Post 55: A post about a post

The post holding up the second floor is an ugly piece of shit. It was ugly when it was sheetrocked and ugly when I took the sheetrock off. I knew it would be a job to make it look decent - at least good enough not to stick out like a sore thumb in my shiny new garage. I had a lot of time to think about how to accomplish this job while I was doing everything else before the day to do something about it arrived.

I decided not to try covering it in anything - more sheetrock, thin plywood, some kind of veneer - because above all, I didn't want it to take up any more space than necessary. The post itself is a 6" x 8" beast. The problem, as with most of the things I've been redoing in the garage, is that whoever installed it was an asshole. The post isn't centered in either the top or bottom bracket, and the top bracket isn't centered on the beam that it's supporting. Plus, it's slightly rotated. And the whole length of the post is a bit warped. All of this explains why the former sheetrock job was so terrible, but now it's my problem.

As usual, I went with "simple." I bought some wood putty and did a few rounds of hole and crack filling. I cut a few knotty corners out and added a few clean pieces of wood in their place. I ran a plain, rounded router bit down the length of the post to get rid of sharp corners that I was sure to walk into in the future. I sanded the hell out of the whole thing a few times. And I decided not to try to do anything with the top bracket - easier just to cover it up with some kind of moulding. I put all of my scrap lumber and rudimentary trigonometry skills to use and came up with something I'm pretty pleased with.

Post 54: Sadly, not about my '54

Man, I really wish it was. I mean this garage thing is great and all, but I hope I can get back to working on the Ford soon.

*heavy, depressed sigh*

Oh well. Where was I? Got the shelves built. Invested in a new, insulated attic ladder and a buddy helped me put that up. Put trim pieces around it and then finally remembered/got motivated to cut a piece of drywall to fit in the opening of the ceiling on the 3rd car side. Then sucked it up and got back to sanding the ceiling.















Then, finally, I began the last of the painting.











Oh yeah, and I also got to install my new LiftMaster garage door opener. This thing is awesome. I'll never use a standard door opener again.



Basically done here except for the post in the middle. The wife was sure happy to be able to park her car (the "Nugget") in the garage again.

Post 53: Something other than drywall

At this point in August, I wanted - NEEDED - to do something else. Pretty much all I had left to do as far as sheetrock was dress up the rest of the ceiling, but the thought of doing any more of that kind of work was really getting to me. I looked around at all of the crap in the garage that really belonged somewhere else, and that I would have to move back and forth multiple times in order to get the ladders in the right places to do the ceiling, and made a decision. It was time to build some shelves.

I went with 2x3 boards because 1) they are cheap, and 2) I didn't like how the 2x4s at the old house seemed to take up so much space when used on-end under the shelves, and I wasn't going to try using them on the flat sides because I figured they'd warp and bend under the weight of the shelves in short order. I think this was a good call overall, but now, a few months later, I can see one or two places where I should have braced the shelves a little better. I'll take care of that someday soon.

So, anyway, simple 2x3 framing with sanded 3/4" pine plywood shelves. Home Depot had a good price on the pine sheets, and I liked the idea of having smooth, easy-to-clean shelves instead of the cheaper-but-scratchy-and-hard-to-clean OSB shelves I had in the old garage. I didn't even draw any plans out for this project. I had spent so much time thinking about the layout as I was doing drywall, I knew pretty much exactly what I wanted it to look like. One weekend I just grabbed the lumber and tools and knocked it out.

Post 52: Starting to regret this

By July, I was starting to wish I hadn't set the bar so high with the third-car garage stall. Sanding joint compound overhead in triple-digit weather is a shit job. But it was also too hot for a pity party, so I soldiered on.



















I took a break from sheetrock and started painting the wall and the upper part of the ceiling (so I could put the lights and fans back up).





I forgot that I tried to do a little flip-book action series here. Must have been bored.