(no subject)

[elizilla]

My garage is almost put back together. Yay!

The wiring is done, the insulation is done, the drywall is done. I don't want to paint until summer, because of the fumes and because most paint needs to be applied at a certain temp range. But I can't live with it all torn apart for months, so I've put the shelves and workbench together. I may never bother to paint; the only reason I put up drywall is because paneling is flammable, and I had to have something covering the insulation. Besides, I'm tired of having it feel like a dark cave out there, and even unpainted drywall is much brighter than paneling.

I made an effort to use things that I already had, so the shelves are made of scrap lumber that was already kicking around, some leftover brackets from various closet projects, etc. The light over the workbench used to be one of the overhead lights, before I installed the ceiling. The metal base that's holding up the workbench is built from a shelving unit I already had out there, which I dremeled into shape to fit in the exact spot where I wanted, and put the countertop at the height I wanted. I attached it to the walls using small pieces of scrap lumber which you can't see, and it's rock solid. This summer when I paint it, I think I will just mix together all the various shades of white that we've got leftover from interior painting projects over the years, and paint it with that. It's so nice to use things up which would otherwise have been trash.

Before and after pics are behind the lj-cut


Picture taken tonight:



Picture from a couple years ago:

Comments

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

It all looks very cool and professional.

[ex-erikvolso370.livejournal.com]

Neat! However, don't skip the paint.

First, Garage=No climate control=humidity, which will ruin the drywall over time, or get you a lovely mold infestation that you'll have to deal with if you sell. Two, you think it's bright now? Get a sprayer and lay a couple of coats of white on it -- it'll do amazing things to the light levels (bare drywall soaks a suprising amount of light.)

Think of it as equity.

[elizilla]

Fortunately my garage is pretty dry; the driveway slopes down from it and the drainage is good around that end of the house. The garage had unpainted drywall on the wall it shares with the house, ever since it was built in the 1970s. It had not gotten moldy or moisture damaged in 30 years, but the paper had darkened somewhat. I painted that wall last summer and it brightened the garage a lot. I was hoping to get to the place where I am now, before winter set in, and if I had gotten it done earlier I would have painted. Since I didn't, any more painting will have to wait for warmer weather.

Just putting up the mud was a calculated risk; there's a spot you can't see in the picture where I had to apply a slightly thicker mud layer and it still hasn't dried. It may get strange there when the weather warms up, due to freeze and thaw. At least unpainted mud can be easily knocked off if need be.

Re:

[pi3832.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it'd be easier if you could pull all the bikes out into the driveway and then just go nuts with paint.

And I must say, that's a serious tool-box you got there. Colour me jealous.