Yes… I know I am a geek and most of you know that too, but you probably don’t know I’m a high school dropout. I mention that because I really hated high school, but I loved learning. I would have done really well at a tech school because I like doing things rather than reading or being told how to do things.
In my current job at the telephone company I install and maintain telephone and data networks for our business customers. I use our test lab at work all the time to improve my knowledge and skills, but I only have so much time to spend in the lab.
For fun and yes I said fun, I like to do the same stuff at home. For years I’ve had various piece of used enterprise hardware that I’ve kept in ‘my lab’ in one of our spare bedrooms. This hardware has included telephone systems, routers, switches and servers all pilled in a big mess with cords running everywhere.
Two years ago I was lucky to acquire a very nice data cabinet and I set out on designing my own purpose built room for my lab. Fast forward to now and I am finally putting the finishing touches on the room, which has become more that just my lab. I built the room in my basement in a corner that is surround by concrete walls on three sides. I added a wall and I made it very solid. I also added a solid steel door and electronic lock – essentially creating a safe room. The room is small, six-by-ten, so space is at a premium.
The main purpose of this room though is still to function as my lab and office. I have some finish work to do, but I started moving in some of the equipment. The room has its own isolated power, generator backup power and UPS to keep all my equipment running 24/7 in the event of a utility outage. This room also houses the servers that host this site and a few other sites that I maintain.
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loginI’ll add a few more pictures when I’m done, but it’s really starting to look good. I went overboard on some of the finishes, but I used this room to gain knowledge and to improve my home remodeling skills. I have a lot of remodeling work to do on the house and I figured it would be fine if I messed up something in here, but there were only a few ‘oops’ moments.
Among the things that I enjoyed doing were the textured walls and epoxy countertop - two things that I will do in other parts of the house in the future. I also added some really cool LED lights under the countertop to provide soft lighting in the room so I don’t have to have the super bright overhead LED light on all the time.
