Workbench
Here's a shot of the workbench mentioned in the previous post:
(Note the Verizon FiOS battery unit in the middle of the wall! See the FiOS post for details.)
The work surface (a laminated MDF board) is 30 inches high and wide, which Alison feels is just slightly too large for her to reach across comfortably. The framing is plain old 2x4 fir lumber, screwed into the studs along the back, and with the supports being attached to the concrete floor with steel L brackets and concrete anchors. It seems quite solid for something built by a software engineer, but I'm sure many will have comments. One of my coworkers has already alerted me to the need for pressure treated lumber and a vapor barrier between the wood and concrete; apparently typical garages get quite damp. To the kibitzvolk out there, I can only reply with a classic software adage: not every job worth doing is worth doing well. We ripped out a previous workbench, which while ugly and amateurish (far more so than this one), was still a useful table and cabinet. I'll be happy if ours meets the same standards for the next owners who rip it out in the decades to come.
The anchors are a fun story: drilling holes in concrete requires the use of a hammer drill, which can be rented for about $40 from the local Home Depot. The drill, however, comes with no documentation whatsoever, so I just followed the instructions of the Home Depot employee to leave the little rotary mystery dial set to the rightmost position (with an icon that looks a little like an oil rig). I put the bit to the concrete, pressed the trigger, and ... no joy. The drill spins, digs out a dimple in the concrete, and gets very hot. But there's no hole! So on a hunch, I flip the mystery dial to the icon that looks like a hammer and try again. Zzzzip! The thing cuts through to the depth of the anchor in about half a second. So much for the expert advice from Home Depot...
Since this photo was taken, we've installed pegboards on the left hand corner, and eventually plan on having modular shelving tracks on the wall (once we move the verizon box) for more storage.