Garage Project.

New Year, new renovation, new construction on our house. THE FUN NEVER ENDS!

Glen's crew is still working on the gut job that Ed and Erl have going on at their new house, but in between, the guys are at our house, renovating our garage. The garage came with a lot of built in storage. The cabinets were pretty obviously built by the previous owner, and were a bit of a mess in places. For example - there were three sets of cabinets by the garage door. The middle one, he cut towards the top so that the doors opened up all the way with some clearance for the garage door track. The ones next to it? He did not open to trim those and put on a second set of hinges, so you could only open the doors until they banged into the overhead track, and so their usability was limited. He put in some shelving in front of the washer and dryer, I guess to block the view from the street? Or make it feel more like a laundry room? But it meant that the only reason we were able to park two cars in our two car garage is that the Fit has that weird narrow, steeply sloped hood and it slid right into place. And then there was his work bench, which Tim and I only used as a catch all space for dumping junk.

Tim and I have been talking about tearing out the cabinets for a long time now, because they were at the end of their thirty year particle board life span. We've done a lot of prep work to get things cleared out - seriously could have hosted three garage sales with the amount of crap we unearthed. Sorry, ten year old wedding presents we forgot about and never used! Sorry, random electronics that are past their life span! Sorry, giant tubs of stuff we won't use but also can't bear to throw away. The good news, is when everything is done, we'll have a place for it all.

They're currently putting in joists so that they can dry wall the ceiling and the walls. We're getting a second large loft space, and a small ladder so that it'll be more like an attic space than a crawl space - I think those extra feet up above will be a total game changer. We'll still have a cabinet specifically for the cats to poop in, and then all new cabinets made out of durable material for the storage of the rest of our junk. I can't wait to reorganize! I am dedicated to taking all of the sterilite tubs of crap from various closets and finally sorting through them and putting them away. Big Lots, here I come! I'm also hoping we'll have space for things that should live in the garage (folding chairs, luggage) but currently don't. And having that weird half wall down already makes the garage looks so much bigger. Can't wait to see it when it's done!

The kids are thrilled to have "the guys" back. After seeing Arnie, Adam immediately ran inside to go get his hammer, and then he offered to help Arnie "bang bang." They want to say hi every time we leave and every time we come home.

In other renovation news, the neighbors have finished gutting most of their house (which they bought from their grandma) and so we have a three year old boy moving in across the street. I'm so glad to be getting more neighbors with kids - having Lisa and her kids around the corner has been a game changer this past fall and winter. And now one more friend! Benjy and Adam stood on Benjy's bed yesterday and waved at our house across the street, and then Adam goes "your new house is very very beautiful!" (which sounds like "you new house id wery wery booful.")