The Bot Cave We are remodelling our house, adding a sun room, Rec room  for a big screen home theatre  and a new deck with screened porch that includes a wood burming fireplace for  those cool autumn and spring nights. It just happens that there is room under the new addition for a workshop........ The workshop is to be 17'6" by 12', heated and cooled (essential with the hot summers and cold  winters here in N.C.) with extra 200A 110 and 220V service and extra tough and thick Concrete floor to be able to take heavy machine tools. Cable and Telephone lines complete the home comforts. The basic plans showning the three storey addition, porch and new deck. And the plan view of the workshop itself. I think I've thought of everything...... Work has just started on the footings and the concrete folks arrive in next week. One problem though, paying for all this work will mean little left for the big screen TV and the Machine tools! Still it will be great to be able to work in comfort after years in  the garage. August 21, 2004 A couple of days work saw the footings poured then Hurricanes Bonnie and Charley passed close by and dumper a LOT of rain so we lost a few days. The sun  sooned dried everything out again and the slab and block work were just another couple of days work. The framing materials arrived the same day they did the blockwork. The Dumpster has about 18" of water in it and is starting to smell bad! One days work saw the Basement framing done. If the weather holds, the rest of the framing will be finished next week. August 26, 2004 The Sunroom has been framed and the dumpster got changed! And the Rec. Room with its Cathedral ceiling and semi-circular transom window is framed and the roof papered. The weather is staying fine so good progress is  being made. They start work on the other remodeling work inside (A half bath changed to full Bath and some walls and doors added) next week so its going to start getting messy inside! August 31, 2004 Some windows fitted and the shingles on the roof. Just in time for Tropical Depression Gaston to dump 3" of rain on Cary. Its a wet summer its not holding up  work too much so far. Most of the rest of the windows got fitted today. Hurricane Francis is on its way! It looks like Florida will catch it again but N.C. is likely to get  another deluge. The Team are heading for RCRAII this coming weekend. September 14, 2004 More rain slowed things up a bit but good progress has been made getting the siding on. The inside of the Sunroom. The wiring has all been roughed in. The Rec. Room with it Cathedral ceiling looks great. The Big Screen TV will go on the right hand wall (when we can afford it!) And a couple of pictures of the new workshop, looking in and looking out. The door at the back goes into the crawl space under the house. Hurricanes Ivan and probably Jeanne are going to pass through NC soon.....Still, could be worse we could be in Florida or the Gulf Coast. November 5, 2004 We've been very busy this last month or so and so have the builders. The Rec. Room, Sun Room and Basement have all been insulated. I had the builders add a layer of particle board behind the drywall so that there will always be something solid to attach shelves etc to without  trying to find the studs. Drywall added to the basement... Sun Room... and Rec Room.  I took photos of all the wiring before the drywall went up so I would know where it went for future use. I also ran 14GA  speaker cables for the Home Theatre sound system in the Rec. Room and for a Stereo system in the Sun Room. A lot of filling and sanding later plus a coat of paint or two and a hardwood floor and the Sun Room is about finished. Likewise the Rec. Room gets painted and carpeted. We are going to move a couple of the ceiling lights as they shine through the fan with a nasty  stobe effect! More soon as lots more has been done on the exterior and the rest of the interior work. Just havn't got around to taking the pictures yet. January 2, 2005 I mounted the Drill press and the big vice on the bench at the back. I plan to keep all cutting/grinding work to this bench leaving the the other bench  cleaner for assembly work. Shelves have been added to the walls behind both benches and I bought a large quantity of Plastic boxes and containers and went through all the stuff that had been  packed in cardboard boxes and tins, from nuts and bolts to EV warrior motors. Now everything has it own box so that now maybe I can find what I'm looking for quickly. Santa brought me the big Shop Vac and  the Craftsman wheeled tool cabinet. The Vac has already proved useful in clearing up the sawdust when installing the benches etc. and the cabinet means I have sorted out all my wrenches etc. at last. my  older Tool box now resides on the metal working bench as a store for all the drill bits, taps etc. The upper rooms in the addition are now complete and awaiting furniture, the big screen TV won't be coming  until around Thanksgiving 2005 when the prices for 50+" DLP Screens come down a bit. In the spring we start work on the new deck and screened porch.........