The hustle and bustle of moving into my new home has slowly started to subside and so I am now starting to focus my attention to putting together the new Tinker's Workshop. Today I took out all of the ceiling panels and straightened out the mess that the previous owners had created by trying to be creative in the layout of the ceiling panels and framework. Here's what I got accomplished today.
The ceiling tiles had to be removed first to see what was hiding inside the ceiling. Actually it looked better than I had hoped as only one light fixture needed to be removed and take a look at what insulation had been put in along with the heat ducts that run into the space.
The ceiling tile layout seemed to be just a jumbled mess with all the tiles going every which way. After looking at it for a bit I figured out what the previous owners were trying to do.
The tiles had been laid out in a pattern where two tiles ran horizontally and then the next two ran vertically. It looked ok but does nothing when trying to put in the lighting that this room screams for. With what little lighting that was is this room it would be like trying to work in a cave with one candle.
Already the room is looking better. I pulled the power to the only ceiling light in this 12' 9" x 24' 4" space and used two halogen work lights so that I could get some work done. These two lights alone improved the look of the room by flooding it with about four times more light than what was there to begin with. Once I get the opposite wall painted white it will really brighten up the shop.
At this point I had almost all of the framework straightened out so that the new lighting can go in. These will be mounted in between the joists above the ceiling tiles. Each light will then be hidden and have a translucent panel which will disperse the light much more evenly. At this point I am not sure how many lights will be put into the ceiling. No matter how many I do put in it will be a vast improvement from what was there in the first place.
Here the framework has been all straightened out and the bent and or broken pieces have been replaced. No more crazy pattern to try to figure out how to mount the new lights. This will make the new ceiling look much better. I will have to check to see that I have everything wired up so that I don't get some panels sagging just because they are not supported properly.
The big white bundle in the middle of the room is the insulation that was next on my list of chores for the day. This is R38 insulation that will help keep the space a lot warmer.
I cut sections of insulation and then added them to the spaces to seal up the new workshop. This was not a difficult task but I was sure glad that I had gloves, a long shirt, and a face mask on. I still itch just thinking about putting this stuff in but it's worth the effort and now is the best time to take care of it. It will pay for itself in a very short time for sure.
In the next day or two I will figure out how many lights I want to put into the workshop and how to mount them. Then I will get my friend Garry to help me to figure out how to wire it all up on one switch. I leave the electrical stuff to someone that knows what he's doing. But I suspect that by the time I get this portion of the job done I will learn enough from him to be able to take care of the rest of the basement myself when I want to install more lighting.
Who would ever want to have lighting in a basement that you have to pull a string to turn on anymore? I for one am happy to live in the 21st century so I want my workshop and other spaces to come into the same century that I am in. A simply click on the light switch and the space is brightly lit with modern lighting. That's all I need to make me smile. Leave the pull strings to very old barns and shacks out in the woods thank you.
Check back for further updates on the building of the new Tinker's Workshop in the coming weeks.
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