First Garage - The NoVA Man Cave

[dogtired78]

So I started thinking about paint after surfing GJ for a few months. When I first started this project, I was only thinking I'd insulate the garage to make it more comfortable to work in but a few hours of surfing GJ and I was looking at paint swatches and thinking about the artistic statement of pinstripes on a garage wall.

I decided that as I began taping and mudding the right wall of the garage, I'd break up the monotony of sanding with the painting and finishing of the left wall.

The workbench is pulled out, the painter's tape is up and the first coat is going on!





Funny story - I spent a few weeks thinking about the color I wanted in the garage. I knew I wanted something fairly light in tone to help reflect the ambient light in the garage. I also knew that I wanted something a little warm and non-industrial and that would go well with a burgundy or red accent stripe.

I don't know why, but when I first began to think about painting I knew I wanted a red stripe up by the top of the wall.

In any case, after narrowing down the universe of color choices, I thought I had my final pic. It was a very pale brown/gray...or maybe a really subtle mocha. It looked great in my mind"s eye and really great against the "Cherry Cobbler" red I had chosen for the accent stripe.

I turned to my wife and showed her my choice. She looked at it for a second and said, "You know, when I told you I didn't care what you paint it - I meant it. You really don't have to paint it to match the kitchen and the family room."

Wait, what?

After much pointless arguing on my part, my wife walked me into the kitchen and showed me - by holding up my sample tag to the wall - how my weeks of internal debate and analysis had resulted in me picking exactly the same color as the one that dominates the vast majority of the downstairs walls.

I stood there silently for a second, wondering about the power of the subconscious, and finally nodded to her and said, "Alright, but I don't care. After I'm done with the garage, you can repaint the downstairs. This is now going to be my garage color."

And with that, I began to paint. Quick note, it looks white in the photos but I swear there is this wonderful hint of warm chocolate milk to it.

The first coat is going on:




It's already much brighter in the garage!




I wrapped the paint job around the front door (which will get its own refurb soon) and stopped it there. The drywall on the back wall was pretty badly damaged and needed to be replaced before I could paint it. I'll cover that in a later post.




I really thought I'd taken some photos of laying the painter's tape for the accent stripe, but I can't find them anywhere. This will have to do. This is waiting for the first coat to dry.




I ran the stripe under the support beam and all the way to the front door. I think I put on four coats to make sure it had a rich, true color.




The end result!







I began to move everything back into place. Finally! Some order is returning to the garage.







And finally, my first piece of garage art: a decorative "license plate" tracing Route 66 through the western states. I've had this thing for years in anticipation of when I got my first garage. I hung it right over the door...a place of honor

 

[chenthu]

I don't know why, but when I first began to think about painting I knew I wanted a red stripe up by the top of the wall.

In any case, after narrowing down the universe of color choices, I thought I had my final pic. It was a very pale brown/gray...or maybe a really subtle mocha. It looked great in my mind"s eye and really great against the "Cherry Cobbler" red I had chosen for the accent stripe.

What color is your ceiling going to be? That red looks nice..

 

[dogtired78]

What color is your ceiling going to be? That red looks nice..

I just got a standard "ceiling white" paint from Home Depot. I want it to blend into the background behind the light fixtures.

The ceiling itself is going to be a fairly long term project. It looks like it was assembled from scrap drywall back when the house was built. It isn't in great shape so I foresee a lot of patching, taping, and re-mudding before I paint it.

I'm really happy with the red stripe. It adds just the right amount of style to the otherwise clean look of the walls.

 

[dubber]

What a difference it makes just with some white paint on the walls. Very unique spot for that stripe, love it!

Edit: I'm curious to hear your review on the compressor as well, let us all know.

 

[budmanm3]

Any plans for the floors?

 

[dogtired78]

We had our first cold snap of the season this past weekend. It dropped to 37F out here in the 'burbs. I went into the garage and the thermometer read 66F. I got really happy since the house thermostat was set to 68F. I even dragged my wife outside so she could feel what a difference the insulation was making.

What a difference it makes just with some white paint on the walls. Very unique spot for that stripe, love it!

Edit: I'm curious to hear your review on the compressor as well, let us all know.

So far, I love the compressor. It's not something you'd want if you were running air tools all the time, but for me - the shade tree mechanic / carpenter - it's perfect.

The build quality seems high. More importantly, it's incredibly quiet. That was a huge deal for me and the health of my marriage.

Any plans for the floors?

Ahh, plans. Yes, there are loads of plans. The floor is in really good condition...just a few thin surface cracks to seal and then I spend a lot of time thinking of how nice an interlocking tile floor would look.

Unfortunately, my budget's pretty much non-existent at this point. I'll need to wait and save up. Also, I really need to work on my truck so I can get it out of the garage. For now, my focus is going to be on finishing up the drywall and painting (as time permits) and then patching and painting the ceiling. I've got a list of "little" things that's about as long as my arm!

 

[kyle@hcb]

Nice work thus far!

 

[dogtired78]

With the left wall done, I was able to start placing my workbench, storage locker, and other items into the positions I'd envisioned when I sketched the lay out of the garage a few months prior. It was nice to see everything come together.

I then turned my attention to the back wall. For some reason of which I'm still not entirely sure, the left half of the back wall juts forward about 1.5". It's not a big deal but it's curious. I did discover, however, that the 1.5" offset did cause a minor headache for me.

As I moved my folding table and other materials away from the wall in order to prep it for paint, I discovered that the bottom half was cracked across it's length. Playing with it a bit, I was able to push the drywall into the wall about an inch and a half.

All my junk blocking the wall.

Exposing the problem...


Fortunately, I had an extra panel of the .5" Ultralite Sheetrock that I didn't think I was going to need for the front wall of the garage. I quickly set about demolishing the old panel to see what was going on behind the scenes.

As you can see, the studs for the back wall did not fall all the way to the foundation. I'm sure the first time somebody shoved something heavy into the wall, it cracked the drywall right at the week point.

Oh well, I'll never turn down an opportunity to practice my carpentry skills.

I decided that the simplest course of action would be to measure and cut matching 2x4 studs to extend to the garage floor. While the studs on this wall were obviously not load bearing, they still provided the bracing behind the drywall panel and by dropping them down to the floor they should fill the gap and prevent any future issues with my replacement panel. Once cut, the "stud extenders" were drilled into the wall using three screws in a triangle pattern.

With everything cleaned up behind the wall, I dropped the new .5" panel into place and attached it.

Once it was taped and mudded, I prepped to paint the rest of it. I decided to hang a TV that I scored off my brother in law. I have an old iPhone and an HDMI cable adapter that allows me to port in Netflix, Amazon Prime, Stitcher, and (hopefully soon) Verizon FIOS streaming television. It even has a DVD player built into the side. The perfect thing to watch my shows while tinkering in the garage.

I wanted to make sure the mount was securely anchored to the studs, so I drilled and test-mounted it to the wall prior to painting. I did end up moving it around a little bit to determine the best location.

Everything looks good. Let the painting begin! I'm going to be painting the garage in stages. As I finish drywalling a section, I'm able to prime and paint it while beginning the drywall process on another section. This also allows me to work around my truck and all my junk. As each section gets finished, I'm slowly but surely getting everything stored in what will hopefully be a semi-permanent fashion.

With the painting done, it was time to remount the TV! Slowly but surely, I'm getting there.

I'm pretty pleased with my progress. I'm juggling work and a chaotic home life with three kids (including a new baby) and a wife who needs me to help out at home. I have no doubt I'll be drywalling forever, but I'm finding the process to be quite soothing.

Currently, I handle the kids from whenever I get home until about 8:30pm. By then, I've got the two older ones fed, bathed, bedtime story'd and with their lights out. I'm usually toting the baby around during most of this just to give my wife an hour or two of quiet.

At 8:30pm, I hand the baby back to my wife along with a full bottle. She feeds the little one and they both fall asleep on the bed. While she's doing that, I go work in the garage for an hour or two. By about 10pm, I come upstairs, scoop up the baby and put her in the crib. Then I collapse next to my wife and repeat the whole thing the next night.

Like I said, it's going to take forever to finish all the drywalling, but I'm really enjoying getting to work on it for just a little while each night.

 

[madoc1]

good progress. also nice score on the compressor. I read a review somewhere ( hd ?) and they talked about that one and how quiet it was.

jim

 

[GDPossehl]

Great progress so far! What's wrong with the truck that's put it on the backburner for so long?

 

[Jerm188]

You give me faith and motivation! I have a 4 year old and a 6 month old and it is so hard to find time to get in the garage. I just need to get my **** out there and start. My list keeps getting longer...

 

[dogtired78]

good progress. also nice score on the compressor. I read a review somewhere ( hd ?) and they talked about that one and how quiet it was.

jim

Thanks! It seems like the last few months have been nothing but drywall, but I'm close to seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I hung the last panels over the front of the garage this weekend. However, I'm also just now realizing how trashed the ceiling is. I think I am going to need to retape and re-mud all the panels. They don't look like they were well done to begin with and now the job is close to 30 years old.

The compressor is so quiet that it's shocking (to me). I hope they'll think about building a larger, stronger one that could be used all day for air tools. This one's fine for short duration, high flow use, but I would hesitate to use it like that all day. Then again, I haven't really put it through its paces yet so I'll need to update my opinion as time passes.

 

[dogtired78]

Great progress so far! What's wrong with the truck that's put it on the backburner for so long?

The truck's got a cooling problem. I've narrowed the problem down to either the water pump or a block in the heater core...or both.

I was working on it this spring and managed to fatigue/break the ground wire for the alternator which anchored into the mounting post for the thermostat. Surprisingly, this is not an uncommon occurrence for older Dodge Rams but no one (that I could find) sold replacement wiring harnesses.

Shortly after that "Aww, dammit" moment, I had to travel for work and the truck sat in the garage for several weeks. When I went back to it, I got frustrated with the chaotic condition of the garage and my inability to find my tools (still half packed from the move to the house) so I decided to start fixing up the garage before returning to the truck. I also decided since I was about to sink some real time and effort into getting the truck running again, I'd go ahead and turn it into a real project - replace the trashed interior and the "dorito chip" dash board, fix the rust spots, repaint the flaked and faded exterior. I've got nearly zero experience doing body work but I figure I can't make it look any worse than it currently does.

It barely fits in the garage but it looks like it will be my "winter" hobby this year. I don't know Chrysler/Dodge parts that well so it should be a learning experience! That, or a money pit from which there will be no escape.

 

[dogtired78]

You give me faith and motivation! I have a 4 year old and a 6 month old and it is so hard to find time to get in the garage. I just need to get my **** out there and start. My list keeps getting longer...

I'm with you, brother! Free time is almost as precious to me as my meager paycheck.

For me, the secret is list making, multitasking, and sacrificing sleep. For example, right now I'm writing with one hand while feeding the baby with the other and listening to the news via Stitcher on my phone.

I try to do the noisy, wall-banging things in the garage around when the baby (and my wife) is already awake. I try to save the quieter things (like taping and mudding drywall for late at night when everyone's asleep.

You'll get there, I have no doubt! Best of luck with the kids - they're wonderful but exhausting!

 

[northeimcustom]

looking good! keep up the progress!

 

[s2kattracks]

Nice work! Garage is coming along nicely!

 

[dogtired78]

Nice work thus far!

Thanks. The photos of your cars are unbelievable!

 

[dogtired78]

looking good! keep up the progress!

Nice work! Garage is coming along nicely!

Thanks, guys! I honestly believe that the routine I've gotten into of taking photos to document my progress for this site has made me a better or at least a cleaner handyman.

I've lost count of the number of times I've sat down and thought out how I wanted to do some aspect of the renovation so that I could document it in a way that would make sense...which had led me to catch errors in my thought process way earlier than I normally do.

Except yesterday, when in my haste to show my wife I'd finally fixed the garage door, I had her hit the "door up" button and watched in slowly dawning horror as the door ripped all the sensor and command wires off the wall and off each other. Pics and story to follow soon...

 

[Madhatter10-6]

Nice! I really like the workbench you put together.

 

[OJ Bartley]

dogtired, your name really makes sense after reading all of this! Great job so far on the space. I don't know if it's anything to note or not (I hope not, since you've finished that section), but was that mold on the insulation above the broken section you replaced? It didn't seem like there was anything on the drywall or studs, so I hope that's a good sign. Just something you don't want to have in your house, especially with kids around. And on that note, good for you for putting in some serious daddy time. I just have one and I know how exhausting it can be for mom, so I try to take over when I get home too. I can't wait till he's old enough to work on projects with me.

 

[CodeRedZ]

Keep up the good work

 

[dogtired78]

Nice! I really like the workbench you put together.

Thanks! It was an easy project. You can get the kit from 2x4 basics just about anywhere. I plan on adding a shelf to the worktop (the kit came with the pieces) to frame in the pegboard I hung for my "daily use" tools.

I also picked up an old light box - the kind people used to use to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder - that puts out a ton of bright natural light. It's about 12" x 24" x 3" and I think I can rig together a mount to put it on the underside of the shelf. That way, I'd have a dedicated bench light.

dogtired, your name really makes sense after reading all of this! Great job so far on the space. I don't know if it's anything to note or not (I hope not, since you've finished that section), but was that mold on the insulation above the broken section you replaced? It didn't seem like there was anything on the drywall or studs, so I hope that's a good sign. Just something you don't want to have in your house, especially with kids around. And on that note, good for you for putting in some serious daddy time. I just have one and I know how exhausting it can be for mom, so I try to take over when I get home too. I can't wait till he's old enough to work on projects with me.

I was concerned about mold as well but when I finally got up close to it, it didn't have the consistency or dustiness of mold. I looked for indications of moisture in the wall (past or present) and saw nothing. I also looked at where the black discoloration was once the whole lower panel was removed and it looks like it follows along the edges and sides of the insulation batts.

My best guess was that it is old staining from thermal tracking that occurred back after the house was built considering the garage wall would have been an "exterior" wall, but I'm definitely not sure. In any case, it didn't appear to go any higher than the lower panel so I locked everything down and resealed it into the wall.

The kids are always a trip I'm blessed/cursed with three girls. The oldest has absolutely no interest in working with her hands but the four year old frequently hangs out with me in there...especially now that I can put Netflix on the TV. It remains to be seen where the baby's interests will lay. All I know is that I'm getting her a baby toolset for her first birthday next year!

 

[OJ Bartley]

Good to hear. I figured you'd taken care of it. 3 girls! You poor son of a gun. Lol. That will be fun when they all start dating! If I have a girl I swear I'll recreate the scene from Bad Boys at the front door any time a guy comes to the house.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4

 

[dogtired78]

My narrative is starting to catch up to where my project stands in real time. I don't have too much to add, but I'll be sure to provide real time updates as I get opportunities to make a little progress.

Having finished the right wall and the back wall (minus the side where my truck continues to sit lonely and neglected) and having drywalled and sanded the left wall, I decided to turn my attention to the front wall of the garage before painting the left wall.

I had a couple of reasons governing my decision:

- First, the left wall needed to be connected to the front wall via drywall before it made sense to paint it.

- Second, the front was definitely going to be the more challenging than painting and I like to get the hard stuff done first.

- Third, finishing the drywall would use up my stock of boards and scrap that were taking up space.

- Finally, there were four small triangle-shaped areas where the garage doors sealed against the garage wall. I'd forgotten about these areas when I did the original insulation and I suspected they were a major source of my residual heat loss last year.

In what probably sounds like something from Rube Goldberg, my thinking was this: Hanging the last of the drywall clears space in the garage. The space in the garage allows me to empty out the bed of the truck (used for temp storage). Cleaning out the bed of the truck allows me to get within reach of the attic access panel. Getting into the attic allows me to get down the spare batt of insulation I have up there, which I will use to insulate the four triangle pieces on the front wall and finally finish the drywall. I will also use the left over plywood sheets (from building the shed and doing the original garage insulation) to lay down a storage platform over the attic framing and FINALLY have a place to stick all this seasonal **** my wife and the kids currently "store" in my man cave - holiday decorations, summer beach supplies, camping gear, etc.

The end result should be a clean and well organized space and a happy DogTired.


In any case, here's the only photo I could find of the front of the garage. I think it's pre-insulation.

I began running drywall panels from right to left. The only challenging parts were cutting the spaces for the garage door mechanism and creating an aesthetically pleasing "topper" around the large wooden planks to which the garage door tracks are anchored.

Finished with the left side. The wires hanging down are the command and sensor wires for the garage door opener. I temporarily reattached them after I took the photo to keep them out of the way. Failure to do this on the other side bit me in the *** just the other day...but that's a story for a different post.

Now I turned to the center between the doors. Since the doors were mounted on what appears to be heavy duty but scrap lumbar, they were different sizes, widths, and didn't lay flat against the garage wall. I chewed on how to handle them for awhile and ultimately decided that the cleanest look would be to drywall around them. You can kind of see what I mean from the below photos:

As I snaked the drywall up the post, I needed to cut custom pieces to wrap it around the top and reconnect it to the garage wall. Definitely not the work of a professional but I'm still pretty pleased with it...or at least I will once it's sanded and smooth.

After that, I just needed to run the rest of the drywall across the front.

And here we are taped and with the first coat of mud on.

That's all I got for now. Next time, I show you how one small mistake nearly killed my garage door.

 

[jesse72]

I looked at all the posts on here to see what kind of Chevy Nova you have, hahaha, then I finally figured out that you meant northern Virginia. Oops! Well you have a great garage and are doing great work!

 

[bunks-tj]

Funny, I missed that you were in NoVA, but when i saw the picture of your garage from the outside it was my first thought. I am in Manassas now, but grew up off Reston parkway.. welcome to the hustle and bustle and traffic

 

[dogtired78]

I looked at all the posts on here to see what kind of Chevy Nova you have, hahaha, then I finally figured out that you meant northern Virginia. Oops! Well you have a great garage and are doing great work!

Thanks! I'm learning as I go.

It's funny - I've been a Camaro guy since high school but never got the itch to get a Nova. I may have to reconsider.

Funny, I missed that you were in NoVA, but when i saw the picture of your garage from the outside it was my first thought. I am in Manassas now, but grew up off Reston parkway.. welcome to the hustle and bustle and traffic

I'm no stranger to the DC traffic...although Route 7 certainly has gotten busier since the last time I was a daily commuter. Oh well, I've got my coffee, my radio, and my podcasts so I'll make the best of it!

Your traffic definitely isn't any better. In fact, at this point I think the only way to have a decent commute anywhere in the DC area is to set up a tent in the parking lot.

 

[dubber]

Nice work!

 

[dogtired78]

Well, it's been a very busy two weeks. My work hijacked me away from the house for a few days, my family's been busy with schoolwork and Halloween decorations, and I've been doing a lot of babysitting whenever I do make it home.

Consequently, time to spend working in the garage has come at a very high premium.

When last I left off, I'd finished drywalling across the front of the garage. I still need to apply a second coat and then sand everything smooth, but I turned my attention to a few other urgent taskers first. One of which was the right side garage door opener.

These door openers are about twelve years old and they are powered by extension cords hung down from the ceiling and plugged into the wall. Both units are still working alright, but I foresee needing/wanting to replace them in the reasonably near future. Consequently, while extension cord power is not my first choice, it's one that I'll continue to use for the time being. I did replace both of the old extension cords with new cords and I've connected both to new surge protectors. I figure I'll enclose the cables in a cable run eventually and do a hard wire whenever I replace the units.

While I was running the new extension cable from the unit to the wall, my wife came into the garage. This is probably the first time she's entered the NoVA Man Cave in about six months. She asked what I was doing and, in my excitement, I told her to hit the garage door button to see.

Well, she did...and I watched in horror as the garage door trundled up its track and caught all the sensor and ground wires that had been previously stapled to the nearby studs but were currently hanging loose until I could staple them back to the new drywall.

In the end, I got lucky. I managed to grab the manual release in the nick of time. Only one wire snapped - a fairly clean break. Otherwise, it was just a bit of a mess to clean up.


Here are the wires hanging down in the aftermath.

Here's the break.

Fixing it was pretty easy. I stripped back the insulation on both sides, braided the teeny-tiny copper wires back together, and then sealed the whole deal in electrical tape. Again, I plan to use a cable run to hide the cosmetic uglyness of my repair and also to provide a little more protection to the wires than they currently have.

And here we go, temporarily stapled up out of the way.

Following the incident with the garage door, I kind of ran into a brick wall with my time commitments. I've probably only spent about an hour combined in the garage in the last two weeks. I've focused mostly on cleaning up and planning for the next time I had a few hours free.

One thing I did do, but I didn't take any photos, was climb up into the attic crawlspace and screw down some excess 3/4" plywood I had laying around. I created a storage area of about 40 sqft suitable for all the once-a-year holiday decorations as well as my camping equipment.

While I was up there, I pulled down a portion of excess batting I'd thrown up there from when I did the insulation. There were a couple of triangle-shaped sections by the garage doors that I'd forgotten about last year. I wanted to make sure I hit them this time before hanging drywall over the cavities. However, I'll cover that in more detail once I get my photos uploaded.

Finally, I hung a magnetic board by the door into the house. A perfect place to hang my prioritized "to do" list that I've been working on between math homework, science projects, and diaper changing.

That's all for now. Hopefully, the pendulum will start to swing back and I'll find some time this fall to get back in there and work. I'm itching to get some quality time!

 

[OJ Bartley]

Close call, dogtired! Glad you got there in time to avoid more damage. I know how you feel about the extension cord power (this will be addressed in mine maybe in the spring), as well as about trying to find time to work on projects. It just means we work slower than some guys, but at the end of the day the jobs will get done. Hang in there.

 

[dogtired78]

Close call, dogtired! Glad you got there in time to avoid more damage. I know how you feel about the extension cord power (this will be addressed in mine maybe in the spring), as well as about trying to find time to work on projects. It just means we work slower than some guys, but at the end of the day the jobs will get done. Hang in there.

Thanks! Yes, it is a long term project but definitely one I'm enjoying!

 

[dogtired78]

I finally got an hour or two last weekend to work in the garage. I finished loading up the attic with the items I wanted to store up there and then I turned my attention to the access panel. You can see it here in the photo below.

The original access panel was cut poorly from left over drywall. It was cracked across the middle (only the paper holding it together) and stained. I decided to chuck it out and replace it with a piece of 2/4" plywood with a hardwood veneer.

I cut the piece to size and then stapled some attic insulation to its backside. It fits quite nicely and I'm debating staining it rather than painting it so that it stands out from the rest of ceiling. Or it will, once the rest of the ceiling is painted.

Next, I cut a spare batt of insulation into triangles to fill the empty triangle-shaped spaces that are normally covered by the garage doors. I'd forgotten to do these spaces last year but definitely wanted to rectify the problem before the weather got too cold this autumn.

Before I could place the insulation, I needed to cut some 2x4 mounts for the drywall I would add afterwards. Because of the way I'd drywalled above the spaces, I only had one side of the triangles' framing to which to attach the screws. You can see what I mean in the pics.

Finally, with the insulation added and the scrap wood mounts in place, I began to cut the drywall to fit the triangle-shaped space. I figured three screws should be more than enough.

I ran out of time after cutting two of the four pieces of drywall I needed. I hope to get back to the garage this weekend.

However, I did have time to hang a dry erase board above my magnetic board. I've always wanted one of these things as I am a born and bred list maker. I plan to keep short notes on the vehicles like, "Honda oil plug - 14mm socket" as well as a running list of tasks/chores. In the pic below, you can see my checklist of things to do in the garage that I sketched out during a slow day at work.

And that's about where I stand right now. Hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween!

 

[JustinS]

I'm liking the white board, I've been meaning to get one for my garage.

 

[dogtired78]

Wow. Believe it or not, I wrote a whole long update post last night. I was working on it, on and off, while bathing the four year old, feeding the four month old, and reviewing the science fair project of the ten year old. By the time I got to bed, I was almost finished but I could barely keep my eyes open. I did a quick check using "Preview Post" to make sure the photos worked. I posted the response, shut down my computer, and passed out.

Or, at least I thought I posted the response. Oh well...

To make my long, original post a shorter, sweeter version of the same, I managed to get a whole day of freedom this weekend to work in the garage. I decided to make a big push to finish as much of the drywall and painting as I could. When it was all said and done, I'd managed to finish the front wall (where the garage doors are located) and the far right wall.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results. My newbie drywall skills have improved substantially over the course of this project. I think I'm finally good enough to tackle the big ol' dent in the basement wall that I made when the couch slid down the stairs right after we bought the house.

I also hung a really nice red metal shelf that my wife gave me for our anniversary. I'm going to use it to hold common items like glass cleaner (Man, do I hate when the interior of the windshield gets all smudgy). Oh yeah, if you look to the right, you'll see the brackets I installed to hold my old iPhone. It's linked into the TV via an HDMI cable and I'm able to stream radio and television. Lately, I've been watching a lot of old episodes of The West Wing on Netflix.

On the other side of the TV, I installed an extension cord retractable storage unit. My buddy had one of these and it was incredibly helpful. You just pull the cord out when you need it and crank it back into the basket when you're done. No muss, no fuss.

And here's the final result:

So what's next? Well, as you can see from the photo below, I still have a little bit of painting left to do.

I've got to finish this wall and then also finish patching and painting the ceiling. After that, I'd like to look at laying down a nice floor. No rush on that one. In the short term, I've been stalking the Sears website. I'm waiting for the 30" welded cabinets from Gladiator GarageWorks to go on sale...most likely they'll be apart of a Black Friday sale somewhere. I'm just hoping to snipe them at a reasonable price sooner than later.

 

[OJ Bartley]

dogtired, the garage is really coming along! Keep chipping away when you have time, that in itself becomes an art form that I'm just starting to learn.

Great idea about checking for cabinets on Black Friday, I'll have to remember to look too.

 

[tcccac]

Nice work. I really like the tire rack and shelf that your wife purchased. I need to get those. Where did she get that shelf? What's up with the ladder and tools leaning on your truck? Put a cheap cover over it.

 

[dogtired78]

Nice work. I really like the tire rack and shelf that your wife purchased. I need to get those. Where did she get that shelf? What's up with the ladder and tools leaning on your truck? Put a cheap cover over it.

The paint's shot to hell. One of the things I want to do about it is a complete respray so I'm not too worried about leaning the ladder against it at the moment.

The shelf came from Amazon, I think. It's surprisingly nice. The tire rack is generic and boy is it a lifesaver. I got use to having one when I lived in Vermont and we were constantly rotating all season and winter tread tires.

 

[dogtired78]

dogtired, the garage is really coming along! Keep chipping away when you have time, that in itself becomes an art form that I'm just starting to learn.

Great idea about checking for cabinets on Black Friday, I'll have to remember to look too.

Very much appreciated. I'm hoping to hang the gladiator track tonight. We'll see if I pull it off!

 

[OJ Bartley]

On the ladder note, one of my favorite simple storage solutions in my garage is the ladder. I have a good spot for it just inside the door, and I screwed 2 long velcro ties to the wall near the top of the ladder. Just **** it up against the wall and wrap the velcro and it's solid as a rock, but a snap to get to.

Edit: here's a quick pic that explains better than words... I just screwed through the middle of a length of velcro, into the studs.

 

[dubber]

Excellent progress. I really like the iphone to tv idea. Interesting!