Garage Renovation: DONE!

It all started with us getting a bunch of new power tools for christmas this year, not having anywhere to really put them, and being generally displeased with the dark dungeon of clutter that was our garage. Jason had a week off work and school between Christmas and New Years, and we typically try to tackle a major home improvement project at that point every year… last year it was Jonah’s big boy bedroom. We knew this was going to be a much bigger project, and would have to be done in phases. Our hope was to be finished with Phase 1 (the door wall) by the end of the break. We made that goal! Our next goal was to be finished with Phase 2 and 3 by spring break so that we could have it finished when Jason would have another week off school and work and we could then dedicate that week to building the kids’ swing set for their birthdays… and given that spring break starts next Friday, I am happy to announce that we are DONE! Here’s a little photo time line for you!

Door Wall Before (12/29/09)

Exterior Wall Before (12/29/09)

Cleared off, Patched, Painted the Door Wall, Built Shelves and Peg Board (12/31/09)

Rubber Maid Tub Shelves Close Up (1/2/10)

Custom Rolling Work Bench (1/2/10)

Pyro Corner... Fireplace, Grill, and Fire Pit accessory storage (1/2/10)

Back Wall Before (Taken 1/23/10)

Peg Board and "Racing Stripes" for heavy duty hooks (2/10/10)

More Tub Shelves, "Phase 2" Complete! Ready to start Phase 3! (2/15/10)

Rolling Wood Rack Built (2/20/10)

Exterior Wall After (3/7/10)

Back Wall After (3/7/10)

Overhead wood rack, shelf on the back wall for our pool off season, and shelf on the door wall for chemicals (3/7/10)

Door Wall After (3/7/10) painted the door frame, but should probably paint the door itself too I guess.

We are THRILLED with our new garage! Can’t wait to use all this new available space to start working on the swing set next weekend! It’s exciting to work in a space that works!

Got Alot Done

With my mom hanging around and helping out last week, we got WAY more done than any couple with a nearly 2 year old and a 1 week old should! My mom is a major DIY handy-woman, and just couldn’t contain herself when she came to stay. By the end of the 1st day she was just itching to get started on some projects. Who am I to complain?! I knew it’d happen, so that’s why I had already started a list of little projects around the house that needed doing, that just haven’t gotten done, for whatever reason. She actually started working on things while we were still in the hospital!  My to-do list that my mom tackled this week… as you’ll notice, she didn’t leave us much to do after she left! hahaShe got Jason involved in a lot of the projects too, and some of these he actually did on his own.

• Install Handheld Showerhead & Caulk Around the Ring
• Install Blinds in Our Bedroom
• Fix Drippy Master Toilet
• Fix/Oil Master Closet Door Knob
• Fix the Storm Door Alignment so it’ll Actually Close
• Remove the Satellite Dish
• Remove the Antenna
• Put a Piece of Screen Over the Chimney to Keep Birds Out (need to call chimney sweep first to get current nesting birds out)
• Put Hinges on the Sandbox Door
• Re-Configure the Sandbox Lid Boards to Make an Easier To Open Lid
• Dig Out the Rose Bush in the Front Flowerbed
• Dig Out the Bush Stumps in the Front Flowerbed
• Check on the Roof Leak and Seal Where Possible
• Hang the Letters for Carly’s Name in the Nursery
• Fix the Wet Bar Cabinet Door that’s Sagging
• Install Trim Around the Guest Bath Mirror (need to buy trim)
• Change Light Fixtures in the Guest Bath (need to buy light fixtures)
• Install and Overhead Light in the Garage (Bonus! They ended up re-wiring a bunch of stuff and putting in 2 new outlets too!)
• Paint the Nursery Furniture (need a non-muggy day to paint)
• Some Projects she thought of that I hadn’t -
  • Replace the Missing Toe Kick Under the Dishwasher and End Cabinet in the Kitchen & Install Trim
    
  • Fertilize the Yards
  • Replace Missing Pickets on the Fence
  • Replace the Damaged Board Around the Garage Door (We discovered ACTIVE termites there! Yuck! so had to get that treated first, so that project is sitting unfinished right now.)
  • Clean Some Previous-Owner Junk Out of the Attic

It was such a busy week that I’m probably forgetting some of the other stuff that got done, but we always appreciate having my mom come stay for a while! Jonah CERTAINLY enjoyed having his Mamaw around to play with, and to “help. work. hammer. outside. saw. ears. noise. loud.” with!

The Main Reason for Coming

The Other Main Reason for Coming

Jason Helping With the Projects

Jonah Helping With the Projects

Daddy’s Little Building Buddy

Jonah was quite the little helper!

This was just too cute for me not to blog about it! Jason sat down to start putting together the new side table and mini dresser that we bought from Ikea for the nursery, and Jonah jumped right in on helping him out! He was putting screws and pegs in the holes for Daddy, fetching boards and “dew divers” for him, and trying to help hammer some of the parts together. We had to reel in his enthusiasm some though, because it’s all made out of soft pine wood and even with his little plastic toy hammer, he was managing to leave a few good marks in the wood! hehe I just had to get this pictures though, for putting in this little girl’s scrapbook… showing that her big brother personally had his hand in helping put her furniture together. What a good helper! For more pictures from their building adventures, check out my “Pre-Baby Girl” album on Facebook.

The Sandbox Part 2

The Completed Sandbox and See Saw Lid

I filled up the sandbox yesterday so Jonah could play in it for the first time today. The only thing left to do on it is to attach the hinges on the other storage door. Our drill battery died as we finished the last two boards on the see saw part, so we haven’t COMEPLETELY finished it I suppose. It was good enough for building sand castles today though. Check out the link to our Summer 2008 photos (also permanantly located on our side bar for easy access) for more pictures of Jonahs’ first sandbox day and close ups of my handy work!  

The Sandbox Part 1

I decided that the rinky dinky sandbox turtle I was originally going to get for Jonah was just too small and the lid would probably vanish with the first big wind storm. So my solution? Build one of course! It IS, afterall, my “career passion”… to build furniture and stuff. And by “career passion”, I mean… one of the few things I would think about trying to make a living at some day… if I had to, or got bored. So anyway. I designed a neat little sandbox that’s got a storage bench and an arched lid that doubles as a see-saw rocker!

I bought the materials to start building it a couple of days ago and finally decided I better get them out of my car before they started to warp, and just build the darn thing. So right at 12:00, when Jonah went down for his nap, I started working on it in the garage. You wanna talk about a hot box! Freakin’ 90+ degrees outside and i’m in the garage sweating like no tomorrow! I, unfortunately, was one board off in my estimation of how many boards it’d take to “deck” the outside of the arch. probably cause my autocad drawing was just a sketch and i used actual 1x4s when a 1×4 is actually only .75″ x 3.75″. Anyway…. that and a drained cordless drill battery are the only things stopping me from attaching the last two hinges and last two boards to be able to call it fully assembled. I still need to go back and sand all the rough edges too, but that’s definitely going to be another day! I am completely sweaty and gross and I am ready to do something else for a while. Maybe I’ll indulge the boy child in a bath. He only asks for one about 20x a day!