Saturday, November 5, 2011

The hidden room

The new room is coming along.  Mr. Bug-out renter and I are building it.  We got most of it framed then realized that we miscounted the number of 2x4s that would be needed.  Although I bought two or three more than planned, for some reason I figured it at 24 inches on center when it's 16.  I don't have enough nice pieces out in the barn so I'll have to buy a few more.  I need some for the cross pieces and framing around the door.

Good lesson for my not spending for a month exercise.  Having to do a repair that takes some 2x4s could become a big problem although at this point in time the lumber is not very expensive.  At least they are available and I have the transportation to run into town and buy more.  I did not stop everything that I was doing today to go to town though.  Instead the project came to a halt.  I'm going to town on Monday when I go to work.  It will have to wait until then.  This is alright since Mrs. Bug-out renter wasn't feeling that well and wanted to go home. 

The room is four feet by 17 feet.  The door is two feet from the side wall so I can put shelving along the side if I want.  I was hoping the room would be 4 1/2 or 5 feet deep but between the electric plugs and the window, 4 feet was what it's ending up as.  I will probably put one or two 24 inch deep shelves and 2 or 3-18 inch deep shelves.  With the shelves 4 feet wide that will cover 16 feet of the back wall.  I can put a a foot deep shelf behind the door or just leave it as a 1 foot by 4 foot space.  I don't know what I'm going to do for lighting: there's no window but there are three electrical outlets.  Maybe I'll put in a motion detecting light that will turn on when the door opens.  That will come in time.  Although I'm going to buy some 2x4s to finish the project, I'm not buying anything extra during the month of no spending. 

The list of purchases over the last two weeks will be:
$4.25 - lunch with coworkers when I was traveling
$10.00 - 20 sticky trays to catch mice
$15.00 - 5 2x4s
It's nice staying out of the stores.

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