The Shelves

One of the complications of this build/move is the fact that I/we have tons of stuff (even after moving 3 times)  in Virginia (in our house, in the barn, and in a box trailer), in a rented storage lock'n'store in Carterville, and still in Lola's basement and my old shop.  So it has been a priority to get stuff out of those places.  Much of it has found it's way into the shop:  The barn in Virginia is mostly empty.  My old shop is 85% moved out.  And the box trailer has been packed tight, moved to Illinois, emptied into the shop, and ready for another load.  Much of this stuff was randomly piled.

I started early last fall to build shelves to organize and store everything.  This project was interrupted several times.  The nice fall weather meant doing outside work first.  I also realized that it made more sense to build out the tempered workspace (now, apartment) before the shelves.  I finally got back to the shelves and Jan organized stuff and put things in the loft.

The design is a bit complicated, I'll admit, but they are very accessible, have a minimum number of posts, and really don't take up too much space.

With Jan loading stuff up into the loft space over apartment, it quickly became obvious a stair would be nice.  It was obvious to her, but, I bone-headedly struggled with the ladder.  Jason told me about the stairs his Grandfather has in his shop.  It is something between a stair and a ladder;  steeper than stairs but easier than a ladder.  So I built one.  Works well.  Next, Jan thinks we need a guard rail along the edge of the loft. Could be right.