Well, on to what is new so far. I got the furnace installed. As I mentioned earlier I had wanted to install radient floor heating, but just could not justify the added cost at this time. I got a used propane force air furnace installed for less than half of what it would have cost me to do the radient floors myself.

I have all the electrical work finished. On top of having 110V outlets about every 4’ around the shop I installed 220V outlets about every 8’ or so. I also put 4 – 110V outlets in the ceiling and 3 – 220V drop cords as well. The drop cords are placed where I plan on having my tablesaw, jointer and planer.

I used 4’ “shop lights” for my lighting as they were the cheepest I could find. I nailed 1×4’s to the trusses and then screwed the fixtures to them rather than hang them with the supplied chains. I cut the plugs off and hardwired them rather than installing enough outlets (23) to plug them into.

I enclosed the furnace and my air compressor in a “utility closet”. I sheetrocked the back of it – made much more “fun” due to my drywall being very warped. (If your building materials supplier tells you that the sheetrock you ordered is “completely wrapped in plastic” – don’t believe them! Mine was just covered on top, so the rain still got through from below and soaked it all. By the time I found out, it was all warped and mold had started to grow.) I used tongue and groove siding on the end as I will build my sheet goods storage there and want something a bit more durable than sheetrock for the back of the storage area.

Check out my shop site for the newest images.

I decided to go with the forced air heating system. Saving almost $2,000 and not having to add to my to-do list were irresistable!

Oh the joys of dealing with someone else’s idea of “that’s OK, it’s just a barn” construction techniques!

I framed in the one door I am closing off (it will be behind my wood storage area). When I went to install the OSB, I discovered the 48” door isn’t. It isn’t 48” and it isn’t square. It also is more than 8’ tall. After a bit – OK alot – of jugsaw work and an added piece of OSB it is closed in. Now I just have to pull some board and batten siding so I can put the TYVEK in and re-side it.

Got the other three doors roughed in for windows. Got the siding pull around one and put the TYVEK up – no problem. Then I discovered that this 48” opening isn’t either! It isn’t square or 48” – seemed to be when I measured it, but the window sure didn’t fit. This time I went after it with the circular saw. Looks like &*%#@^, but it fits! I’m going to remeasure those other two 48” opening so see how much the’ve changed since I measured them. Last time they were just a bit large, I hope they still are!<g>

Got some of the siding pulled around the 3 smaller windows. These better go OK, I framed them in! Of course I did go from 38” wide openings to 36” windows, so the only problem should be fixing the OSB around the window openings. We’ll see. Oh the fun and games!

I did take a few more pictures. I’ll see if I can get them up on my shop site.

I started with the barn as left by the former owners. The barns had 5 horse stalls, a tack room, 2 storage areas, a central alley, and the hayloft. As part of the purchase agreement, the former owners took all the metal gates to the stalls, but left the stall dividers (and two stall mats that were trapped under them). 4 of the stalls had a door to the outside and the 5th stall just had a window. Each of the 2 storage areas had a window. Very little cleaning had been done so you could definately tell it was a barn!

One window was actually finished, a second was framed in and the third was just a rough opening with a piece of plywood nailed over it.

The first thing I did was take all the stalls apart. I ended up with almost a hundred 2×6’s 10’ long that I have been using to do the rough carpentry and build a few things out of. I built a quick an dirty stand for my mitersaw, nothing fancy, just something to get it off of the floor. As so much work has to be done up in the trusses (remove the upper stall framing, install electrical, insulation, dust collection system, etc.) I built a platform that I can drag around the shop to work where ever I need to. It is tall enough to get my head within 6” of the bottom of the trusses and is 3’ wide and 6’ long. I made a smaller one for the office.

I spent several days preasurewashing everything before I finally got it relatively clean enough to proceed.

I have installed all the outlet boxes around the perimeter of the shop and have started to pull the wiring. I desided to put the outlets at 4’ above the floor rather than the normal 18” to get them above any benches I might put against a wall. I also spaced them roughly 4’ apart. I am also putting in 220V outlets around the shop. I am putting them at my eye level and about every 8’.

I have installed and wired a P-C 80 gal. compressor which has been a great help as I can use any of my pneumatic tools without worrying about running out of air like I was with my little 2 gal. one.

As things are starting to cool off, I am getting estimates for the heating system. I would love to have radiant floor heating, but to retrofit it now would require putting 1x furring strips an then a plywood floor. I can do the work, easy enough, a heating installer just gave me a quote for forced air that is less than i would spend on materials and I would have to do any work. It would also allow me to have a gas hookup in the shop for a steam box burner.

Well, that is where I am at now. More later.

Anyway, to my design. I’ve been facinated by the Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai , United Arab Emirates ever since I saw a special on it on Discovery.

The inspiration for the hotel was a sail boat, so I tried to capture that same feeling in my table design.

The “sail” would be made out of coopered, bent laminations of bleached maple. The area below the sail would be coopered walnut as would the central leg (i.e., the rest of the “hull”). The Sail and area below it would be divided with shelves to serve as a china hutch, and would also have silver ware drawers and a place to put crystal. The table would be either teak or koa to accent the nautical feeling.

The one problem with this design is finding a room to put it in. The “mast” is already 8’ tall, but I feel that it needs to be taller! And as with any project, as soon as I got this drawing finished I saw many things I would change (if I could figure out how to get SketchUp to do it the way I want it). I think it would look better with the “bow” sloping back rather than vertical as it is, but that would also require the lower hutch area to be curved in 2 directions rather than the one as it is currently – not a problem to build, just to get SketchUp to do it! I would also make the “deck” (table top) have a continious curve clear to the bow, rather than stepped as it is now.

I apollogize for the diagonal lines in the “sail”, but that was the only way I could get SketchUp to give me a solid surface for the compound curve (the arc of the back edge of the “sail” is much less than the front edge going down to the bow).