As we continue in my mission to fix things in and around our home, I would like to show you the progress we've made in finishing our garage.
I'm sure it seems odd to many people that I would choose to put money and time into updating the garage rather than rooms in our house. Over these last few months when we were constantly going to appointments, not to mention the daily drop offs to two schools and pick ups from two schools, I felt like I saw the garage more often than any other room in my house.
Our garage had drywall but the seams had barely been taped and not really mudded. Jared and I finished drywall once in our old house. It was hideous. So for this job we finally broke down and paid someone else to do the work so it would be done correctly. We hired a friend from church who is very particular about his work. The best part was that he is very trustworthy so I didn't have to feel creeped out about having a stranger working in my home everyday.
Here is what our garage looked like before:
This is what the garage has looked like since we moved in. The previous owner (who built the house) had put up the shelving and made the brackets up high for additional storage. It's all good in theory, but I definitely didn't feel like we were maximizing the space.
We cleared out as much stuff as we could. Some things were relocated and some things, unfortunately, just had to stay in the garage because it rained nearly every day of the garage project. Plus we didn't really want tools and other valuable items sitting outside.
Then be brought in our friend William and had him do his thing. He had to remove a lot of the old tape that was cracking and peeling. He filled many many holes and covered old screws. He even secured a lot of the sheetrock that he didn't think was properly installed. He also brought in leftover drywall from home to fill in above our electrical breaker box.
I could already tell a huge difference just when he was finished with applying the joint compound.
I got annoyingly excited when William started priming!
There was a lot of life happening during the week that William was working on our garage. I was so busy that I forgot to take a picture of the walls all primed. But I can tell you that it was amazing to see them look like actual walls.
I was gone all day Friday while William painted the walls and ceiling. Then we were busy helping my mom move. Then we had Nolan's birthday party with his friends. So last night was my first chance to really look at the finished garage. And I happened to notice that it's the wrong color.
I won't name any names. Let's just say that Spouse A asked Spouse B to get a 5 gallon bucket of the gray paint from our bedroom. Spouse B found a leftover paint can in the basement that was a shade of gray and had our local hardware store do a color match and make 5 gallons. Said paint was handed off to William who applied the paint in the absence of Spouse A. And then Spouse A saw that Spouse B had actually color matched the paint color from our living room. And spouse A hates that color.
Oh well. This is what we like to call a First World Problem.
So our garage is finished and is a shade of blue instead of gray. But it's finished. Jared and I spent the evening cleaning up all the dust. We moved a few things back to their intended spots and the rest we just put on Jared's side of the garage so I can park in my spot for now. I still want to take some time to figure out the best way to organize our stuff rather than just putting the old shelves in their old places.
Now as I take the kids to school and go about the busyness of May, I can get a little jolt of happiness every time I see these nice smooth finished (albeit blue) walls. Someday we will have great shelves and pegboard and cool hooks and a painted door, and all these things will make me happy as well.
Jessica
