(Written June/July 2023)
This is the garage we began with.
It was planned and dreamed for, for well over a decade. But the actual build started in June 2023.
The lead up to it involved slowly clearing the garage out, and then getting the wood and supplies required to finally begin the build.
The first wall lining was framed in by June 16, followed soon after by the opposite wall as well.
Another week later, it was the big step of having the frame go across the middle of the garage to form out the actual space that would end up as my grooming salon!
Each wall had its issues to work around; the rafters and the floor and the shapes the concrete block walls had, the building code and Adrians still amateur DIY skills, but I think the wall frames are so tidy and well made! Adrian will probably tell you I’ve grossly understated the issues he kept encountering, but I can’t remember everything that was a problem, and I’m just so proud of his skills putting this all together for me!
The “doorway” you can see there will end up as my broom cupboard, but is currently our access until we are able to get a ranch slider and get it put in!
Lining the walls went well, but boxing in the skylight and doing the ceiling with the wonky rafters and adding insulation and everything, all caused more headaches!
So we have a room! We are now a full month after starting, and it’s looking and feeling amazing and Adrian has done it all himself! I can spend ages hanging out there imagining and planning and discussing the finer points of things we are planning.
My bath is a big commercial stainless steel sink that my brother found for me ten years ago, almost to the day, specifically to be my dog bath! That was back in Dunedin when we had plans of building a salon in our basement, but it never happened and we moved towns and had more kids and life carried on…
But ten years later we still have the bath and now we have a salon coming together too. We decided to shorten one edge, as it wasn't needed and would make the whole bench need to be longer. As floor space is such a premium in my tiny salon, we didn’t want a longer bench, so we cut that end down! Did you know that cutting through solid stainless steel is hard work!? He did it though and it’s now a perfect length to give me space in the corner for my tool cabinet.
Adrian built the frame to get it up and in to place, I put my dogs in as a test for the height before it was too far along, then he continued making the whole bench frame for it. Here are both dogs and Nitro the cat modelling it!
We purposefully made it a “floating” type design, because, as I said before, floor space is a premium in here, so taking up floor space with the front leg of the bench was something we wanted to avoid. It keeps the space feeling open and not as cluttered.
Next up is making the bath bench more “pretty” with a skirting around it to hide the metal tub and bracketing, and a coat of paint. The bottom shelf will remain open for shampoo storage so it’s easily accessible while bathing dogs.
In the mean time there is also endless prepping; filling holes and gaps, silicone to the edges up at the skylight, levelling edges, sanding and starting to paint the undercoat too. It's still a long way off from functional, but I am loving watching all the stages as they happen!
See part 2 here: https://www.amyslittledogspa.com/post/the-build-pt2
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