I wound up with a couple of extra weekend days and decided to move the stairwell upstairs to the finishing/storage area outside my shop. This entailed quite a bit of work over 4 1/2 days and I still have a bit to do to finish the project.

I started out by planting 12 new Slash Pines in the front and side yards of our house on Thursday nite. These pines grow about 3-4 feet per year and I dotted the yard with 'em.

Friday morning I got up and put together the new smoker I bought...it tested out very nicely on Sunday. The the wife had asked for a cat door so my next project was installing one....now if we could only train the cats to use it!

. 

At 1pm Friday I started removing the stairs from the shop...by 1am Sunday morning I had all the major work done and by 3pm I was finished with phase 1 and ready to BBQ.
I got the stairwell moved and a new 4x8 deck upstairs built with a railing. I used recycled cedar for the railing balusters and half the deck boards were from another project. I moved the stereo cabinet onto a new workbench which will have up to 12' lumber storage capacity and another shelf [yet to be built] for all my jobsite toolbags.

The stairwell turned out to be made from Cedar and Southern Yellow Pine, so I won't have to paint it!! The second pic was taken before I cut the new doorway. I have a temporary door in there now until I can find a 30" french door. I also landed two new cabinets and a shelf unit from a client's garage...they fit in nicely.

. 

. 

In this pic the black line coming off the ceiling and down beside the refridgerator
is the air line from upstairs. I finished out the shelf and wood rack. I can store up to
11' boards under the bench.

The old toolbag storage areas went to wood storage, outdoor paint & stain and a stray
circular saw case. The second shot used to be very disorganized area,
but is now as neat as a pin.

Here's some shots from the upstairs...I floored the stairwell area....sure is nice [& quieter] to have the DC and compressor out of the shop!!!

Here's a shot or two of the upper deck. I made it 4x8 so the wife and I could sit upstairs and enjoy the pecan tree's shade [it's over 250 years old]!!

Back downstairs we have the DC controller [remote] and the blast gate for the RAS. Below are pics of the flex line going up into the 'attic'.