20090523

Mostly finished project.

A good friend is moving this summer (pout) and was selling some things. I looked through the list and noticed that she listed 2 heavy duty shelves, from Costco. Since I had planned to purchase some of these anyway, it made more sense to buy hers. The only problem was, the disaster area known as a garage is where I want to put them. I needed to tackle organizing it a little.

Its never been bad enough that we couldn't park in it, luckily we have an "extended garage" (an extra 6 feet in width.) However we have so much junk from unfinished projects and unorganized tools and such that there are piles of crap on every surface and you can rarely find what you are looking for. (Tool wise- I have a couple of those same shelves in there already that are fairly organized. I mean I can see if I need to buy toilet paper or dish soap.) It has also never been painted. Oh, sure they textured the walls, but never painted, not even a thin layer of super crappy, un-washable flat, white paint. Nice huh? 6 years of looking at this every time I park.
The finish our homebuilders did, drywall, with texture, no paint. Grrr.

When Will left, one of the projects I wanted to finish was the garage. I longed to have an organized and nice looking (read as painted) garage. But there were so many other projects and it kept falling so low on the list. Then it got hot. Our house faces east- the garage faces east, so in the morning the sun beats into the garage with a ferocity. It is too hot to be in there when its already 90 by 9am.

The weather changed this week, a storm blew in, and cooled us down. The sun didn't come out from behind the clouds, so even though I was struggling with a not to severe cold, I began moving the large items in the garage around. The biggest problem was picking a color. It couldn't be a girlie color, but I didn't want to paint it tan, either. Then it hit me, gray. A nice light gray would be perfect. I picked one from Behr, but ended up at Lowe's (they don't sell Behr there) and found a similar color called "Tsunami Sky" by Valspar. I also noticed a huge "Mail-In Rebate! $5 off a gallon and $20 off of 5 gallons of Valspar Paint" sign. It clinched it and I asked the paint mixer if he thought semi-gloss would be good in a garage. Also asked him if 5 gallons would be the right amount for a 2 car garage that had never been painted. He said that if it had been previously painted, then 3 gallons would have been his suggestion, but 5 was a better idea.

After that, I went home, put on my "painting duds" and got to work. Gwennie is awesome. She will hang out near me, or play nicely in the house while I get work done. She does get into things but not as much as Rhayn did at her age. I was able to get 2 coats on the wall that the shelves were in front of (as I had decided that painting the garage was at least a three part project, north side, south side and ceiling.) The biggest challenge on that side was painting around the water heater. Let me say, it was hard, really hard. But its done and I am pretty sure I got all of it.
The water heater of doom, or the hardest part, so far to paint.

The next day I moved all of Will's man toys from the other wall before getting started on that side. I also had to vacuum up sawdust, lots and lots of sawdust. Painting that side took just as long as the other side, but only because it involved the front wall. I left the garage to dry overnight.

This morning I woke up and put everything back in place. I moved things that I felt needed a new home, and really tried to lump together items that were similar. (Like all of the things that are used to fix cars, oil, filters, brake pads, etc.) There are a few items that I need to sell, and a few more items that I have no idea what to do with.

Will's not being home makes it difficult to go through and get rid of stuff that he doesn't need or won't use any more. Personally I would get rid of the 6 dozen or so empty glass beer bottles that he one collected to brew his own beer. As long as we've been together he never had brewed any to the best of my recollection. It is worth hanging on to all of those bottles? What about the hardware that was used to build the patio cover? The only reason I didn't get rid of that was because he has to fix it when he gets home and he wants to build a faux balcony, so he may need many of those little metal pieces. He always seems to buy at least 50% more than he needs. I understood it way back when there were no home improvement stores near us, but why not take the unused items back to Home Depot/Lowe's? Instead of holding on to them? I suppose I am guilty of the same thing.

I am exhausted from this project and it is only about three fourths of the way done. The ceiling paint job may have to wait until fall. Because painting in an oven is not fun.

4 comments:

Everyday Mom Designs said...

Aww... I'm sure you are doing a great job, especially considering the fact that you are sick. Take a break hun. You deserve it.

bodaat said...

I commend you for doing this by yourself! What an accomplishment it has been so far! I'm not sure that I could do it. Hooray for you! Can't wait to see the end pictures.

Amie said...

WOW, you are so on it!! I'm amazed the things you've done while he is away. You are so strong. =)

Anonymous said...

Here's your laughter for the day. And I quote from Charles, "Wow Helena painted the garage, she must be effing bored."

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