March 15-17, 2008


You've probably seen pictures of the basement in other projects. With all the renovation
projects here at the house, I figured it was time to build a nice workshop.

The workshop project actually started out small. In an effort to tidy up the basement and make it make
it feel clean and inviting, I painted the walls with white concrete-sealant paint, and the floors with a
light gray epoxy floor paint. That in itself was a huge improvement.

The 40-year-old concrete looks brand new with three coats of epoxy paint.

Among the rafters is this diagram, drawn by my Dad showing the location of the septic tank (circa 1975).
New framing and sheetrock will end up covering this diagram, so I snapped a picture -- both for
nostaligic purposes, but also so I don't forget where the septic tank cover is!

The major feature of the new workshop is going to be a wall between it and the rest of the basement.
The reason for this is to keep dust from my house projects from getting all over stuff we have stored
nearby in the basement.

The first step in framing my wall was to install these cripple studs between the floor joists above.

Next came the wall itself. I framed it with 2x3s, since it's a light-duty wall. You can see how clean
the walls and floor look with the recent paint job.

Another shot of the wall under construction.

The other half of the wall goes up, with an opening left for a door. Note the low ceiling height prevented
me from installing a proper door header. It's a non-load bearing wall, so I'll install a makeshift header
above the door once installed.

With the door installed, you can see the limited ceiling height. I went
with a 36" molded panel door to make it easy to carry items through for storage.

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