CO Workshop Update #4 - Another Brick in the Wall

OK, so there were no bricks, no dark sarcasm in the workshop...just a lot of OSB and insulation.

Well, despite passing a cold around the house for the past couple of weeks I was able to take some time over the last two weekends to get down into the shop and work on the lower wall between the basement and the family room.  It’s a half wall above the access to the crawl space, and the only separation between the new shop and the family room is some framing and drywall.  Translation…you can hear everything happening in the basement, so I’m guessing that running the table saw during a riveting episode of Iron Man or Poke’mon will not be appreciated very much.

Last weekend I trekked my way over to Home Depot to pick up a couple extra sheets of OSB and some 2X4s.  I had them rip the sheets down to 39” wide, the height of the short wall.  You can see that there was some creative wiring done where the cable was brought into the house.  This required me to “build out” the framing of the wall.

First up was prepping all the 2X4 material.  A quick session with the chop saw gave me all the framing and blocks I needed, then it was over to the drill press to tap some countersunk holes into the mounting blocks.

While I do miss all the great friends we made during our short stay in Minnesota, there is no way I could have set up the chop saw outside in January!  I could get used to these 50-60 degree days in the “dead of winter.”

I used the blocks to extend the existing framing of the wall.

 

This allowed me to contain all the electrical/cable wiring, and gave me room to pack in thicker (6”) insulation.

Like with the other walls in the shop, the OSB sheathing will allow me to hang things anywhere without having to find a stud or a portion of the framing.

With the wall complete I could place one of the lumber racks and hang some of my clamps.

While the rest of the shop still looks like a mess, I actually did get to unpack and clear out several large boxes.  It’s hard to tell, but there is quite a bit more space opened up now.

The small area at the back of the shop is pretty packed right now, but it’s really freed up the floor space I’ll need to start assembling the workbench.

 

Once the workbench is positioned and put together I’ll be able to bring the table saw in from the back patio.  Imagine that...a table saw that actually sits inside the workshop!

Pete