The Wargo Blog

I moved my tools and my office into my new man cave back in October. I’ve been trying to get all of my tools unboxed so I can start doing some of the projects I wanted to do around here and it’s just been a struggle. Back during the holidays I decided to put some cabinets in the back of the new garage so I can store my tools in them. I started looking at cabinets on sale at Home Depot, but they really didn’t suit my needs. My brother in law Ed suggested a few things and one of them was to put a space between the cabinets for larger equipment. It was a great idea.

Rather than buy something, I decided to get some help, buy the wood and build them myself. I got the wood a couple of weeks ago and put them together. I finally got them installed last week and I’m mostly moved in. I thought I’d share some pictures of the shelves. I think they turned out pretty well (if I do say myself).

That funky stuff you see on the floor is the crappy epoxy coating the builder put down. We’re waiting for warmer weather for them to pull it all up and put something else down in its place.

Apparently there hasn’t been a white Christmas in 40 years or so on Charlotte. Then, we move here and change everything! The snow arrived last night (so technically it’s Christmas snow) but these pictures show what we woke up to this morning. Beautiful!

Our Christmas tree looks amazing, best tree I’ve ever gotten. Here’s a picture of the final product.

Christmas Tree Finished

Older Ohio houses always had these low ceilings. In my parents house, we were always stuck with a 6 or 7 foot tree just because of the ceilings. In the south, we all have these great big ceilings and our den has big vaulted ceilings – something like 15 or 18 feet tall. Yesterday we went out looking for a tree and of course we had so much room to work with, we picked up a ginormous tree (like 12 feet tall). Not quite too tall for the room, it took two men to carry this tree in, but we could have gone even further if we wanted to (I didn’t want too).

All of us worked together to put the lights on the tree before the twins went to bed last night. Right now they’re decorating the tree – it’s going to be beautiful.

Here’s a picture of the tree as it was last night. Merry Christmas!

Wargo Christmas Tree - Phase 1

I was able to move into my new, what to call it, outbuilding a few weeks ago. The builder finished most of the work, only a few little things left over and a couple of big things (such as my book shelves and the air conditioning unit in my workshop. I’ve been so busy lately that I didn’t get a chance to give you some updated photos, so I thought I’d post some close to finished pictures for you to see. The landscaping is finished and the office should be done in a few weeks (once I get the book shelves installed and filled).  Here’s what it looked like a few weeks ago. Enjoy!

Well, Stucco is on the walls and we’re very slowly making progress.  The painters are supposed to be here today painting the trim, but of course they’re nowhere to be found. Anna’s over there doing some more priming; we’re supposed to paint the downstairs this weekend and she’ll do the upstairs next week while the kids are in school. For some bizarre reason I’m having a really hard time getting her to actually buy paint. I don’t understand it, but it is what it is. Theoretically the hardwood will be delivered next week and the floors will go in soon after.

Here’s pictures before and after stucco.

Well, about $350 later, our camera has been fixed and I can get back to taking some good pictures of the new garage/office. While I was out of town last week, they finished framing the building, put on the roof and installed the windows. Here’s some update pictures:

The plan for this week is to finish the framing and probably start on the plumbing and electrical. It’s possible they’ll even get started on putting up the stucco. They have a couple of errors to fix from the framing and I need to figure out how to fit a ceiling fan, four speakers and two fluorescent lights on the ceiling.  Could be fun.

Well, after many (many, many) problems and delays, the walls are finally going up on my new garage/office/workshop.  Half of the wood was delivered yesterday and the framers started framing early this morning. Two walls are up and the back wall is being built in place.  They’ll have the front wall installed before lunch and may even get started on the floor joist installation. They may even have the second floor framed today.

Here are some pictures.

All of us have been spending most of the morning sitting on the back porch watching the workers work away. It’s mesmerizing – I had to pull myself away several times today to go back to work.

Of course Anna and I looked at the first floor and we’re so scared about how tall this building is really going to be. There’s no getting around it, but it’s hard to look at this thing and not miss our view of the back yards.  I’ll have a great view from my office, but the back deck looses so much of its charm.

Well, the big concrete trucks came today and poured the footers for the new garage/office. Take a look.