Back in March, the last snowstorm of the year brought down part of my fence, while I was over in Lisbon for my team meet-up (which reminds me, I never made a post about that trip). The fence was actually two fences. One that my neighbour had put up 30+ years ago and a second on my side that was simply nailed to the previously mentioned fence. It was poorly made and never maintained.
Its failure was inevitable as most of the posts were rotted out and the majority of the fence boards were completely rotten for the bottom 3-4 inches.
Its collapse meant it had to be replaced, despite how much my dogs loved exploring the newly discovered area of my neighbour’s yard 😀
This weekend was the weekend I picked to demolish the old fence and build a new one. Thankfully it just happened to coincide with a sale on structure and pressure treated wood at my local lumber yard! #winning
Earlier this year, I started making a new dining room table from some old barn beams that were left on my property by the previous owners. I’ve planned to do a post about the (backbreaking) process, but that will have to come at a later point.
Here’s a little teaser. These are the beams that I am using to build the table. They have a lot of rot on the outside, but the inside of them is a nice hard Maple.
Last weekend I hit a roadblock on that project. I am now at the point where I need to join and finish all my planks to create the table top. In order to do that, I needed a nice workbench with a large, flat, and level top. My workshop is great and it’s one of my favourite things about our new house – however it’s also 60 years old and very basic. Inside is a slowly rotting wood floor, raw studs, no insulation, and shoddy electrical wiring. Another thing that is missing, is a workbench!
My workshop still has a sound frame after 60 years, but that’s about all you can say for it.
When I starting designing my workbench, it quickly became apparent that once in place – I wouldn’t want to move it again. This meant that if I ever wanted to finish the inside of my shop, I’d have to do it now. So I paused making my workbench (which I had paused building the dining room table for), in order to finish the inside of the shed.
I spent the entire weekend working at it, and I’m happy to report there has been progress 🙂
This weekend I accomplished the following:
Insulated all but 1 wall (need to buy more insulation to finish)
Half of the shop is strapped and drywalled (need to get more straping before continuing)
New subfloor is in
Electrical work is cleaned up with new lines run
New 250v electrical run, which now powers my….
Heater! I installed a 4500BTU electric forced air heater, which does a wonderful job of heating the shop
Even though the shops not totally finished, I’ve completed enough that it is now a workable space. In an effort to get back to my dining room project, I’m stopping here for now and beginning the work on my new Workbench 🙂
Let the laminating begin! My workbench will be a butcher block style top, made from 2×4 pine that I had left from other projects.
About Me
My name is Phil Thompson. I'm a customer support enthusiast working at Automattic, currently with the Pressable support team.
I love customers, animals, people, video games, and technology (in no particular order).
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