Pre-build Update #1 – Build Space

Posting Update

Before the build starts in earnest we’re hoping to be posting Blog articles weekly, probably on a Sunday. Also, in addition to full weekly posts on this blog we’ll also be pushing new post links to Twitter and to Facebook to let people know when posts have happened. If you want to get notifications of new posts in your favourite social media feed then either follow @JFPMartin on Twitter or friend me by looking for JFPMartin on Facebook.

And now on with the update…

Painting Walls

The main activity this week, other than getting my head around WordPress again, is the garage build space.

The first job with “The Space” is to paint the walls.

I had already painted about 1/3 of the walls when we had an extension built and the garage reconfigured a couple of years ago. But I needed to finish off the walls and paint the ceiling. It’s not that I think we need the extra light that white walls will give (hopefully we’ll be building during a hot and sunny British summer)… I just needed an excuse to be OCD and finish a job I started a couple of years ago.

You can see where I’m starting from… a bit too much clutter and walls that NEED to be painted!!! I have to turn this into somewhere we can build a car.

The garage is about 16.3m²; but a weird shape:

I’ve spent about 25 hours painting walls this week and now it seems that the image below is burned on the back of my eyeballs when I go to bed…

The painting consisted of one coat of 50:50 diluted emulsion followed by a final pure emulsion coat. Went for the cheapest emulsion I could find… it is only the garage after all.

A decorator had once recommended that the only way to paint a brick wall was to:

1. Don’t bother, it’s too time consuming and not worth it, or
2. If you HAVE to paint the walls then you HAVE to fill any gaps between the bricks first, don’t try to paint into them.

… and that’s why you need to have your hands covered in gap filler at 2:30 in the morning!… It was just one of those nights when it seemed like a better idea to be in the garage than in bed – hopefully that attitude will stand me in good stead when it comes to the build.

Lighting

I’ve also decided to upgrade the lighting in the garage. I’d never been happy with what the electrical contractors put in when we had the extension done. This will be an excuse to fix it. I think we’ll go with 3 lots of 5′ double LED “tubes”. I have to order them yet, but that will be next week’s job.

Mental note to self – must remember to measure lighting levels before and after installing the new lighting

Hopefully the lighting will go in after painting the remaining walls and ceiling. Then it will be time to put an epoxy coating on the floor.