Ornery swears that the last three days have actually been three weeks in duration. I have to admit, we have certainly crammed a lot of living into the time! It is hard to believe that we've only had Big Red (his truck) since Friday night.
Saturday, we climbed into it and went to breakfast at Panera, then over to Lowe's where we did our part for the local economy. An hour later, we were unloading all our purchases into the garage to begin Project Man Cave. The first step: Ornery had to install the "new" seat in the van. That done, he moved both vehicles to the drive way to make room for all our projects.
The previous owner had hung shelves using unpainted particle board and closet bar brackets. The result was a sturdy but ugly arrangement. We left one section up above the sprinkler controls for Christmas storage, but removed the rest of them on both sides of the garage.
In the absence of an outdoor shed (such things are closely monitored in our addition) we figured we would need to hang the garden tools on the wall. We used four sections of Gladiator tool bars and a variety of associated hooks to hang them on the north wall near the overhead door. Everything from axes to snow shovels found a spot there. It took us several hours to learn the ins and outs of stud-finding, install the bars, then unpack all the tools and arrange them to our liking, but the end result was quite satisfactory.
We removed a considerable amount of junk the previous owner left behind, then arranged the floor jack, folding tables and ladder along the wall under the shelf with the Christmas decorations. The Christmas trees went to the (very hot) attic, along with all the extra doors, screens and cabinet shelves that had been stored in the garage. That enabled us to hang the extension ladder across the west (front) end. It isn't the ideal spot since it impedes the opening of the water heater closet, but it was the only place that would work.
We worked in the garage until 6:00 when we took a shower, ate dinner and watched a movie to keep us from going to bed at 7:00. We both slept very well that night! The only thing that enabled us to work so long out there was the fact that there are air conditioner vents! We opened them up and set up two fans, and while it was still over 80, with the fans moving the air around it was not too uncomfortable. We also drank a LOT of water!
Sunday morning we again ventured out in Big Red to Lowe's, this time to buy some paint. Ornery decided on a battleship gray color for the walls, pegboard and workbench so we bought a gallon of that and a quart of red to paint the big wooden shelf unit we brought from Miller Manor--it is currently purple.
The next task was to build the 48-inch Gladiator storage cabinet. What a dream to assemble! The instructions were easy to understand, the parts clearly labeled in a handy little tray, and everything went together just like it was meant to! We finished it just before lunch.
Next we moved everything from the south side of the garage out of the way, then we painted the long south wall and 1/3 of the west wall to the kitchen door with the gray. I rolled the walls while Ornery did the trim work on the top and bottom. Once we had it painted, we moved the Gladiator cabinet to its new home and loaded it up, then put the purple shelf on its back on a table for me to clean and paint today.
Once it is primed and painted, I will put peel and stick vinyl tiles (left over from the kitchen) on the shelves to help keep them clean. We will set it up next to the Gladiator and load it with all things paint related--and as often as we paint, that is a considerable collection of stuff! Eventually he plans to put doors on the front of it, but at least it will look nice for now.
Once he has the pegboard hung on the south wall (all sixteen feet of it!) we will paint it gray and trim it with black corner molding. Then, we will prime and paint the workbench and cover the top with a sheet of stainless steel to keep dirt from falling between the 2X4 top pieces.
The east wall is where the overhead doors are, but on that end of the single car bay, we are going to sort of partition off one end for all the yard and garden equipment. The garden bench will face into the workshop area and its back will delineate the edge of the "shed" portion of the room. We'll be able to access the items stored beneath it from either side, and the table top will give Ornery extra work space.
We still have a lot of work to do in there, but we made significant progress this weekend. While I would like to finish it off by the end of Saturday, I know how hard it is to get much done in the evenings so I am not going to stress if we don't make it. At any rate, I will wait until the room is finished to take and post photos, but I promise, they will be coming!
It looks like it's going to be a busy week!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us! We really appreciate it.