Workbench: A Lot of Work!

So this is what I've been up to the past week:

When we bought a house that had a separate shop in the backyard, my husband was elated because he finally had his "man cave". But his job took long hours out of his day and made him tired upon returning home, not leaving much time or energy to set up shop as he'd like. Wanting to help him realize his dream in having a nice area with shelves and a big workbench to place power tools and automotive things, I tapped into my woodworking skills acquired from Mr. Dooman's class at Yosemite High School (thanks Mr. Dooman), and drew up some plans (with Chris' blessing) before setting to work.

I built the shelves first (there's another set off to the right, not pictured) so I'd have a place to put all our stuff, getting it off the floor and out of the way and then began work on the workbench made up of 2x4s. The best part was that the 2x4s were free! Chris was able to bring them home from work because they were warped or damaged in some way, but that I was still able to utilize. We only had to pay for the wood screws. I worked on this project every day after dropping the girls off at school and then taking the youngest into the shop with me. It took me about a week total to get it done. Chris will finish the bench off with 3/4-inch OSB board. I'm pretty proud of my work, getting all the tables level even though the floor was seriously sloped in the corner. Power tools are fun and invigorating!

And yes, that's my 2-year-old sitting on top of the bench playing with screws. At least she was happy. Any parent knows that an unhappy child means not getting any work done :-)