Let's Use This Garage

The garage at our new house was just not meeting our needs. I'm not sure how else to say it. And it's such an important part of the house to us, especially to be functional. So, we moved it up the priority list of things we wanted to tackle (with help) and made a plan.   

First, there's the gym. Dave had a whole CrossFit gym set up in our last garage, which turned out to be wildly useful once the pandemic hit. This new garage is falling short of being used as a gym for two reasons. The first, the ceilings are just a bit too low and, the second, the floors slope (for good reason) and the bar bells roll down toward the door -- which is not safe -- and the rig couldn't be correctly installed. 

The solution, we need to even out the floor in the gym space and open up the ceiling (empty attic above) so we can dedicate space to the gym. 

Add to that, the floors are super GROSS. I mean, worse than most garage floors. There are piles of crud or sticky stuff in almost every corner. Long cracks too. AND the whole space needs to be primed and painted. But first, holes need to be patched and random boards with haphazard nails half-hammered in need to be removed. It's a total mess. 

So, we hired a contractor to build up the floors and pop a hole to the attic. And an epoxy company to come and clean and coat the floors. And, no surprise, we'll paint the walls ourselves, mostly to save the money. (It was a $1k price tag to paint.)

Let's take a quick trip down memory lane ... when we first saw this house, the garage was a storage space with boxes stacked to the ceiling in almost every direction. Hoarder-style. We couldn't even walk INTO the garage because of all the stuff. It was overwhelming. And ripped up holes all over the ceiling to access the attic, that they were using as MORE storage. I remember seeing a stuffed deer head, antique signs and so many boxes. 

It was such a mess, we requested they fix the non-functional garage doors and holes (and clear it out) before we bought it. Which, to their credit, they did.

Here's the BEFORE of the gym space ...  

And the middle bay with the door ... 

And the "half bay" that will be our work bench. (Gym items got shoved in here during construction.)

It came down to this: If we don't fix the issues in here, that's 500sq ft of house we really can't use, and that's just silly. Work is underway and I can't wait for it all to be done. 

More to come!