Garage Makeover

Hubs has been complaining that the garage is just a dumping ground and unfortunately, he's right.   I'm really embarrassed to even post pictures, but here it goes. 

Everything that didn't have a place in the house or that Hubs leaves laying around gets put in the garage.  When we remodeled the kitchen, we moved the laundry room into the garage to gain more room for our kitchen, so it's more like a garage/storage/laundry room.  They had to install a pump to push water over the garage and kitchen into the drain. It was either that or bust up part of our garage and driveway.  So we lived with these ugly pipes coming out of the wall for all this time.  Look under the left cabinet above the washing machine and you'll see 2 huge pipes coming out of the wall at a 45 degree angle. The pump is "hidden" inside a makeshift cabinet.

 

We put our heads together and came up with a plan to hide all the pumps and pipes.  We decided that it would also be a good idea to install a sink for convenience.  We drew up a plan and got to work. 

First we went to hhgregg and ordered a new stackable washer/dryer so that we could gain more storage space.  Next, we went to Home Depot to order the cabinets.  Then the hard part.. clearing the garage.  Ugh.  We started putting stuff in the attic and shed and left all the large storage cabinets.  We only had 1 month to get the garage prepped and painted because the washer/dryer were scheduled to be delivered a month from the purchase date. It was as far out as we could have it come. 

Hubs decided to just take down all the drywall because he had to relocate some outlets/switches and redo the well water pump system to fit it under the counter top I wanted.  Look at this well pump configuration.  Awful, right??

Here is that wall after all the drywall came out.

After he completed the wiring, we found a plumber (Dean) based on a friend's recommendation to come in and run lines for the sink and also lower the pump and do something about the weird angle of the pipes.  Dean came by to assess the situation with another plumber and left the work to him because he was furiously working on meeting a deadline on a house that is going to grace the cover of Coastal Living magazine.  How cool is that??   

After the plumbing was complete, Hubs decided it would be a good opportunity to insulate the wall.  He's such a smarty pants! 

We had 2 weeks left for someone to drywall.  I called the guy who scraped the ceilings in our billiard room and hallways.  He said he would be available to do it the following week, which was last week.  We called last week and he said this week for sure.  We figured we could at least paint the floor and knock that out of the way.  Since we have so much crap, we had to move everything to one side, paint, let it dry overnight, then move everything to the other side and paint the rest. 

See the half painted floor? 

Okay, so we finished that up on Monday.  When I called the drywall guy to ask when he was coming, I explained to him that we had to get the drywall up no later than Wednesday because we had a washer and dryer coming Friday and we still had to prime and paint.  AND that if he thought he couldn't do it, to let us know so we can get someone else.  He said he could do it on Wednesday.  Okay, well, we gave him the benefit of the doubt because he did a great job for us before and was cheap.  Big mistake.   Yesterday, he was supposed to come.   We called, no answer.  We left several messages.  By 5:00pm, I'm fuming.  I called the friend who recommended him to ask if he knew of anyone else that we could get at the last minute.  Luckily he did and he came over today.  I was hoping they would finish today but no such luck.  I called hhgregg to see if there was any way they could deliver on Monday instead.  They said it would be fine.  Happy dance!  Luckily my mother-in-law is taking the girls this weekend so we'll be painting all night tomorrow and probably into Saturday.  Saturday will be our day of rest as we have a tee time at 11:08am.  It's supposed to be 80 and cloudy so it should be perfect.   Check back soon for more on the garage makeover.

4/24/11 - We've got color!!

Happy Easter!!  What a wonderful weekend it turned out to be despite the painting marathon we had.  We started painting right after work at 5:00pm on Friday.  Hubs rolls and I do the trim work.  We put on 2 coats of flat white ceiling paint.  We were painting over semi-gloss so it kind of smeared on rather than rolled on the first coat.  Then we put 1 coat of Behr Aqua Smoke semi-gloss on the right side of the garage.  We are still working on half the garage at a time because of all the piles of crap stuff we have in there.  We were hoping to put the 2nd coat on but it just wasn't drying.  It was about 50 degrees outside, so I imagine the temperature had something to do with it.  We finally called it a night at 3:00am.  After looking at it in the morning, we reluctantly agreed the ceiling needed 1 more coat.  So after a fun-filled weekend, we put the girls to bed and started painting again.  We finished the ceiling and put another coat on the right-hand wall.  I'm really liking the color.  Hubs was a bit skeptical at first, calling it a Care Bear Green, but it's growing on him. 

Hubs also sealed some cracks around the perimeter of the garage and under the door.  He used this really cool foam sealer called Great Stuff.  You spray it in a crack, it foams up, then you just cut the excess off with a serrated knife when it dries.  How cool is that??  Check it out!

The new washing machine and dryer come tomorrow!  Woo Hoo! 

4/27/11 - Frustrated

Okay, so hhgregg calls on Monday to say they don't have the side dryer vent kit we ordered and it would be there on Tuesday.  We told them to go ahead and deliver the washer/dryer Monday and come back to install the dryer vent kit on Tuesday.  Somehow wires got crossed and they did not come by.  They came by Tuesday to set up the washer/dryer, but still no vent kit.  Hmmm.  When Hubs called the store, he was informed that it was back-ordered for 3 to 4 weeks.  She said, "I told your wife yesterday that it was back-ordered... didn't she tell you?"  ARE YOU KIDDING ME????  So not only am I irritated that I ordered this a month ago and they waited until now to let us know, but they lied to us twice!  Nice.  So Hubs went to Home Depot and found another contraption to use that would end up giving us the same configuration as if we went with the side vent kit.  We needed it to be close to the wall since we are surrounding it with cabinets.  The side vent kit was $49.99 and it cost Hubs $13.00 to create the new one.  I'll be going to hhgregg tomorrow to get my money back for the vent kit. 

Didn't he do a good job?? 

So Home Depot said the expected delivery date for our cabinets was Monday.  Monday came and went, no call.  I called Tuesday and they said the new expected delivery date would be that day, Tuesday.  No call back.  We called them back around 8:00pm and they told us it would be leaving the warehouse in Michigan the following day.  What is up with these places??  So now we are not expected to get the cabinets until Friday.  Is this project ever going to be over?  Ugh.

I guess the good news is that we can start working on the 15 piles of laundry sitting on our bedroom floor.  <sigh>

5/7/11 - Slow and Steady

Well, Home Depot finally called on Thursday to let us know our cabinets were in. Hubs went to go pick one up that night and no one was available to assist him.  No surprise there.  They said it would be about 45 minutes until someone could get it for him.  He couldn't wait because I had to leave for volleyball finals, which by the way, my Diving Divas took the championship for the third straight season in a row!  ;) 

So he went up Friday after work and got the first pantry cabinet.  He had to do a hack job on it since that ridiculous pump was going in it.  Oh, and did I mention there is a concrete "ledge" along the bottom of that wall?  Not sure what that is all about other than being another reason to annoy me.  So he had to cut the bottom to accommodate that as well so our cabinets would be flush against the wall.  He did a pretty good job considering! 

Today, he went back to get the other pantry cabinet. Then while the girls were napping, Hubs worked on cutting holes in our other pantry cabinet for the dryer hose while I made 3 trips to Home Depot to pick up the sink base and all 3 wall cabinets.  Not surprising, our 36 inch base cabinet was sold out, even though they showed 2 in stock.  So, I had to go to another store and get it.  Good times! 

I love this picture of Roo watching her daddy cut holes in the pantry cabinet.   

Here are the holes cut out!

And the dryer hose hooked back up.

After the second pantry went up, Hubs set up the sink base.  I feel like we finally made some progress today!

5/17/2011 - Leaking Washer.... GRRRRR

We went on vacation last week and when we got home, we noticed a pool of water in front of our washer.  Great!!  So we did a load of laundry and there was no leak until well after the washer had stopped.  So, I guess Hubs is going to have to take one of the pantry cabinets down and investigate.  Another setback.  ;(  We are still pushing forward though. We will go pick out counter tops tomorrow.  I wonder what kind of issues we will run in to there.  Stay tuned....

5/17/2011 (continued) - Cool

Well, Hubs investigated and found out that the dryer water supply line for steam was not tight.  Who'd a thought it was the dryer causing the leak?  Any who, hopefully that was the only issue and we won't have any more mystery leaks.  The doors to the cabinets are on and we're going counter top shopping tomorrow. 

I am bringing a sample piece of fabric with me to try and find a counter top that will match.  Here is the fabric I picked out for the curtains.  I just love stripes!!

Update:  5/31/2011 - Well pump installed and hardware attached

Well, we decided on a counter top, but have not ordered it yet.  Apparently the wall at the end of our garage is not level at all.  The wall varies by 1 inch where the counter top will be.  We will have to ask if the company can cut the counter top accordingly.  We hope to do that tomorrow. 

Hubs finished installing the well pump in a new configuration that takes up far less space.  He lowered the PVC pipes, got a smaller tank and mounted the control panel under where the counter top will be. 

Here is what it looked like before.

And this is what it looks like now! 

Hubs picked out this hardware for the cabinets and installed them. 

Update:  10/13/2011 - Almost done

We finally got around to ordering our counter tops midway through summer, only to pick them up almost 4 weeks after we ordered them. They said it would take a week, but we never got a call back from them.  When we called about 3 weeks later, they said they were done.  A phone call would have been nice, ya think?  So we made arrangements to pick it up the following week.  The counter top that went over the cabinet next to the house door was perfect.  

The other counter top, which had to be cut at an angle on one end due to a crooked wall was cut straight, despite us providing exact measurements of how it should be cut and them saying that was not a problem.  Of course we didn't notice it until we got home. We debated taking it back, but it would have been too much of a hassle trying to arrange another truck pickup and drop-off.  Hubs made it work by using some shims and cutting an extra piece of the laminate back splash to cover the gap.  He installed the sink with no problems.  

I finished the curtains that go below the counter top to hide the well pump and other miscellaneous stuff we want to put under there.   

   

Only a few more things to do before it's complete!   

• Install and paint trim around the door.
• Install and paint trim around window.  (We may have to get our carpenter friend to help with that. The window is jacked up, to say the least.)
• Install and paint foot boards and shoe molding.
• Change out the remaining light switches and plugs.
• Finish curtains for the door and window.
• Take better pictures and post.  I'll get Hubs to use the good camera.  ;)