If you’ve ever sided a barn – by yourself… manually, with a hammer… with 5 inch wide tongue and groove boards… you’ll understand why it’s taken me literally a month to get the walls of my shop done.  But at long last, they’re done, and I even got some bitchin’ (using Stef’s word here) climate control installed along the way.

Plus, I painted!  Check it out:

 

Getting the paneling done was just a “lather, rinse, repeat” of the last video, over and over again.  But once that was done, it was a little too… piney… in there for me. So I decided to change up the color of the wood on the walls.  If money were no object, I would have flown to Pennsylvania, had an old timey barn dismantled, and shipped the boards back to use in my shop instead of brand new pine.  But since I don’t have a billion dollars, I settled on $60 worth of stain.  lol.

The stain was actually a water-based semi-transparent deck stain.  Indoors and with no foot traffic, it should last basically forever.  I liked the semi-transparent thing, because you can still see the wood underneath, and the water based stain made it possible to still inhabit the shop while it dried.

And also not blow myself up.

The only real problem I had was picking a color, which took me about 30 sample boards and a couple weeks of testing.  I would still be out there tormented with indecision if Stef hadn’t finally just told me to pick one and quit whining.  I’m funny that way, I’ll spend thousands on some RV gadget without batting an eye, but I’ll agonize over if I should get the $27 stain or the $35 paint…  Go figure.

Along the way, I also dry-walled the inside of the closet for added mass to keep the sound down (I’ll eventually build doors for it).  I didn’t tape and mud, but I don’t think the air compressor will mind.  I also repaired and painted the wall (the drywall one) that separates the shop from the rest of the house.  But the biggest thing is…

OMG I’VE GOT HEAT AND AIR CONDITIONING!!!!

That’s right!  I had a mini-split ductless heat pump installed.  It’s a Mitsubishi unit, and it totally rocks.  It might not be sufficient as a primary heating system in Barrow, Alaska.  But here in the desert Southwest, it’s just the ticket.

I did NOT install this unit myself.  I had it done by a local heating and air conditioning company.  The install was actually super quick – even with the subcontractors to drill the concrete and run the electrical, they were done in about half a day.  You can see a little bit of the install in the video.

This thing is the bomb.

Prior to installing it, even here, it would get uncomfortably cold in the shop.  So cold that I would repeatedly drop nails and stuff I was working with because my frozen hands couldn’t move fast enough.  Now – it’s perpetually comfortable in there.  I’m anticipating it will stay that way in the summer as well.  Besides the insulation you saw me install in the videos, there’s also 8 inches of concrete, a pile of earth, and a house to keep the temperature stable.

And a stable temperature means I can actually run experiments where I need the temperature to remain constant.  That should be fun.

But first, I have to unload a giant shipping container!  (Stef has no clue what she’s about to get roped into…)