Category Archives: Uncategorized

Garage Shelves

This is one of those projects I’ve meant to get to since moving into our house.  Storage in the garage has been mostly an afterthought, consisting mainly of leftover cabinets and pantry shelves from the kitchen before a remodel by the previous homeowners.

The first step was to clear everything from the wall.

Can you see how long those shelves must have been there?

The wall where the garage meets the rest of the house is the only one with drywall. The rest of the garage is unfinished. But the wall with drywall never got mud and taped.  I changed that:

Next, I painted the wall using a mix of many paint samples that we’ve accumulated over the past couple of years.  I mixed them all together in a 2 gallon bucket.

This is what it looked like after one coat of paint.  I like the color, which makes sense, because it’s a mix of all the colors we liked enough to buy samples of them.

It’s nothing special, but is a much better use of the space than before and cost only about $50 for all of the brackets holding up 1×12 pine common boards.   The bottom shelf is actually made from recycled wood from the cabinet that was there before.  I’m also happy to have more floor space open against the wall, both for cleaning and to store bulkier lawn equipment.  The next projects in the garage will be putting insulation and drywall in other areas and fixing the cracks in the floor.

The Gutters

There are few things worse than the smell of rotting organic material.   This was just the first sign that our gutters would probably need some attention someday.  If you’ve ever dragged out a ladder, put on gloves, and held your breath to clean gutters, you know exactly what I’m talking about.  Gutters provide a valuable service to homes.  They collect rainwater from the roof and divert it away from the structure.  However, unless they have a leaf shield or screen, leaves are bound to fall inside too, and if it’s not cleared out on a regular basis, it becomes a make-shift compost pile.  One spot on our house was so bad, weeds were growing out of it.  Look closely in the photo below and you’ll see what I’m talking about:

The second sign that we needed new gutters, and what finally made us pull the trigger on replacements, was a small leak that developed above our back patio door.

I put Winnie’s water bowl under the drip because I was having concerns about the water splashing off of the deck and on to our house.  As homeowners, we have always been told that water can have a devastating impact on your house.  Not only that, the water that was falling from the gutters was a rusty brown color, and it was staining our siding.  I think the rust came from how the hole developed in the first place; years of standing water in steel gutters.  Knowing we were bound to replace the gutters within the next couple of weeks, I drilled holes in the bottom of the gutters to help the water flow out.  Look closely in this next video for the stained siding:

After a little bit of research and calling for estimates, we chose a local company to install new gutters for us.  We were presented three options.  All three included gutter technology aimed at keeping leaves out of the trough.  We chose the most affordable option, which came with a wire mesh and slightly larger downspouts.