I've been AWOL for almost a year.  Like a lot of other folks,  I migrated over here from the other wood working forum a year or so back.  About then, my oldest daughter bought a 1940's house that needed "a little" fixing up.  Refinishing the original oak floors, installing new doors, trim, painting, and all of the other things that come with a house that old took most of my nights and weekends thru last winter.  Then she wanted some furniture (which reminds me, I should post those tables).  Meanwhile, we decided to move for a variety of reasons and the summer was lost to the debacle of selling the house and buying a new, smaller one.  The new place is a spec house with a 3-car garage which was non-negotiable.  The shop was a must-have.  Which brings me to to the subject of this blog, making yet another shop.

Once again, I wasn't able to talk the boss into letting me have the 2-car side for my shop.  The single car area is 21 ft long and about 9-1/2 ft wide with 12 ft. ceilings.  The backdoor to the outside is by the garage door.

Since I was doing all of this myself, I made the wall in 3 sections.  I'd buy several 12 ft 2x4's, strap them to the roof rack on the CrossTrek (no I don't have a truck any more).  I'd that guy you would cuss at on the highway creeping along with the straps flapping in the breeze as you pass him and give the universal gesture of goodwill.

Fortunately, the main breaker for the house is just through the wall in the basement.  A 100A subpanel is installed in the new wall for 3 30A-240V circuits (table saw, Dust Collector, band saw), future mini-split HVAC, and 4-20A 120V circuits.  I had the professionals install the sub panel and run the cable to the main so that it was all up to code.  The house breakers are all Leviton.   I was amazed at how complicated breakers have gotten. They come with surge protection, GFCI, AFCI, both GFCI and AFCI, and just about anything else you can think of.  Apparently, Electrical Code has gotten a lot more complicated as well.  However, from what I read, and talking to the electrician, garage 120V and 240V circuits can still be run without all of the extra bells and whistles.  Here's the backside of the breaker in the wall frame out.

I ran all the wiring from the box to the outlets.  The electricians also added 4 LED panel lights in the ceiling.  It was well worth the cost to have them get up there and install the lights, re-route the existing wiring, and pull the new wiring.  I'm too old to be crawling around in the attic space.

After the wiring was complete, I bought a contraption to hold the drywall panels up on the wall while they are screwed in.  I broke down and rented a U-haul van to bring home the drywall and door, along with all of the cabinets, countertop, and sink for the laundry room (of course I have a honey-do list to work on while working on the shop).

I used the 4x8 purple mold/mildew resistant drywall.  Then my least favorite part, mudding and taping.  I thought I'd try out the mesh tape.  Bad idea!!! When I sanded it after the first coat, all of the fibers wound up on my hands and forearms making them itch like crazy.  Makes sense, basically I was making fiberglass slivers as I sanded.  Needless to say the leftover fiber tape went straight into the trash.

After a couple gallons of primer, and a 5 gal. bucket of paint ( I also painted the rest of the garage) I'm almost done painting the shop (I still have most of the house to paint.  It is a spec house so everything was white):

It's taken almost 3 months to get to this point but the time consuming carpentry work is done.  I still need to install the door trim and base molding and finish painting.  Most of the rest of the work involves laying out the shop.  Sounds like a good topic for the next installment.  

I'm off to the garage to do some more painting.  Hmm - I wonder if there would be room for a beer fridge......