that were also undamaged.
Saturday I went out and purchased expansion joint filler, glue, glue trowel, and few other supplies. I also cleaned ½ of the garage. That evening I took out the graphing pad once again, and came up with few designs, based on what i had to work with. Here is the peek of the winning design...
Sunday morning I laid down 1/2 of the pattern, just to make sure it looks as good as it did on my drawing, and proceeded with the install...
Monday I was off, so I proceeded moving everything back, and rest of the stuff from the other side of the garage. Followed by rest of the install...
Monday evening floor was done
later in the week I picked up a project car, and installed the threshold... Both can be seen in this pic...
Finally this weekend I secured the cabinets to the wall, built and installed front facia on the drawers, and the cabinet doors, finished the workbench top and secured it all together. 95% finished, and it took a whole month l
...<a href="https://imgur.com/kOEEIvq"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/kOEEIvq.jpg"
Please let me know your thoughts, or if you have any questions about the project.
BTW total project cost was less than $850, excluding the beetle. That is how much I would have spent on a large brand new tool box, with taxes.
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