Progress

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 🙂

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  If you know me, you know I hate being cold! So it only made sense to insulate the workshop 🙂

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  After insulating, I put down a vapour barrier. I did this on the floor as well as it is open air and high moisture under the shop.

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  I then strapped the walls so I could put up my drywall. This project allowed me to use some beat up drywall pieces that I wouldn't have used elsewhere.

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  New subfloor. I plan on sealing the plywood and then pouring an expoxy resin (or similar) floor on top.

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  I then began working my way around the rest of the shop. The building is 15x12ft.

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.