Part 2:

Taping and mudding was the worst job of the whole thing. I don’t want to do this ever again, at least not on this scale. And it’s not “bedroom” quality either.


The priming with drywall primer went pretty fast. My wife did the corners, and I did the big spaces.


They resided the garage to make sure the siding matched


I didn’t want plain white, so I went with a Benjamin Moore yellow shade. $41 a gallon, but it covered in one coat.


To give the shop an antique factory look, I decided to cover the wall facing my deck out of brick instead of siding. At the suggestion of a member here, I bought a tool called a Bricky, which is a plastic jig that you slide along the top of a brick row to help lay down an even layer of mortar. It worked pretty well, especially for a complete novice like me. I started on a Thursday night, but really got going strong on a Saturday morning:


This was after two days of work:

By the following Saturday night, I'd got to the arches:


By the second Sunday night, the brickwork was done:


By this point, the electrician was hard at work. As you can see, I've got most outlets arranged in clusters of two or three.


More electrical stuff, plus the newly painted floor. I used a Rustoleum epoxy paint from Ace Hardware. Two gallons sufficed (barely) to do the 540 square foot floor.


After a six week wait, my operable clerestory windows arrived. But--they were a different size than the fixed windows. My contractor ordered 16 x 32's for both types, but the fixed windows was measured at the frame and the operable windows was measured at the glass:

My contractor is waiting for new, larger fixed windows and will install them at his (and the lumber yard's) expense. I'll still have to refinish the clerestory around the new windows, though.

Finally, move-in day. Here's my friends and I moving my 30" bandsaw. The door was big enough to roll it through, so no disassembly was needed. Six people worked out pretty good, though I've moved it with only two before. The black iron pipes marked up but didn't scratch the floor:


Getting the table saw out of the basement. Here, a friend and I are pushing it up stairs on a sled while two other folks pull up on the ropes. My Powermatic 1200 drill press was much worse than the tablesaw, but it and all the other stuff made it up without incident.

Final tour next.

Kirk