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Thread: Office build / new aquarium project

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
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    Detroit Michigan (Royal Oak)
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    Default Office build / new aquarium project

    Thought you guys might like to see what the latest project I have been working on is.

    For about 3-4 years now I have wanted to build onto my basement shop by making and office one the other side of the shop wall. Seems I never had a chance to do it because I never could free up enough time to tackle the years upon years worth of "stuff" that was stored on the other half of the basement. Finally the week between Christmas and New Years last month I had a free week to get started so figured I'd start doing it a little at a time.

    I wish I would have taken a picture before I even started on it because you literally could not see the wall, floor or even the ceiling. Stuff was so packed in there that it was actually floor to ceiling and wall to wall. So the first two pics were taken after I was already 50% down with hauling stuff out.





    The next two pics are after hauling 92 bags! of trash up the stairs and out to the trash (yeah I got my workout for that week!) Also demoed the wood table and ceiling decortive wood 1970's style "things" that were built in about the old table, have the old ceiling tiles down and a few other things.





    Plans for it are to finish ripping up the old floor tiles and put down a new floor. Ceiling tiles I already removed so have to decide what I want and install a new ceiling. I am going to build a new wall to section the office off into a square room that is about 13ft x 13ft in size. Then drywall the entire room, paint and such and then get a nice desk to go against the new wall I will be building...but here is the part I am most excited about. I already have bought a 7ft wide x 31" tall 265 Gallon aquarium which I am picking up in 2 weeks and I plan to build it "into" the new wall so it sits flush with the wall next to my desk B) Then if you guys remember how I made the rock background for my other aquariums with foam and drylok? well I plan to not only do that on this new 7ft aquarium...but I am going to do the entire wall that I am building the aquarium into the same way. So in other words the wall with the aquarium will look like a 3D rock wall, like a cave or side of a cliff. So my office will truly be the Bat Cave

    Gonna take some time as well as a ton of work so it will be somewhat of a slow go, but I will update more pics as I progress with the project.

    Lots of work to do now because I am building the office around the tank so I couldn't start any building till the tank was in position. Now I plane to build a wall flush with the front of the tank so you won't see anything but the front glass flush with the wall (i.e- built in) then I will make a 7ft 3D background for this tank like I did on my other smaller tanks. I'll be putting in new flooring, new ceiling, drywall, painting, office desk, computer etc etc. Should be one hell of a cool home office when it is done.

    Here is the monster sitting in place. It's 7ft long x 2ft wide x 31" tall. It takes up almost the whole width of the basement with just enough room to put a door next to it thankfully.


  2. #2
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    Been working on this project a bit now. Here's a couple pics before and then to the point I am at now today. Ended up scraping the floor to get all the nastiness off of it so I could lay the new floor on top of it. Couple before pics....
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    The flooring I picked is somewhat of a slate/rustic look which should go nicely with the rest of the office once I get it done.



    Still have some edge work and trim pieces to do but most the main floor is now done.




  3. #3
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    Doesn't look like much yet but have faith it will get there. Just started the first coats of paint on the walls yesterday. The upper and lower colors will be split with a 9" tall border I just ordered last night which is a leaping Rainbow trout. Celing is going to be 2x4's spaced 1/4" apart and stained for a rustic finish. Then the drain pipe I am going to build a wood cover for where the lower half will be DIY faux stacked rocks and wood varnished upper section.
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  4. #4
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    Still have some trim work to do at the bottom but here is the rock/wood pillar I built to hide the drain pipe.
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  5. #5
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    Wow....here we go again....yahooo...this should be quite a ride. You are truly a man of many talents !!! Can't wait for the rest.
    Bernie

  6. #6
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    Drain cover is now done. Added lower trim wood to it and a urethane finish to all the wood surfaces to give it a nice clear coat shine. The trout boarder came in earlier than expected so started putting that up yesterday as well. Also installed a new T12 48" twin tube light next top the stairs. Picking up the drywall in just a little bit so I can start the other wall tonight.




  7. #7
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    Well got some major progress done today now. I'm dead tired from working on it all day long today. Probably won't get much more progress done now for a few days because I have about 4 rods to build this week before I leave Friday morning on a Steelhead fishing trip. But today I got the wall on the right drywall sheeted and filled, the frame and wall built around the tank now, and started on doing the rock wall surface on the tank wall.








  8. #8
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  9. #9
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    The one picture of the white wall, border, green wall below border and the baseboard gives a great optical illusion at least for me. The baseboard looks like a step-up onto a green stage with the border along the bottom. : )

    I am enjoying this project, just like your last one, and look forward to more pictures as you go along.

    Job well done.......
    Warren
    Fly fishing and fly tying are two things that I do, and when I am doing them, they are the only 2 things I think about. They clear my mind.

  10. #10
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    Manged to get the 3 rods I needed to get done finished over the weekend so that left me with pretty much the entire day to work on the office. Put another 12 hours straight in to it and got some good progress done today. First two pics are the base coat on the upper portion of the rock wall. Tomorrow I will start some of the detail paint work on it.





    Looks like I'm gonna have to redo the stairs as well because now this wall makes the stairs look bad




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