making way

This past spring of '10 we finally decided it was about time to do something about this

by which I mean the lack of a driveway to the carport we had created 2 years prior. This photo was taken during the weeks of house painting and fence building, the real before photos were lost in a tragic hard drive accident along with the during and after.  Let's just say the grass in this area didn't still look that good when we started this project.

We wanted to use eco-pavers as an earth (and eye) friendly alternative to poured concrete. These allow rainwater, which could contain car oils and rubber residue, to seep into and be filtered naturally by the ground and grass rather than creating additional polluted runoff into the storm water system.


Unfortunately at $8 a piece for a 1.5 sq ft block these were absolutely not in the budget for our 500 square foot project. We were definitely set against using concrete so we settled on a gravel alternative. Wanting to avoid the typical large gray driveway gravel we thought we'd try a pea gravel in shades of brown and tan. Fortunately we did some research and figured out that the reason people use larger sized gravel in driveways is because a car tire will simply displace smaller pieces. So off we went to Idaho Stone where they helped us create a mix of the smaller sized pieces we wanted aesthetically with larger sized pieces for function in a clay colored blend.

We dug down by hand about 6" and used a heavy duty landscape fabric to cover the entire area. The installation was very easy and will prevent the gravel from sinking into the dirt as well as prevent weeds. We edged the outline of the new driveway with pavers installed on their sides to contain the gravel and create a border for the grass.

Finished photos to come this spring; at the moment it looks a bit like this

kegerator raider

We had planned on replacing the mix and match kitchen appliances since buying the house and with the project list dwindling decided to tackle those next.  My top priority was the slowly dying dishwasher which turns out, worked just fine (what didn't was my super earth friendly biodegradable dish soap.  Sorry earth, I really hate water spots on my glasses!).  We were able to sell it for a few bucks and replaced it with a new stainless steel model. (Never did quite learn that 'take before photos' lesson did we?)




Bryce's top priority was to replace the refrigerator and you'll see why. We upgraded to a nice freezer on bottom stainless steel model which although I love the look of, don't recommend due to the very limited and inefficient freezer space.


but instead of selling or donating the old one, it moved out into the garage and became a kegerator for Bryce's new brewing hobby (this kid's got motives people). I was glad we kept it though when we decided to start purchasing fractions of farm animals for meat that wouldn't fit in the new freezer.


We made a shelf out of scrap plywood and 2x4s that sits on existing shelf supports inside. The standard shelves that were removed wouldn't hold the amount of weight we would be putting in there as the kegerator can now fit 1 standard half barrel and 1 6th barrel keg along with the Co2 canister (shown here with 2 6th barrels). The shelf left room below for Bryce's 'beer cellar'. Most people age wine....we age both.


the outside; we still need to add a drain tube for the drip pan, for now that blue bucket is doing the job


Bryce wanted to use leftover chalkboard paint on the kegerator to label the rotating selection but I got out of that task by showing him dry erase markers would work just as well. On the left is a custom tap I made for the home brewed IPA and on the right, the dry erase marker labeled 2* Below by New Belgium.


The stove, hood and microwave are still all white while we keep an eye out for any good deals.

and here's a pic of Bryce using his newly built workbench to assemble the co2 system

workin' on the work....bench

The immediate 'after' photos of the newly built, clean and organized workbench were lost in the tragic hard drive death of 2010 so these 'a bit after' photos will have to do (please excuse the clutter and muddy winter garage floor, we live in North Idaho, we can't help it).

First, a reminder of the garage as it looked when we first moved in. This is looking toward the front; here you can see the side door and part of the garage door


with the new garage door, light fixtures and wired for sound (why a garage needs 4 speakers and a sub I do not know but this one has it)


looking toward the back as it had been since moving in


and now with new electrical service, wiring, lighting, insulation, drywall, attic ladder, epoxy floor, Behr 'rain storm' (aka Seahawk blue) racing stripe, ceiling mounted extension cord reel, custom designed and built work bench and one very happy man

I like organizing so at this point in the project I was reenergized (being done with the mud and tape portion of drywalling helped too). To design the workbench, I first took inventory of the larger items it would need to house. The right side was designed specifically to fit the table saw, the shelf underneath was positioned so the massive wet/dry vacuum would fit and the top shelf so that the speakers could sit on top. We installed simple plug-in undermount cabinet lights for some task lighting and a ladder hook under the table top that holds the extra air hose. The width of the workbench was determined by simply taking up the entire width of the garage that was not taken up by the air compressor and tool chest shown in the photo above.


The attic ladder was one of the first things we did in order to get some stuff out of the way when starting the project. It was a huge pain to install but was definitely worth while. Before the drywall was installed on the ceiling, we took the opportunity of having the rafters open to slide 4'x8' sheets of plywood into the attic which now serves as a flooring for the storage above. The best part, somehow we ended up installing the ladder in a position that allows it to be open even when a car is in the garage, completely by chance.


The rest of our stuff was stored in the aptly named storage room, which is off to the side of the garage and runs about half of its length. I don't know why there are really no before photos but this room was covered in shoddily built shelving. We gutted it and treated it to all the upgrades as the garage. It is now one of the most utilized areas of the house as they weren't built with much storage capacity in 1908. Here you can see into it from the garage


and upon closer inspection


looking toward the left; this door leads to an outside covered storage area toward the front of the garage


Like I said I'm a huge fan of organization and this was a tough one to tackle. The clear bins were an easy choice but expensive when added up and I wanted to limit how much money was spent on just a storage room. We did reuse one item left by the previous owners; a storage cabinet with a latch, perfect for all those toxic items we didn't want easily accessible to the cats or knocking over.

We bought some mop and broom type holder racks for the garage area which also worked well in the storage room for the skis...all five pairs of them. This is what happens when you marry a skier.

And lastly, a memento left in the floor 'L.R.T 1957'


and a little word of encouragement, signed by our friend Big Air Matt Gillis

caved

The molding project was something we both wanted to do so after I chose the downstairs bathroom, it was back to Bryce's turn to pick a project (and rest assured it was as completely practical and necessary as his first).

Here I actually have to cheat a little on the chronology and skip backwards a bit.  The garage was a mess when we bought the house. The walls were completely covered in shoddily built shelves and nails for hanging....I have no idea but lots of whatever it was.  There were old pieces of furniture hung to the walls acting as storage, many of which I believe we actually demolished before moving in so we'd have a place to work and store some stuff.  The garage was built in the 50's when the house was moved to its current location so it's a bit newer than the house itself. The previous owners later added a storage room onto the side of it which was another rare good move for them.

Some before photos, taken after some shelving was already removed. It appears we've also already torn out the handrail and fencing that used to be across the carport as it's in this photo too.


entrance to the storage area is in the middle of this photo.


In the Spring of 2007 we emptied it out, scrubbed the floor clean and put down an epoxy coating. We have some 'in-progress' photos but not a clear 'after' photo.


Fast forward to the winter of 2009. The downstairs bathroom had been completed a few months prior and if you remember the pile of drywall from that post you'll know where this is going. We rented a U-haul to pick up the few pieces of drywall we needed for the bathroom and, since this project was next on the list, decided to go ahead and buy enough to finish out the garage while we had the rental truck. I think that was quite a plan Bryce schemed.

We cleared out the garage once again, insulated, ran speaker cable, drywalled, painted, and built a work bench. We had a new garage door and opener installed by Sandpoint Garage Doors (208.263.6040) and the entire garage rewired with a new dedicated panel (which also actually led to replacing the panel inside the house as well to support it...of course). There's not a clear set of in progress photos since each wall of the garage was on a different schedule. We still had a lot stored in there so we did a few steps to one wall, moved everything, then did the next wall.

installing some insulation


drywalling


we rented a lift to do the ceiling



the old garage door, the rails had been taken down to drywall the ceiling


new door opener installed, walls mudded


The mudding definitely slowed the project down a bit as the temperatures weren't high enough to dry it efficiently. We ended up purchasing an industrial type heater to help get the job done.  For anyone wondering, the green board was simply left over from the bathroom projects so we decided to use it up; we don't plan on housing any water activities in here.

Here you can see the attic ladder whose installation was actually the hardest part of the project


We painted the walls and ceiling Behr 'decorator white' and added a racing stripe of Behr 'rain storm'.  We used a matching blue stain on the plywood floor of the storage area.  Garage almost complete, just a work bench left to build. 


new garage door

one half, three quarters, one and done

And now for the afters. Layout sketch one last time


Formerly the vanity


now the laundry room


The photo is fuzzy but it gets the point across. Here you can also see the new trim installed around the doorway to mimic the original trim throughout the rest of the house; this was also matched on the window in the bathroom. We also built a litter box with cat door into the cabinet; maybe not the best idea for resale but totally worth it.

Formerly the laundry area


now the tub and shower


view of the other end of the shower, laundry room in the background


Formerly the shower


now the vanity


I have to say that post took almost as long as the remodel.  Congrats if you finished it!

one half, three quarters, one...part III

Moving on to the shower across the room which, although hard to tell from this photo taken from the previous vanity area, does extend out over the window. This was plumbed for the vanity and the toilet, to it's right, was kept in place.


removing the shower surround which really did not want to come out


The mess we found under it. That's globs of cement on the floor, the solution to an uneven floor under the shower. We had our tile guy properly level the floor in here.


The plywood over the window where the shower overlapped it. It was a bit nerve wracking watching Bryce try to remove this without breaking any glass but he did it.


We only removed as much drywall in here as was necessary for the plumber to install the new piping for the vanity and simply double-layered what was existing with new drywall. We installed new insulation where we had to remove the existing.


New water resistant drywall. Note how well we cut out the circles for the plumbing; I was seriously impressed with us.


Unfortunately (and I hate to admit this) I screwed up the planning of the vanity. I had the plumber center the piping for it using the width of the vanity we had purchased. I hadn't however taken into account the drawers down the side of the vanity and the fact that the plumbing had to come in off center. Another trip from the plumber, a slight modification to the vanity itself and some reworking of the perfect drywall later and we got it figured out.


vanity and flooring installed, walls painted


After photos coming next...