The Retail Space Taking Shape

As I last reported, (actually I didn't report I just showed a photo) we were in the midst of electrical work.  The workshop house needed pretty much a total re-wiring.  Many of the outlets, switches and lights were improperly and/or dangerously wired.  We called in a professional electrician to sort everything out.  He said it was one of, if not the worst, house he had ever worked in.  Just my luck.

The whole basement area was like a spiderweb of wires going every which way.  Some were not connected, some were, and some led to ... who knows where (those ones had to be capped off).  The electrician was at the workshop for almost two full weeks.  Can you say $$$$ ?

After he left, I spent a day and a half picking up old wires and vacuuming up the actual spiderwebs that hung from every beam.

On to the front room, which will be the retail space, that was last shown to look like this:

Since then, the studs for the closet were removed and the door and frame taken down.

That left me with this:

Then I tried to fix the ceiling where the top plates were.  I am not a good drywall finisher, but it looked good enough to paint.  (If you visit my shop please do not look up upon entering!)

Before I work on the walls I am trying to find some pieces of flooring that match the laminate that is there now.  There is laminate missing where the wall to the bedroom was and also a few pieces that have nail holes in them from the closet, which sat on top of the laminate. So far I have been unable to match it, there are so many different laminates and this is from about 7 years ago, so the chances are slim. I might have to redo the whole retail floor with something else.  I will check Home Depot this week, it's my last chance to find a match.

The retail space continues over to the place where my workshop will be (to the left of the door when you walk in) and I need to block that off.  I don't want shoppers to walk into the work space and I don't want sawdust in the store section.

I will have to make a wall just past where the stairs go up.  Directly across from that wall is a window, so the wall I make will need to be on a slight angle.

Here's a view from the other way, looking towards the front door. Looking at the next photo, the wall will start on the left just before the stairs and end on the right, just past the window. I'm not sure that it shows in the photos but a wall straight out from the stair wall would end up in the window space, thus the angled wall is needed.

I will also remove that large grate and will need to patch the laminate there as well.