Another month, and another Man Cave Monday. My ambitious plan to convert my garage from a disaster area into a comic book shrine continues. Slowly. But it does continue. (Deep background and more shabby garage photos are on display in my January and February updates).

About the only thing that is certain about this project is that I wanted to wall off one section of the garage and make it a more friendly space for storage and for hanging out and reading comic books. I’ve been making up the process and the order of operations as I’ve gone along. I didn’t intend to put a wall in this early in the process, but when some very capable friends offered to come visit for the weekend and do the job for me, I was happy to jump that part of the job to the head of the line.

And so, after picking up a hundred bucks worth of lumber …

… it was back home to marvel at the carpentry skills of my buddy Tom, who hauled a virtual workshop to my secret headquarters just to do this job.

After some misadventures (and let’s just say that we didn’t quite hit the gold standard of “measure twice, cut once”) we had the frame up in place. Here my lovely wife, Rita, holds up her end while Tom anchors the frame to the floor. On the right you can see a couple comic posters from the secondary garage door that will serve as the back wall for the new comic space.

And here that wall/door has been opened up for air and light, while the drywall goes up to complete the wall. Also in frame here are Tom’s wife, Gretchen, who did a fine job on the drywall, and my pal Jim, who passed through town for a visit for the first time in five years, and of course was put to work for his pains.

I am surely blessed with more generous friends than I deserve.

Next we will have to sand the wall and apply a coat of paint. Then it will be time to make some decisions about cabinetry.

There’s still a ton of work to do, and in the aftermath of this weekend, it looks like a bomb went off in the garage, but for the first time in memory, this actually makes me happy — because the disorder doesn’t denote dysfunction; it demonstrates progress!

Onward!

Related articles

• Mancave Monday: Resolution Resolution (longboxgraveyard.com)
• It’s some work, all play in this Shelf Porn office (robot6.comicbookresources.com)