Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Shell Complete

The MD100 is complete for the purposes of this blog. I'll post photos after plants on the outside and whatnot on the inside are dealt with in a few months, but this is the finished product. If you look at the other blogs in the sidebar, you can see that these buildings can be quite idiosyncratic. Its a good design.

Looking Southwest, front window open.

Facing the front. Note the ceiling has been changed a little bit.
Oh, I also flipped the plan. I'm left-handed.
Looking Northwest, ignore the building junk in foreground.
The back, where I put windows in the top part.
They will overlook a bicycle storage area lean-to in the next couple of months.
Note the bright blue lino tile floor. Love it!
Getting ready to start getting some real work done in here....

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

On Walls

The plan is for this to be a working studio for me, and while I want the space to be nice and cozy, I'm not aiming for Fine Homebuilding (the running gag), more like "fancy TuffShed." With that in mind, I am using masonite on the walls instead of sheetrock. Its cheaper, and lighter for me to handle by myself or with my young sons. After priming, I'm using fabric as wallpaper, attached with glue and sealed with Mod Podge (whatever, I have it on hand and I know what to expect from it). I'm using reasonably nice grade thin plywood to face the top of the walls, bathroom-coated masonite as a whiteboard on one wall and painted pegboard on the other. You can see the different textures here:


When I was cutting down the 2x4s for the window frames, there was always a slim bit from the rounded sides left over. I covered that with foil and used it to hide the nail holes. Waste not want not.
The whole back wall will be covered in bookcases (backless, so I can use the outlets), I don't really care what the corners look like, I won't be able to see them.

Here is the "closet" door over the area I plan to use as slim storage for cutting boards and other flat arty things. There is an outlet in there so I can hide where the AC and heater are plugged in. It is held shut with a couple of magnets. (I'm using leftover corrugated from the back wall here.) The white square at the bottom is a ceramic radiant heater that attaches to the wall. Seems to work pretty well, but Winter in SoCal isn't very cold, so ymmv.

In Walls

After squirting a fair amount of "good stuff" expanding foam into the nooks and crannies of the corrugated steel walls, I got Hubby to install the electrical (using the old pool circuit) to my specs; 6 outlets, one switched, one with USB ports, two halogen sconces, and a ceiling fan to compliment the small A/C unit I installed and the ceramic wall heater to come. (Don't forget to put nailplates over the wiring that crosses studs—I did it after the picture.)

Once the wiring was in, insulation went up. I needed one big batt and one small roll, using every bit. I'm not using roll insulation in the space that will be behind the door, that will be a very shallow closet. I stapled up silvered bubble-wrap kind of stuff (you can see the roll at left) that I will also use on the ceiling.

Exterior Complete

Skipping a fair number of repetitive details.... I finished installing the windows. I made the high square front window open outward using stereo cabinet glass door hinges and a pulley arrangement. Its not Fine Homebuilding, but it works. I installed two small windows that open inward at the top of the back wall, using the same arrangement with a fixed bit of rope and catch magnets to hold them closed. Hubby hung a single-lite door for me (thank you, Dear). Priming, painting and weatherstripping happened mostly ahead of Winter rain, and it worked out pretty well. (Note: after getting the door up and painted, when I finally removed the protective plastic from the glass I found a big ol' sweaty handprint on the inside of the sealed glass panes. Bummer.)

You can see the corrugated metal ceiling in these pics, too. I can't find the image I took of the "before" ceiling, but I did drill holes for airflow, and put a layer of silvered bubble wrap on top of the sheet metal, so there is an insulated air gap between the roof and the ceiling.

front window, open

back window, one open