The garage - my most recent home improvement project!

Well, it started in October. While cruising the clearance aisle at Home Depot, I found 2 boxes of garage floor paint/epoxy. You know, that stuff that makes the garage floor look finished? Well, we have a 2 car garage and each box only does a one car garage. They were normally around $65 but were half off because they were missing the cool little paint flecks that you sprinkle on top. For some stupid reason, I remembered that you can buy the flecks separately at Lowe's in a little shaker for only about $8. So, DH and I decided to finish the garage floor.

We both had off Columbus Day (October 8) but DD had school, which was good, she would be out of our hair. So we took EVERYTHING out of the garage. We had to put the spare fridge on the back patio and the lawn mower under the stairs in back. A few things went in the basement, but since we are currently in the process of finishing the basement (you will see multiple blogs on that in the future) we couldn't put too much down there. Most of the contents of the garage went into our living room. Yes, you read that right. You walk in the front door and there is DD's bike and Barbie Jeep, multiple paint cans, the Shop Vac, the workbench, tools, grass seed, fertilizer, etc.

So, we took to cleaning the garage floor, which is the first step. At first look, as garage floors go, ours was pretty clean. No oil spills, no random car droppings, etc. Then the scrubbing began and we had no idea! From when the house was new, roughly 9 yrs ago, and they painted the garage there was overspray everywhere. It was pretty faint so you couldn't tell until we started scrubbing and the concrete started appearing darker as the paint got scrubbed off. We ended up spending the entire day, roughly 10 hours, just cleaning the garage floor. Then it had to dry. Thoroughly.

So, we let it sit for 2 days to make sure it was really, truly, completely dry. Then we started painting and sprinkling the paint chips on top. This part actually wasn't too hard. We did it in two nights because you cannot mix the two cans of stuff and it has to set up for like 30 minutes before you use it. I cut in, then DH rolled, then I sprinkled the chips on.

Well, then you cannot put anything on it for 48 hours and cannot park cars on it for 7 days. It really bothered me that I had a fridge on the patio. DH was worried someone would steal stuff out of it. I was more worried that someone who knows us might see it. I can just here the comments now. "Just take an old sofa out there with it and you have a redneck living room." Sigh.

Okay, so now the floor is done, I have the brilliant idea that while all the stuff is out of the garage, instead of moving everything twice, we should go ahead and paint the garage. Little did I know.

Well, a few years ago (2002, to be exact) we got a new roof on the house. Sortly after, we discovered water in the garage. we ripped out part of the garage ceiling to pinpoint the exact loaction of the leak and got the roof company to come repair the roof. We left that part (roughly a 4ft square) of the garage ceiling off to make sure everything dried out properly. I'm hoping that five years was long enough.

No biggie, we'll just take a piece of sheetrock from the basement, cut it to the right size, put it up there, mud a little, and paint. Well, we got up the sheetrock and DH doesn't think it looks right. But, because he is Indecisive Man we will leave it and try to mud and tape it. And sand it. And mud it agian. And sand it again. And complain about how it is the wrong size of sheetrock each time he muds and sands. So, after a few rounds of mudding and sanding, he decides to rip it out and buy a thicker piece of sheetrock and restart the process.

Then he decides that the rest of the garage should be properly mudded and sanded and all dents, dings, nail holes, and blemishes in the walls and ceiling should be mudded and sanded. Do you know how many dings are in the garage of a 9 yr old house? We had a 5 gallon bucket of mud and had to buy more. Seriously.

So, finally, last weekend, one month after we started this fiasco, I say I've had enough of the garage in the living room, the fridge on the patio, and my brand new car not being in the garage. DH gets mad and says he can't get the mud to look perfect and we should hire someone to redo it all.

IT'S A FREAKIN' GARAGE!!!!

Nope, we are going to paint. I'm putting my foot down. I want it done. Before there is a foot of snow on my car and we are forced to get the snowblower out of the living room to clear it.

Fortunately, I had already purchased the paint long ago. Its oops paint from Home Depot. I got 3 gallons of off white Ralph Lauren Satin paint for the garage. Yep, I'm probably the only one in the neighborhood with a garage painted in Ralph Lauren Paint, huh? But, for $5/gallon, Ralph Lauren it is.

So we painted. It went well. As I'm painting, I ponder. Who's idea was it that garages should be painted white? How stupid is that? But had we painted it sage green or chili pepper red or some other cool color it would look wierd, right? So, its white. Very white. It reminds me of when I was a kid and everyone's living rooms were white. It's that color.

But, its done. Completely. And it looks good. We moved everything back in. No more fridge on the patio. No more snowblower in the living room. Yeah, over a month later, but its done. Whew!!!