"My wife thinks I'm a bit crazy" garage thread

[The English Hacker]

Hi all,

First off, thank you to everyone that posts on GJ. Every one of you has been an inspiration to me.

We moved into our house in Markham (a suburb of Toronto) about 5 years ago now. It was 7 years old at the time. The garage is a 2-car, detached from the house but attached to the neighbour's garage. The wall adjoining the neighbour is finished. I use that term loosely because it's fire drywall thrown up with tape and mud splashed on. Purely for code and not visuals.

So, I've started working on our 12-year old garage. This is my first time using drywall for anything more than a small patch-up job. I'm also doing this alone. And if you didn't get it from the title, my wife thinks I'm a bit nuts for wanting to make the garage look nice. She's not wrong for thinking that other things need to get fixed first...but there's no fixtheleakytapjournal.com

We park 2 cars in the garage. In addition we've been storing our garden tools (inc. lawnmower), a spare set of rims for both cars, a bike and a bunch of other tools and detailing supplies. It's crowded. I want to get as much off the floor as possible and purge too.

Here's a pic after a clearout and picking up the drywall:

 

[aps63]

Nice blank canvas. Are you going to insulate?

 

[Ray Kelly]

Hey!! You're already to go. Get some insulation and drywall up. It sure looks like the makin's of a nice layout. Good luck with it.

 

[The English Hacker]

Please excuse the less-than-perfect photo but you get the idea.

It's been 3 weeks since I started and my back hurts. I've been doing this all alone on the weekends with nothing more than the internet to guide me. The drywall is up, taped and mudded. I've done a lot of sanding but there's still a few more touch-ups to do. The adjoining drywall was a disaster. I had to get the bottom 2 feet and replace it with firecode drywall because the paper had started coming away from the gypsum core. I had to add that in 2'x4' sections because I wasn't prepared to rent a truck for one 4'x8' sheet of drywall. Still lots of fixing to be done on that side.

In the meantime I've taken a vacation day tomorrow. I plan to prime the two finished walls and complete the fix-ups on the adjoining wall. After that I'll be picking my final wall colours. Likely a mid-light grey on the bottom, and a lighter grey on top, with an orange stripe in-between.

 

[The English Hacker]

Nice blank canvas. Are you going to insulate?

No insulation. I have enough on me already

 

[dubber]

Welcome! Always nice to see a fellow Ontarian. Looks like your off to a great start and well see how this goes. I think for the majority the wife comment is on point, but hey its nice to set up a space to retreat and enjoy, they get the rest of the house right? Hahaha

 

[The English Hacker]

I also picked up one 4' T8 light fixture. I managed to smash a fluorescent tube before I'd ever switched it on. Oops. Amazing how much light it adds as I work compared to the garage door opener bulbs.

 

[The English Hacker]

Welcome! Always nice to see a fellow Ontarian. Looks like your off to a great start and well see how this goes. I think for the majority the wife comment is on point, but hey its nice to set up a space to retreat and enjoy, they get the rest of the house right? Hahaha

Thanks. You're not wrong there. Our finished basement is a photography studio for my wife's business. That wasn't in the plans when we moved in...

 

[dubber]

Thanks. You're not wrong there. Our finished basement is a photography studio for my wife's business. That wasn't in the plans when we moved in...

Ah exactly, so then this is definitely fair for you...

 

[HSpencer]

A great place! You are very lucky to have gotten the walls unfinished. This gives you the golden opportunity to think out your electrical needs and put in the wiring for them. Also you can know your insulation you install is up to your needs. If I were buying that house, I would have been very pleased to have the opportunity to start where you did on the walls.
Drywall is certainly no fun. But it can be a very rewarding result when your done. Just wear the proper mask and goggles when you sand it, etc. Thanks for posting and I will be waiting to see the results!!

Best Regards
Herb Spencer

 

[marty_p]

Welcome to TGJ, and please keep us 'pic junkies' supplied as you progress!

And don't feel alone; most of us here have better halves that think we're at least a bubble off level!

 

[The English Hacker]

Primed the two walls that I had drywalled today. Not bad at all for a beginner. I need to park one car in there every night so I decided to do it that way so that I could move my **** over to the other side. I then have more room to fix up the problem wall.

Here's a quick pic with one wall primed.



I know I'll probably regret it later but I didn't want to mess with the electricals. I'm scared of that stuff and there's already two double outlets in the back walls and a double in the ceiling.

I'm not finishing the ceiling. I find it a good place for storage. Maybe later.

 

[The English Hacker]

And here's the "problem wall". Joists were all crooked so even though I had the right thickness drywall it wasn't close to flush in many areas. This is next on the task list to complete.

 

[The English Hacker]

Thinking about my paint scheme. I want it to be fairly bright for when I'm detailing but I would also like it to be personalized. I'm probably going to go with a mid-light grey on the bottom half, very light grey on the top half and a thin orange stripe in the middle.

I have to finish where the drywall meets the foundation which meets the floor. I may paint the foundation part with a regular concrete paint and put cove base above it to finish the drywall.

I've also started looking at cabinets and flooring. Thanks to posters here I've dismissed the idea of water-based epoxy kits. The good stuff carries a big premium over what those in the US pay. I've got it in my head to do Racedeck but I'm on a budget this year. Work is not as stable as I'd like. I may go with Racedeck for the rear 4 feet of the garage (72 tiles plus finisher strip) and then purchase the remaining tiles next year.

 

[The English Hacker]

I'm considering the Gladiator cabinets:

Or these Husky cabinets:

I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts if you have experience with these pieces.

 

[dubber]

I'm not sure if you have checked out my thread but based on what you have mentioned above you will be able to see a few of your ideas come to fruition. I have the husky cabinet that i really like. I hung it on their wall track system. The Race Deck flooring speaks for itself. Beyond looking amazing its great to walk on and clean up is super simple. I love the modular aspect as i could fix a specific area or take the whole thing with me and expand upon it in the future if that's in the cards. I went with white paint primarily which i really think helped to brighten up my space.

 

[Jsf721]

I have Gladiator Products and I am happy with them. I went with the premier welded cabinets and like them very much.

[/I]

I'm considering the Gladiator cabinets:

Or these Husky cabinets:

I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts if you have experience with these pieces.

 

[The English Hacker]

I took a look at the Husky cabinets today, which I think I'm going with. A bit disappointed though that the cabinets cannot be mounted flush next to one-another because of the hinges.

I'm realizing how much thought I'm going to need to put into this because I have a lot of things to store. The interior dimensions are only 20' x 18' and I need to fit 2 cars, a lawnmower, detailing supplies, tools, car parts etc.

 

[HSpencer]

I understand the hinges on the cabinets swinging the doors in such a way flush side by side won't work. I ran into this once and solved it by putting some scribe between the cabinets. You can paint the scribe to match the cabinets and it looks pretty good. I did it in a couple of apartments and used about an inch scribe to push them apart enough to allow the doors to open without touching. Might solve the problem.

Best Regards
Herb Spencer

 

[chenthu]

I like the look of Husky.. Also check out New Age, they have similar lines to Husky, I went with them and no complaints!

 

[The English Hacker]

Finally an update:

 

[1/2 Cup]

Well done, I have got to get my **** into gear an do something similar.

 

[The English Hacker]

Drywalled and painted
3 x Gladiator 28" cabinets assembled and hung
Door and window cased
Vinyl baseboard installed
Wheel racks installed
A ton of **** discarded or stored out of sight in the rafters
Two 4' T8 lights installed

Still to do:

Paint door and all casing
Paint foundation
Figure out what to do with the floor
Make adjustments to the cabinets to square them up
Figure out tool storage
Build lean-to shed so that I can get the gardening stuff moved out, including lawnmower

 

[kyle@hcb]

Looks great!

 

[dubber]

Very nice. I like that you added BBC RC's to your GTI. Just paint or grab a euro front rub strip and your good to go.

 

[crewchief888]

I took a look at the Husky cabinets today, which I think I'm going with. A bit disappointed though that the cabinets cannot be mounted flush next to one-another because of the hinges.

I'm realizing how much thought I'm going to need to put into this because I have a lot of things to store. The interior dimensions are only 20' x 18' and I need to fit 2 cars, a lawnmower, detailing supplies, tools, car parts etc.

i like the look of the husky cabinets over the gladiators.

my garage is smallish as well, 18x22.
the wife wanted me to build a "mancave" when we bought the house 7 years ago.
aint happenin'

it's still stud walls, dark, cramped, and barely lit.

i have an unregistered s-10 blazer that has to be kept inside, my harley, snowblower, generator, pressure washer, air compressor, and multiple toolboxes, and welding/fav tools are all crammed in.

i "gave" the wife a small 2'x4' cheap work table to keep her gardening stuff on.

i keep my woodworking tools in the basement, and we dont use the garage for "storage"

we keep her car outside during the summer months, once the snow flies, everything get shuffled around to make room for her car, which means i can barely walk through the garage, and have just enough room to open the drawer in a toolbox.

i moved storage cabinets, and shelves up as high as possible, floor space is at a premium, if it's touching the floor, is has to serve multiple purposes.

i've moved stuff around several times before i came up with a layout that worked.
just be prepared to redesign and rethink.

i redesign and replace things as i get new storage ideas, with the exception of toolboxes, tools, equipment and air compressor, everything from the shelves, steel cabinets, to the light fixtures in the garage was saved from the dumpster, scrap bin, picked up on trash day, or salvaged from previous projects.

it's all fun

 

[crewchief888]

BTW,

my old lady gave up on trying to understand the "method of my madness" a long time ago.

she sleeps better now

 

[The English Hacker]

Very nice. I like that you added BBC RC's to your GTI. Just paint or grab a euro front rub strip and your good to go.

My wife "rubbed" the wall with the GTI not 24 hrs after I drywalled it.

 

[The English Hacker]

Thanks for the kind comments guys. For all those on the fence about doing something to improve your own space, JUST GO FOR IT!!!