Operation Mancave begins. Phase 1

Over the last year or so, my space inside the house has been “re-purposed”.  The birth of two granddaughters, one from each son and attached spousal units, meant I needed to give up my hobby room and turn it back into a bedroom for visitors.  Most of my hobby stuff went into storage.  A little I worked into the garage so I could work in there when temperatures permitted.  However we were packing a mess o stuff in the garage.  In addition I had installed some steel garage cabinets to house by glass painting supplies.  To say the least it was a bit crowded.

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A single fluorescent shop light and several incandescent lights made up my lighting.  No heat or cooling except for a small space heater and a fan.  My glass painting was curtailed because if the humidity gets about 60% the paint does unpredictable, but usually bad, things.

So at Christmas break I secured the necessary permission from the household overlord for a true conversion of the garage into a mancave.  Operation Mancave began with getting quotes from various contractors. These ranged from $7500 to $13,000.  The low quote actually came from one of the more established area contractors so I signed on the dotted line.  I arranged for a POD to be delivered for on site storage. It showed up on January 21. IMG_1861

A couple of good hard weekends with the sons and the mess above has now become this:

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Contractors show up on Monday February 1 and Operation Mancave begins step 2.  The final vision has the steel cabinets installed again, the large 4’x8′ table is getting a fresh coat of paint and wheels.  Bookshelves from IKEA will line the wall opposite the cabinets and house my miniatures and books.  A fridge, tv and AC/Heat unit completes the picture.  The concrete floor will get a coat of epoxy paint, the walls get insulation (yay!) and several ceiling LED light fixtures will make it more usable.  I still have to share space with the toolbox and some household cleaning supplies but those should not intrude too much.

Hopefully I am moved in by Mid March.  More pictures as the project progresses.