Wham Bam Walk-in Cooler!

Oh how I wish I had some better "before" pictures of this project!  The best I can offer is the second picture from this post. That would be the garage in all its disastrous glory. Stuff piled everywhere! It only got worse when Jeremy brought in the huge stack of walls and things for the walk-in cooler - and then we brought in all the foam insulation from the basement.

We made some plans because all that stuff in the back corner had to go somewhere: the giant tub of hay for the chickens, the aforementioned claw foot tub, a bathroom sink, our chest freezer, loads of storm windows, piles of wood, shelves, hoses, etc, etc.  Some things moved down to the basement, some things went up in the rafters, some things were piled up for a run to the dump, and by last Wednesday, the corner was amazingly cleared out. A little sweeping and it was as clean as the day we bought the house.

The cleanest this corner of the basement has been in years!

From that back corner, surveying the rest of the garage, you can see piles of wood and some windows on the far right, then the tub of hay (hiding the tub and two sinks behind it), then the stack that will be the walk in cooler, covered by some of the foam insulation.

On Friday Jeremy got to work. I don't know if I can describe how this thing goes together. He had to attach 2x2 strips to the floor and then the walls fit onto those strips, and slotted into each other. He started in the back and worked his way around...

Wham bam! Instant walk in cooler!  Okay, it wasn't really instant, but the first picture was taken at 3:20 and the last one at 4:30! I don't think the ceiling is on in the last picture and that took a little bit more time.  Sunday Jeremy finished the electrical so there is an outlet inside the cooler and a light. The next step is to build in a floor, just like the one in the basement set-up. A bunch of insulation laid down on the floor with some wood over the top. And then we'll move up a couple of shelves from the basement and it will be ready to receive mushroom spawn and later, mushrooms!

Oh, I should say there is nothing to cool it at the moment (except Minnesota's crazy cold winter), but later Jeremy will add a modified air conditioner to keep it chilly inside.