That Stuff Growing on the Roof

On the back side of our house, where the roof shingles only get partial sun and at night only, we had some stuff starting to grow.  I’d call it moss, but learned after reading an article or two online that it was more likely a type of algae.  I picked up the product below at Home Depot.

The ease of application if the reason I went this route.  Some chemicals require using your own pump spray bottle, which I didn’t want to do, because it would mean climbing on the roof to apply.  With this bottle, all I had to do was stand on a ladder on our deck, attach the product to a hose, and spray away.

The photo above was taken a couple of weeks after spraying the chemical.  It appears the green algae had mostly turned yellow.  I did this project in late October, and took the last picture in early November, so I am eager to see if the chemical keeps the stuff from growing back in the spring.

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.