Floor Paint and Shelving

The project is coming to completion. It started about April 12 (I bought a cobweb duster, Pine-Sol and mouse traps) and it's been a month. The tally for everything, including new tools, replacement filters, and the painting experiment on the living room ceiling and garage exterior, is $1,432. $130 for drywall and $215 for paint. $459 for new lights and other electrical stuff. $290 for a new sander, a brad nailer, speed saw, and new filter for the Shop Vac. Lots of miscellaneous. All of it at Seattle's 10.1% tax rate.

With the drywall all patched in there, I focused on the concrete floor. It's a poster child--rough areas, depressions, and stains of various colors. I found some excellent, ready-mixed concrete patch. It's the consistency of toothpaste mixed with sand--you can really push it into cracks (like the one that runs left to right just past the post in the photo above). It's harder to get it to fill big depressions. Maybe if I had a 12" trowel (and the skill to use it)...

After patching, I used an "etch and clean" product on Thursday. Pine needles and bugs blew in, but the concrete was completely dry when I started painting on Friday. I waited seven hours, as directed, and gave it a second coat, rolling 90-degrees to the first, at sundown. It had all day Saturday to cure.

Sunday morning, I unpacked the steel shelf components and tried hard to remember how they went together. It was easy once I got started (oh yeah? then why did I have to re-do most connections two or three times?). The plan called for both shelves to touch exterior walls, but I decided to move the east-most to the post. This lets someone walk at the man-door and walk directly to the overhead door.

I bought a double-sided deadbolt for the man door. This keeps the future tenant out of my storage area and stops someone from breaking into the house using the garage. I've discovered that the overhead doors can be opened a little for ventilation--if a thief opens them all the way, I don't want them in the house, too.

The problem with the deadbolt, discovered just before I drilled the 2-1/8" hole for it, is that the man door is El Cheapo, with solid wood only where the existing lockset is. I need a new 30" door someday, but for now I decided to swap the passage lock for the new deadbolt and order a set of dummy knobs. The BR3 lockset is 'Tylo' by Kwikset, so I matched it.

So, Monday will be about moving things into the new digs. I haven't sorted through the stuff as much as I wanted, but that process will be easier thanks to the new cleanliness and structure. I plan to put long-term storage items, like the yellow umbrella, on the loft. We'll see how that goes.

State of the Workshop, Monday, May 13, 2019