"i got this" - Kenny Wyland
This isn't where I thought I was going to be when I looked forward into my life, but here I am....
Yes We Can
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We Fought the Garage and WE won
My garage has been an absolute disaster for a good couple of years now. I mean... complete disaster. It's a two-car garage and there was barely enough room for a person to walk in to get to the laundry. The floor has been filled with random crap from different projects in the past. A bunch of lumber scraps or dry wall scraps from previous projects were strewn about. There was an old couch in the back that was moldy and covered in cat piss. I tended to leave the garage door open (it's in my back yard behind a front gate) so everything was remarkably dirty. There were two "light fixtures" but neither of them worked. They were completely ghetto as well. One of them wasn't even attached to the rafters, it was merely hanging by its electrical wiring (about the same size as a lamp cord) and the other one was randomly attached with bailing wire ... and attached poorly.
This is what it looked like before:
Seriously though, I totally forgot to take a before picture. :( Theresa reminded me to take pictures though so they start once we had already emptied most of the garage out and swept it pretty well.
Let's begin with the thanks! Major, big-ass, huge, ginormous thanks to Kyle, Theresa and Laura who worked over multiple days on this project! Kyle even took a vacation day so he could continue working with me on Monday and busting this mutha out! A special shout-out to Bear who helped on Sunday! It couldn't have been done without you guys!!
Friday was spent in preparation. I bought varied sizes of rubber tote boxes for storing stuff and other supplies that we would need. I did some price comparison on heavy duty shelving at several stores.
On Saturday, Laura, Theresa, Kyle and I emptied the garage out putting stuff in the trash, in the back yard, on the front lawn, on the front drive way, etc. Any place we could fit it. Then a big cleaning with sweeping and some bleaching around the edges and such to get rid of some cat smells. We went to OSH and purchased some bad-ass, heavy-duty shelves. Also, Kyle and Theresa came up with the brilliant idea of getting some kind of canvas curtains to drape around the big shelves. They would help keep out more dust/dirt as well as hiding all of the random things on the shelves so the interior of the garage appears less cluttered.
On Sunday, we crawled through most of the piles of stuff and threw a lot of it away. Packed the remainder into the aforementioned rubber totes and put them on the aforementioned shelves. Theresa was an angel in the kitchen. Making the kitchen sparkle and making sure we were fed and watered! :D Kyle and I also began the incredible and scary project of adding lighting to the interior of the garage. It went ALMOST perfectly. :) This was the first time either of us had done any kind of electrical project like this. The one big mistake was just some stupid bit that I overlooked. I still really don't know how it worked, but when I replaced an OLD ass power plug I somehow missed one of the wires so it was just hanging loose. The loose wire caused a short which surged 240+ volts through a couple of circuits in the house and actually melted one of the GFCI power plugs and burned out a TV and a Cable Box. *facepalm* The electrician I called to figure out what went wrong says that I forgot to hook up that loose wire, but I'm telling you... that loose wire was a mystery. The bare wire looked like it had been recently stripped because it didn't appear to be weathered at all, but he had to dig it out of the back corner of the box and I never saw that wire when I pulled the old power receptacle out. All signs point to it being my fault, but damn... I would have bet my last dollar that I reattached every wire! :)
On Monday we finished wiring up the light fixtures and the cutting/sewing/hemming/velcroing the canvas curtains to shield the shelving units. One of the bonuses of the curtains is that it almost looks like a wall and therefore hides the fact that there are power tools and such back there! :) Once the electrician had found the missing wire and fixed it, I am happy to report that the light fixtures worked wonderfully! :D
The project was AMAZING! I am absolutely spent. I'm struggling just to even write this entry! :) I mostly want to sleep for 3 full days. It feels SO incredible though!
Thanks to the help of wonderful friends and family, I've been able to take another piece of my house and make it another piece of my home.
Thank you all!! *hugs!*
This is what it looked like before:
Seriously though, I totally forgot to take a before picture. :( Theresa reminded me to take pictures though so they start once we had already emptied most of the garage out and swept it pretty well.
Let's begin with the thanks! Major, big-ass, huge, ginormous thanks to Kyle, Theresa and Laura who worked over multiple days on this project! Kyle even took a vacation day so he could continue working with me on Monday and busting this mutha out! A special shout-out to Bear who helped on Sunday! It couldn't have been done without you guys!!
Friday was spent in preparation. I bought varied sizes of rubber tote boxes for storing stuff and other supplies that we would need. I did some price comparison on heavy duty shelving at several stores.
On Saturday, Laura, Theresa, Kyle and I emptied the garage out putting stuff in the trash, in the back yard, on the front lawn, on the front drive way, etc. Any place we could fit it. Then a big cleaning with sweeping and some bleaching around the edges and such to get rid of some cat smells. We went to OSH and purchased some bad-ass, heavy-duty shelves. Also, Kyle and Theresa came up with the brilliant idea of getting some kind of canvas curtains to drape around the big shelves. They would help keep out more dust/dirt as well as hiding all of the random things on the shelves so the interior of the garage appears less cluttered.
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| A small subset of the crap we pulled out of the garage.
From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
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| Cleaning the lawn mower that hasn't been used in 2 years.
From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
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| My sexy lady is working up a sweat!
From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
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| Major clearing and cleaning is complete!
From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
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| Major clearing and cleaning is complete!
From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
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| The bad-ass new shelves!
From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
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| From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
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| The massive amount of paint I'm giving away on Craigslist.
From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
On Sunday, we crawled through most of the piles of stuff and threw a lot of it away. Packed the remainder into the aforementioned rubber totes and put them on the aforementioned shelves. Theresa was an angel in the kitchen. Making the kitchen sparkle and making sure we were fed and watered! :D Kyle and I also began the incredible and scary project of adding lighting to the interior of the garage. It went ALMOST perfectly. :) This was the first time either of us had done any kind of electrical project like this. The one big mistake was just some stupid bit that I overlooked. I still really don't know how it worked, but when I replaced an OLD ass power plug I somehow missed one of the wires so it was just hanging loose. The loose wire caused a short which surged 240+ volts through a couple of circuits in the house and actually melted one of the GFCI power plugs and burned out a TV and a Cable Box. *facepalm* The electrician I called to figure out what went wrong says that I forgot to hook up that loose wire, but I'm telling you... that loose wire was a mystery. The bare wire looked like it had been recently stripped because it didn't appear to be weathered at all, but he had to dig it out of the back corner of the box and I never saw that wire when I pulled the old power receptacle out. All signs point to it being my fault, but damn... I would have bet my last dollar that I reattached every wire! :)
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| Kyle mounting a light fixture box.
From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
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| Bear preparing to install a light fixture.
From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
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| The power receptacle that caused the short.
There is a 5th hidden wire in the box that caused the problem! From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
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| Wiring for the new fixtures.
From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
On Monday we finished wiring up the light fixtures and the cutting/sewing/hemming/velcroing the canvas curtains to shield the shelving units. One of the bonuses of the curtains is that it almost looks like a wall and therefore hides the fact that there are power tools and such back there! :) Once the electrician had found the missing wire and fixed it, I am happy to report that the light fixtures worked wonderfully! :D
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| We cleaned the garage door! It's kind of white!
From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
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| Holy shit! There is light!
From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
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| The GFCI power receptacle that burnt out due to the short circuit.
From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
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| Sewing the canvas shelf curtain.
From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
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| Hanging the first curtain panel.
Kyle is standing on the shelves behind it. From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
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| Pinning the bottom of the curtain in preparation for hemming.
From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
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| Hanging the second panel.
Kyle is behind the curtain again! From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
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| Victory is ours!
From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
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| Oh, lookie!
From House: Garage Cleaning/Org 2009 |
The project was AMAZING! I am absolutely spent. I'm struggling just to even write this entry! :) I mostly want to sleep for 3 full days. It feels SO incredible though!
Thanks to the help of wonderful friends and family, I've been able to take another piece of my house and make it another piece of my home.
Thank you all!! *hugs!*
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