As my readers know I spend a lot of time traveling. Home projects may not be my thing and after this I understand why. My home has a two car garage. For the past four years, It has been the domicile for my husband’s 1968 Mustang Fastback. Tom rarely drove it, because he was nervous it might be vandalized. To me this was a waste of space and I finally convinced him to sell it. The rest of the garage had the usual clutter that happens in a garage. The other storage space in my house is a pull down attic, that frankly is dangerous to maneuver. My goal is to move anything I use and put it in the new cabinets.
Master Plan
The floor would be done in a decorative epoxy. I found a company from Texas that manufactures steel cabinetry. They come assembled on wheels. It takes a month to receive them, so I ordered a storage box and emptied all the items from the garage into it. I hired two of my family members to help with this. So far, so good. I rented a storage box to be placed onmy property to put all my storage while the work was getting done.
Garage Floor
I advertised for a company that has experience with decorative epoxy flooring. I had a picture of a pattern I liked, but that company was far from where I lived and wouldn’t come. I got a response, and they assured me they could fulfill this task. The job started on June 1, and it started out okay. I would rather not interfere with their process, so I let them be. The one thing I asked for that differed from the picture I had was to add some strips of royal blue to it. Imagine my surprise when I noticed that the floor was blue with the yellow and black strewn throughout the design. It looked like something out of Star Wars, and this would need a major change.
Garage Floor/part 2
After I shared my displeasure with the owner of the painting company, there was no argument back. It was nothing like what I had shown them. This required fresh supplies, which were not available. I couldn’t let the Star Wars vibe just sit unattended. I ordered two light sabers, used the movie’s theme song and a light projector, and my husband and I enacted a sword fight.
Sword play in our Star Wars themed garage
Garage Floor/part 2
After I shared my displeasure with the owner of the painting company, there was no argument back. It was nothing like what I had shown them. This required fresh supplies, which were not available. I couldn’t let the Star Wars vibe just sit unattended. I ordered two light sabers, used the movie’s theme song and a light projector, and my husband and I enacted a sword fight.
It took several days for the painters to get the supplies. It also took additional days to repaint the floor. This meant I needed to extend the box I rented for a longer time. The floor was done; however; it was not what I envisioned. The design I wanted was marbleized, but this was not. It had streaks of color over a white floor. If I wanted this project to move on, then I needed to accept this imperfection.
I moved all the items in the box back into the center of the garage so when the cabinets arrived, they could fit on the perimeter. Then I received a text saying my cabinetry would be delayed because they were waiting on the blue paint that I had ordered. Since I was leaving on a trip and the July 4th holiday week was upon us, the shipping would have to wait.
Steel Cabinets
My biggest issue with the cabinets was the communication. Every question I had, needed to be asked by email. The delivery was initially scheduled for mid June, when I heard nothing, I sent an email to find that they were still not ready. Now there was no choice but to plan for a post vacation delivery, This also meant that I would have to keep my storage box longer and pay more than I originally intended
Shipping
There was miscommunication between the cabinet company and the shipper. The expected arrival date was July 15. Now I needed to find out who the shipper was and see tracking info. I then found out some disconcerting information. The packaging would be wooden crates and cardboard. I knew this would be a problem, since this would require labor for the unpacking and require a company to get rid of the voluminous amount of debris. I went with 1 800 GOT JUNK.
By now, I was both desperate and disgusted. My schedule was a month off from my original finish date, and now I needed to decide which things warranted cabinet space and what was to get either donated or thrown away.
Organization
The cabinets were in place, and all my items were in the middle of the garage. My plan was to sort according to category. Two cabinets hold all things holiday: 1–outdoor things, 1–kids‘ toys, 1–my husband’s office supplies and related items, 1–paint and other household supplies, and 1–luggage and wire rack for paper goods. The sorting process I found to be satisfying. I still have open shelf space, so I will add things from my attic.
Conclusion
This project remained in my head for a while, so the unpredictability was worth it. So if you have a project you’re thinking about, be prepared for it to come with its surprises. However, what the hell, in the end you’ll reap the reward.
