Progress on Project Mancave

Since my last update on Project Mancave, there has been significant progress. Let me show you what's up.

Previously we had finished digging the foundations and laid a fresh concrete floor. Now it's time to do the walls. As fitting as it would be to have a mancave with walls of solid stone, Finland has a tendency of getting very cold during the winter and having a bit of extra insulation is quite beneficial towards keeping warm. To this end, we decided to build inner walls in the mancave.

First, a wooden frame

Then a thick layer of insulating wool and a plastic sheet to block moisture

And finally some cheap plaster sheets for walls.

As you can see, the windows are covered with styrofoam. We didn't have the time or the money to put in new windows before next summer, so the styrofoam is there to keep the cold out. It's not like there's much sunlight to enjoy this time of year anyway.

After the walls were complete I gave them a couple coats of the cheapest acrylic white wall paint I could find. Suddenly the place was ready for furniture. The ceiling still needs work (and more lamps) but I can do that later. The cost of doing the walls is somewhere around 500 Euro.

I've accumulated quite a collection of old furniture from here and there. Stuff people were going to throw away but I salvaged. Therefore I was able to furnish the place with zero cost. Lots of shelves and cabinets as you can see:

 After those were in place it took my wife just a couple of seconds to start cashing in on those "once the workshop is ready I'll haul all this stuff from the house in there" promises I made. We'll see how long the storage space holds.

Complete with a lounging area!

..and a cat entrance.

There's still much to add and do, but now the space is complete enough for me to start doing some projects in. The space which was once a stables, but has now become a workshop is kept above zero by a small radiator, and the temperature there is about 4 Celsius. When I need to work there, I can use a hot air blower to make the place above 12 Celsius. It's comfortable enough. There's a workbench to add as well as some accessories no workshop can do without (like a tool hanger on the wall) but I think I'm pretty much done for the winter.

Heating solution