Creating a Workshop & Home

[EddieWalker]

I'm not a plumber, but I pretend to be one on occasion. Real plumbers have trouble laying out bathtub drains often enough that they carry concrete cutting tools to make the adjustments required.

Tubs give me a special headache trying to rough in the plumbing. I put in a 12 inch box where I thought it should go and left the pipe a little long.

After the pour, I took out the box and cleaned out the hole.

 

[EddieWalker]

I got lucky and didn't have to bust out any concrete. The pipe was about 4 inches long, which is easy enough to fix when dealing with Sch 40 PVC. I lined up the trap and connected the drain lines to the tub.

This is one of those proud moments for me. hahaha

 

[EddieWalker]

The little details that nobody will ever see when it's all finished are what make it fun for me. This is the kitchen sink drain. It just fit together about a nice as I could hope for.

 

[EddieWalker]

My girlfriend is one of those rare women that just loves getting involved in my projects. She jumps right in there and works as hard as anybody.

She's never used a nail gun before, nor has she ever framed a wall. It's all pretty basic after layout and marking.

Here she is putting together the bedroom wall.

 

[EddieWalker]

Here she is looking in from the new bedroom window.

Of course, we need a few more walls before it's really a bedroom. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[EddieWalker]

I got a little more done today. The heat is a killer, it slows me down and makes everthing a little tougher.

This is the home part. The first window will be my family room, then the kitchen and my bedroom.

 

[EddieWalker]

This is a view of the back. It will be the bathrooms for my tent campsites when the park opens. There is five bathrooms with there own shower, toilet and sink. This is the first two and my utility room.

 

[EddieWalker]

This is the view from the family room looking into the kitchen. To keep things open, I'm building a U shaped kitchen with the open breakfast bar.

 

[em14]

Eddie,
You sure are getting this going quickly. I hope you have some help! Looking Good!
Leo

 

[EddieWalker]

As I mentioned earlier, the heat was getting pretty bad today. It was only in the low 90's, but the humidity was also in that range.

To cool off, I took a quick swim in my pond. This is my girlfriends son looking for frogs. The workshop is in the background.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( the heat was getting pretty bad today )</font>

That's looking good, Eddie. And, yes, the heat was bad. It hit 99 here today and I believe that's a new record high for the 21st of May. It's supposed to be about the same tomorrow.

 

[Jagmandave]

We get similar weather here in KS, heat and humidity and it really wears on you when you're not in your 20's anymore!

The project is coming along nicely, when you get a roof on it it'll help a bit with the heat...........

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm still putting sticks together.

Here's the workshop side of things. The header weighed a ton, but with a little help from my Dad, it went in smooth enough.

The grey box is my transocket for my commercial meter. I'll have it set up for 1,200 amps. I had to order the breakers and disconnect. It cost over $2,000 and will take four weeks to get here. Inside will be six 200 amp breakers.

 

[EddieWalker]

All the downstairs walls are framed in and now it's time for the floor of the second story.

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm kind of doing two things at once here.

First I was putting in the floor joists for the second story until I got to a point I needed to know were the stairs were going to be.

Math has disapointed me too many times to rely on trying to calculate the exact location the stairs will end and the second story floor will begin.

My method is to build the stairs first, and I'll know exactly where they'll be. Then I can tie in the floor joists.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Eddie,
You have got to be the hardest working, dynamic person I've ever met.
How can you get so much done in all this heat???

Folks, I'm going to tell you we've had record breaking heat now from Friday the 20th until 25th. Except for maybe a shower up there (north east Tx) which only makes things moist as mayonaise.

 

[EddieWalker]

Kyle, thanks, but I'm sure you and just about everyone else on this site can do just as much, if not more then I have, given the same conditions. Remember, I don't really have a job or work for a living. I've made some money on real estate and different projects, but now I'm living off savings and gambling everything I've got on the RV Park.

We did get a good thunderstorm the other day that shut me down. Then I got a cold yesterday and spent the day in bed with the shakes.

Today I was healthy enough to work on those stairs.

With small homes, every inch is important. My AC return duct will be at the bottom of the stairs for this part of the house. Next to that will be storage, which is right across the holl from the kitchen. I might be a pantry of sorts. I don't know for sure yet.

Yet to be built is a coat closet and then the space for the laundry machines.

 

[EddieWalker]

This is what they look like all done. Of course I'll add a railing and finish with carpet in a few months.

 

[EddieWalker]

My girlfriend came by to help today, and help she did. Here she is cutting out the door frames.

 

[EddieWalker]

End of the day, here she is driving my little tractor back to the barn with the trailer we found back in Jan. That little trailer has been very useful for keeping everything together and portable.