Grandma is the Best!

Grandma taught Blake how to use the sewing machining and he caught on very quickly. They made the two hand puppets you see in the photo and Blake did all the sewing except the hemming. After the puppets were made the boys took the puppets down for a piano lesson with grandma. Blake named his puppet Smiley after Greatgrandma siad the puppet was smiling and Nate named his Mr. Green becasue of the green cloth.

Office/ Family Room/ Apartment

When we first conceived the idea to put our garage on the street level or 2nd level we had no idea what we would do with the area under the garage. At first we figured we would just leave it open and perhaps put a play area for the grandkids under the garage. Then we thought we should at the very least enclose the walls and make it into storage. But like most things that Connie and I get involved with we never stop with the easy option. Hence the tri-purpose room; office, family room, apartment.

My business partner Fred was by this afternoon for a quick meeting and to see how things were progressing under the garage. He asked if I had been taking photos and I had to admit it had been a while since I had. So, after tonight's dinner I ran down and shot the photos that are posted below.


The back wall with Pan Abode Homes red cedar Phoenix T&G paneling. The 4 foot wide closet can also be seen in the photo. I will sheetrock the inside of the closet. The black ABS pipe is the floor drains from the garage above.


A built in bookshelf is on one corner of the room. Since the garage is supported on 14 one foot square nine foot high concrete pillars the walls between the pillars are over 10 inches thick. I left the pillars showing as I kind of like the look of the concrete between the wood.


The vertical tongue and groove paneling is 1X3 spruce and hemlock that was milled on Prince of Wales Island here in Southeast Alaska. The cabinet fronts are apitong plywood that is a marine grade but is a fraction of the cost of fir marine grade plywood.

You can also see the door to the restroom which will have a small shower. The restroom will be a combination of sheetrock, tile and wood.


Another view of the kitchenette and cabinets. The drawer fronts are made out of left over Hawaiian koa from a cabinet job I did many years ago. The counter tops will be granite tiles.


The electric sub-panel for this room and the garage is feed from the house power. So, I wired in a sub-meter to the right of the panel so that I can track the power separate from the house. This is incase I ever use the room as my business office, or a rental apartment sometime down the line.


To frame the inner walls I used the leftover lumber from the cement forms that we built to pour the garage. The plywood under the wood paneling is all leftover cement forms. Now that I’m better than ½ done with this project I’m happy to say other than the plywood for the cabinets all the other plywood on this project has been left over forms.

I still have many more days of work to finish this project with the sheetrock coming next. Then the restroom to finish with lots of tile work. The floor will be a combination of tile and commercial grade glue down carpet.

Even though this has been a ton of work I’m glad that we decided to finish the area. In time I envision a ping pong table in the middle of the room and a great place for the grandsons to play when they are here.

Helpful Grandsons?

After practicing 1st aid on grandma’s fingers with blue masking tape the boys figured grandma needed lead boots. I get such a kick out of watching these two boys with their grandma because all three of them are extra silly.