Visible signs of progress

Over the holidays, we made a few changes around here. The workshop is now finished (pics below). Efforts are starting to clear the old shop out and turn it into HTH's office. And since we now have a TV in the old office - to accomodate teenage desires to have food in front of the TV and our wish to occasionally have access to a TV ourselves - I have been moving my personal business stuff out of the official office and turning my "work" office into my only office space.

These are things that have been in our heads for a while. They are, in fact, related to our idea of building a master bath and laundry room on this house. But, for a lot of reasons, that idea has not really made it as far as actual plans - much less to the stage of making changes. Yet here we are. Making changes that fit the master, long-term plan. It just reminds me that life has a momentum all it's own and, while I can nudge that momentum a bit one way or another, I can't stop it. So, ready or not, here it comes!


This is the MawMaw picture. She has requested this picture about a dozen times over the last 11 years. Admittedly, this is not the prettiest time of year for the house. The trees are all bare. The wind and rain that finally left the area last night have created piles of wet leaves everywhere. But the sky is blue today and the light is pretty. So, here it is. The siding is the same color as the wall on the left of the next picture. Hard to tell here....
This is drywall day, known to the uneffected as Friday, January 4. To the two guys in this picture, it meant at least 1 day of very sore muscles. Without the drywall lift (see the supports just behind HTH?), this probably would've been a 4 man job. Gotta love technology! BTW, in the wall on the left just behind HTH, you can see where the original gate connected (see pic 3 in this post ). The new wall is about 12 feet back.
And now to the details. One of the technical challenges of this space was to make it flexible enough for all of the weather and work conditions that are coming our way. HTH wanted "a wall that can disappear". As I mentioned before, this banner is our solution for the time being. However, it was suspended from nails before. NOW, it is run on a cable with curtain hooks - just like a very heavy, stiff shower curtain. Cool, huh?

These doors (the absolute bane of my painting existence) came from a construction lots store. It is the construction industry version of Overstock or Big Lots. They even came with this nice looking hardware. And, yes, before you ask, the paint between the doors really is the same paint as on the wall below. Since the doors are darker, it looks much lighter here...

This is partially just to show paint color and partially excitement over the fact that it is DONE. Those trigrams are a lot trickier than they look.

Other than the masonite top for the 9 ft work bench, all that is left to be done - construction wise - is putting the shelves in this section. After that, we can start on the next bit of fun - sorting the old shop into the new storage spaces so that we can start work on HTH's office!