Tools! We've GOT tools!

 
Lee decided to build a loft area in his shop.  It was getting crowded. Some of the equipment he uses for woodworking or car rebuilding take up a lot of room.  He wanted to get the things he didn't need regularly up off the floor.  He buys tools, I buy him tools.  He's got lots and lots of tools.

 

There is a family story that fits in here.  My uncle also liked to do woodworking and car rebuilding.  One day he told my aunt that he was going to the store to get some tools.  Being rather cheap frugal, she was incensed.  "Tools!  We've GOT tools!" she yelled.  I guess she thought a hammer, a wrench and a screwdriver ought to be sufficient tools for any project.

 

Rather than argue, my uncle began having tools delivered to his brother's house, a few blocks away.  The story got around, as will happen in a small town.  When friends would drive by and see my uncle out working, they would yell out the car window, "Tools!  We've GOT tools."

 

So we GOT tools, too and they take up a lot of space, so the non-tool items have to be stored elsewhere.  Hence the loft.

 

Lee measured to make sure the vehicles could park (mostly) under the loft and I made sure we could walk under the loft.  Because he placed it in the corner, he could attach a lot of the 2X10s he used for support to exiting posts holding up the shop.  He did have to place on support post next to the lift, but it is easily avoided.  If you don't run into the lift, you won't bump into the post.

 

He asked me to help getting those first boards placed and then did the joists and the subfloor all by himself.  In the heat.  In the top part of the shop.    I told him I would help, but he never asked and I never thought to go out and offer.  I guess he would prefer to do that all by himself rather than help me clean toilets (which is what I was doing) and then have me go help him.  Hard to imagine.

 

So now it is mostly finished.   Lee still needs to decide where to place the stairs.  We are thinking of a spiral staircase to take up less room, or maybe some fold down stairs.  Permanent stairs are also being considered.  Neither of us wants a ladder.  Too awkward.

I'll keep you posted.