After talking to Sally (both on the phone and in person - she came right over when I described what a problem this had become) I started to formulate a plan for the ultimate and organized garage/storage space.
This seems such a menial task to be working on, given that there are other, much larger projects to be tackled, but I just can’t shove the bikes back in this Fall, shut the door and forget about the mess.
The conversation begins.
My husband wants to park the car in there, my teenage daughter thinks the garage could be nicely renovated into a bachelorette apartment (thanks to Trading Spaces!) and of course there’s the workshop that sure would be handy to have on a farm.
At the end of the day though, it’s all about our budget. Even if I did want to renovate that space into a funky teenage hangout, I simply can’t afford it right now. Plus, we need the storage space…and, if done right, we should still have adequate counter space for a small workshop.
Sally’s tried to talk us into hiring her contractor. We’ve already seen his work - he’s good. If you ever opt for a contractor for your own garage get one whose work you’ve seen. It is better to see a contractor’s work first hand before you decide whether you will happy wiht the end results. However, since we have neither the time to wait (since everything has now been gutted and laid out on the lawn) nor the extra money, we”ll just have to do the best we can on our own.
So I went ahead and checked Home Depot’s Do-it-Yourself design section on their site and with my measurements beside me we found that after just a little wall and floor prep we should be able to do a pretty good job, and keep it under budget. Since none of us have time to drive to the city anyway and the online service so good we decided to order everything online and do the prep work required while we wait on delivery.
A full row of cabinets and shelves, a few peg boards and hooks and a nice drawer unit with counter space - will turn our garage into space we won’t cringe to walk into.
I learned from Home Depot’s site that since there are no structural issues in our garage and our wiring is up to date at least, finishing the task would take less than a week even if we became sidetracked with other farm chores and emergencies. I hope to post some photos of it when I’m done.
