Taking It to the Next Level

I cleared off the loft (the bare wood floor they installed over the garage doors) and looked at the attic (the level above the Bedroom #3 ceiling. I have a million empty boxes. I may have to give them back to Goodwill. (Oh, and for those of you reading the saga...there were no "surprises" in the loft--just empty boxes and Christmas things.)

The loft (looking west). The white packets are rodent repellent. The roof is insulated except for the two bays at the center.

I bought a $12 halogen worklight that gets really hot. I can see why people like the $40 LED lights. There's a tear in the insulation backing (at about the center of the photo above) that I think I can fix with duct tape.

The loft (looking east. I don't have a clue why they installed drywall on the right--it makes it difficult to get anything into or out of this alcove. That's the electric service mast in the distance at the right, btw.

I still haven't walked on the Bedroom #3 ceiling because it's hard to get to with the 8' ladder. I have a telescoping ladder that will provide better access. We seem to have a box of fluorescent bulbs up there, along with an empty box I tossed. I took down the chin-up bar (except for the pulleys attached to the rafters) and discovered that we were pulling against 25# of weight. The weights were bought at Goodwill for $2 each.

The attic (looking at SW corner). Surprised to find a proper outlet wired in. Sadly, no insulation at all.

The attic, looking at SE corner, with the slightly lower ceiling of Bath #3. The pipe in the foreground was a guide for the chin-up bar rope. What looks like dust in the foreground is very dusty carpet padding.

The "roof" of the closet is a table top of some kind and it's attached.

The roof of the closet. The perforated angle shown here seems to be extra, which I need because there are 3 angles holding up the garage door tracks and one track held up by a bungee cord.

Want to know what's highly illegal and likely to cause a fire? Using an extension cord to power 240W worth of fluorescent lights and then deciding that you want a real switch, so you cut the extension cord and wire in a switch. That's not dangerous enough. Let's do the splicing in the wall and cover it with 1/2" blue styrofoam.

This is what it looks like. The switch is perfect. The wires are not rated for inside the wall, but we can overlook that. The parts that's dangerous and illegal is making connections in the wall. 

I'm starting to think that the whole workshop is powered from an extension cord plugged in at Bath #3. The problem with new circuits is you have to run wire all the way back to the panel. In this case, the panel is 8" from the open studs. <shaking my head>