A quickie shot of the inside of the garage. The plan (if Carrie and I could be said to have a plan...) is to eventually cover the inside entirely with OSB. (Oriented Strand Board) One of the nice things about this is you can attach anything anywhere. No need to find a stud to hang a hook shelf or fixture, It also allows us to insulate... with the eventual idea being to buy an air conditioner.

I actually framed the structure to accept a standard double wide garage door. But due to current site considerations... namely that I have an absolutely beautiful, mature and healthy Arizona Ash just outside the window you see here... I have added this "temporary" partion wall to allow for the install of a single wide door. This saves my tree... while at the same time allowing me (or anyone else for that matter) to install a double door later without having to re-design the entire structure.

Also... I want to draw your attention to the simple fact that the bikes... are NOT in our living room anymore. They're OUTSIDE... in the garage!!!!!

The funky window was an after thought. Carrie and I did a siding job here in town for a friend of mine named David Jasek. (David is a very interesting guy...) In the course of the work, I wound up with a couple of double insulated french doors. They weren't suitable to re-hang... but they were certianly usable enough to retro-fit into fixed pane windows. (Thanks David!) I know it looks a little goofy having a door mounted horizontally as a window... but it sure does brighten up the place. It'll be a good place for my plants, come winter.

The garage door guy is due to come out this week and get my (pre-paid) overhead door in... and Boy-O-Boy am I ever ready. I can finally move in and lock the place up!

This, of course, ushers in the next challenge. I need to have the floor finished and be out of my storage warehouse by the 23rd. This may be more difficult than you think. Finishing floors takes more effort than you might think. Everything has to be moved... and left outside for at least two days while the finish cures. But... I am determined to do it now... while the slab is fresh... and will therefore take the finish nicely.

But... I am getting so tired. It's Labour Day weekend and I have devoted every spare moment to this project for so long that I cannot remember what it's like to actually sit down.

So... at this point that's our plan. However... Even the best of plans can often go awry and require adjustment.

With Katrina hitting the gulf coast this last week... the prices of building materials are escalating... while at the same time availablity is dropping. I will have to struggle to finish what I have going before the "crunch" hits. I am thankful for two things: First... I pretty much have all that I need to enclose and finish the actual structure itself. Second... I am so glad we decided to pay "cash and carry" for all the materials. This way, if interest rates go up due to the economic instability caused by the Gulf Coast disaster... we're not paying for it for years to come!

We just barely made it!

By the hair of our "chinny chin-chin."