JWILL's garage build

[JWILL]

So I figured I would start a thread on this and though it will be slow Ill try to update with pics pretty regularly.

Where do I start really. I moved to a small town in West Central Iowa recently for a much better job and the girlfriend and I decided to rent a home for a few years and get everything put together before we buy. So we found this home and with it was my main concern for renting a house, a garage. Its not very big but its enough for my Nova and my tools. The owners are complete morons. This isnt an overstatement of their incompetency. They are people who should not be renting homes to anyone. They bought the home which had been in the ownership of an older couple since the 1930s and rented it to the first people who came along. This resulted in two years of people living and destroying the home and the land lords not taking care of the property either. So here I am with a garage that is literally falling down but its all I have until we find a house to either buy or we build. And since we are diverting our individual funds into that dream it leaves me with absolutely no money for anything in the garage I cant take with me. And so my build starts. The electrical is an older box with one wall socket and one garage door opener running off of it and that limits me also so we will see how it accepts a power strip. As for lights the only light is daylight through the one window or the light on the garage door opener. I think I would invest in a good set of lights if they were easy to remove when leave in a year or two.

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Im open to any suggestions anyone has!

 

[bluejeep]

JWILL Welcome to the GJ! Your picture is not showing up. Photobucket says it has been moved or deleted. i look forward to following your progress

 

[JWILL]

This is the garage as it sits today. I will try to get interior shots tonight. I will chronical the dropped cieling and interior walls being built hopefully by the end of august.. Im dealing with a hellish wasp problem so currently progress is slow. And the heat isnt helping it too much.

 

[Bib Overalls]

I really like the dual bulb T8 fixtures available at Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. The bulbs are 4' long and you can get 4' and 8' fixtures. Earlier in my shop remodel I ran 24' of fixtures and fed then with an old vacuum cleaner plug and cord that I found in a dumpster (attached to the apparently dead vacuum). Plug in = "On." Plug out = "Off." Once you relocate you can wire them in permanently.

 

[JWILL]

I will be adding more pictures as the day goes on and I upload them to photobucket from my phone but heres a little update. After somewhat taking care of a nasty wasp problem I found out theres much more to be had and it looks like just knockdown spray cans isnt doing it. Anyone have any ideas on something I can mix up in a pump sprayer?
I also dove into the electrical side of things this weekend and found that the box is a 30 amp box though it has a single screw type fuse it is running 220 to the garage I think. And Im hoping I can run my light fixtures from the box and not have to upgrade it for the year or two we plan to live here. I stopped into a Lowes down in Des Moines and scoped out some T8 fixtures and I think I will be setting on about 4 of the 4 bulb fixtures with the cool start ballasts. They weren bad in price and I think its a good investment that Ill be able to pull down and take with me.

As you will see later in the pictures its a very dark garage. The owners have pretty much left how the garage is to be used in my hands and I borrowed my grandfathers airless sprayer this past weekend. I figure a few good coats top to bottom of some white paint should brighten up the place. The walls are brick and the rafters are all just bare wood does anyone have any suggestions as to what I could use to do both. Outdoor latex is what I was thinking. My coming plans for this week are getting the current work bench out of the garage as well as everything else and starting with a bare garage to construct the new cieling.

 

[JWILL]

So heres the pics of the electrical box and some pics of the inside currently. Standing from the back door next to the coal chute area.

I really feel that a good coat of white will brighten the place up enough to forget about the fact its falling in on itself. But hey...I dont own it I just rent it.