I had a shed out back that I would have cigars in the winter time up here in the cold north. It was enjoyable but only enough room for me and a friend honestly. This past summer with a lack of going outside, all my neighbors started to hang out on my deck once a week. We would get together, have drinks, snacks, and I would furnish the cigars. As the temperatures dropped and the out door heaters were no longer enough to keep us warm I figured it was time to bring it inside.

I have a three car garage with easy access, so figured I would build it up there. I still needed some storage space, so an 18 foot x 12 foot room would have to do.



The before picture. With my imagination running wild and my construction abilities at the rookie level where putting together a box would be challenging... I some how decided this was a project I could tackle.

First was building the wall to put up a door and separate the cigar room with the storage area. Never built a wall.

I watched some videos on framing and sized my door. Bought a ton of ship lap from home depot and started.



Chop saw. Those are key. I would have had a lot less waste if I went horizontal on the walls, but I wanted to make it look nice too. The floor and ceiling would be horizontal, so I made the mid/knee walls vertical. Those are roughly 4' and change high.



Walls are up, electrical run (two circuits so we can run two heaters and a purifier), and my King Salmon from Lake Ontario still on the floor. I was a little over zealous on starting and didn't completely clean out the room and worked around a lot of things. It was time for insulation. Insulated the walls from and back and also the sides. Didn't insulation the ceiling so it can breathe.



Keep in mind... I have no idea what I'm doing. I was thinking that I wouldn't need any insulation, but thankfully thought better of it.

Remember, I said I wasn't a professional and have the wounds to show for it.



That was after my pergo floor installation. My other hand was covered also. My fingers tend to work better on keyboards than with hammers.

Here is the final-ish product with the decor added...



Added one of those infrared heater fireplaces on the wall and have another heater on the other side that gets the room a little too warm, but is needed on those nights when it hits single digits outside. The booze rack is filled with booze now and even have a new coffee table that matches the rest at this point. Still waiting on some lamps - ordered a month ago and still don't have them!

The fingers have since healed and my sanity restored. It was only a couple years ago I found myself dressed up in thermals and ski gear and even blankets just to have a cigar in the garage with the door open while I watched it snow. Now I get to have it while wearing a t-shirt as I lounge in relative luxury.

The filtration system works great. It's a honeywell and does a fantastic job of getting the smoke out of the air quickly. Even when 6 of us were in the last week. The key though is the ozone machine I purchased that I run after we shut it down for the night. Without it, you will always have this residual old smoke smell that we are all familiar with smelling the next day. How cigar smoke that smells so amazing can smell so bad the next day I'll never know. The ozone machine (around $60 online) set with a timer for 60 minutes cleans the smell right out. Almost non-detectable.

Posting as I hope it offers some inspiration to those who, like me, suffered in the cold for far too long.