Well, the big news is that we just had a baby boy, Oliver, and all projects have come to a screeching halt! He's a great little dude, and takes all of our time currently. Just before he was born though, I was able to complete two quick DIY pieces in the garage.
As indicated a couple of posts ago, I was looking to follow these instructions to build garage shelving to replace the 4 black wire shelves we were using to store a bunch of stuff. Above you see the result. The instructions worked perfectly, and the thing is solid. I adjusted the measurements between the shelves to be bigger along the bottom than the top, so 24" from the ground and to the second shelf, then 16" to the third, and 12" to the top. The extra block you see below the top shelf was what I used to hold up each cross bar as I screwed in the other side.
Along with this build, I managed to finally hook up the vent from the stove/microwave properly. The opening on the new unit was higher than the old one, and a different size, so I pulled out the Dremel and Sawz-all, and moved the opening up a little bit and got new duct fittings to hook it up properly. I then cut a hole in the top shelf, fed the vent through that and was able to push this unit all the way to the wall. In hindsight, I should have planned on doing this, since I made the shelving unit shorter than the original 8' that the 2x4s come in to accommodate for the vent box (seen in the previous pic) and the attic stairs that come down to the right. With the unit now able to go all the way to the wall, I could have left it the original size and not had to make as many cuts. Oh well! Luckily, the depth was perfect so that the electrical box on the side wall can still be opened. Best of all, this cost about $75 to build. When you consider those plastic shelves from Lowes are around $40-50 for 1./3 or less the size, this is a way better option, and can be customized to fit your space.
The day before Ollie was born, I was working more in this garage to get things cleaned up, and decided that with the two gardens close to this garage, we should have a potting bench of some kind. My original plan was to build it out in the shed, but it's nowhere near where the gardens are, so that wouldn't make much sense. I found a couple plans, looked them over, and thought I had enough knowhow to take that and switch it up a little. I bought (2) 8' 2x4s and (4) 6' 1x4s and got to work.
I built it so that eventually there can be a shelf on the bottom, it was simply that I didn't want to take yet another trip to Lowes that day, and it was sturdy enough without it. It occurred to me after putting the first few screws in the slats that I should have come up from the bottom instead of the top, but I did use outdoor wood screws, so shouldn't be a huge deal. I also haven't sealed any of this, so before we start watering things on it, I'll have to seal the top.
Cleaning up the garage I also found a bunch of clocks from the old house, and found one that happens to fit perfectly in the hole in my first kick drum head that I got when I was 13 years old. It was active in bands I was in from 1996-1999, and I've held onto it ever since. Now if I could just find a use for all these cracked cymbals...
In the meantime, like I said, all projects have ceased for the moment, but I'm sure I'll be back at it soon, just in a much more limited capacity!