Project ADD- The Garage

Dustin and I suffer from something I call project ADD.

We have a project list.

We have it in order.

We know what to do and in what order we plan to do each.

Then the stove/oven dies.

So a new project is inserted (and not yet complete).  And all the project money is wiped out.

Then he brings home his blacksmith forge and we have nowhere to put it.

So the garage is getting a face lift. (after scraping together some project money from what seems like mid air...)

The garage is not on the to do list. It has never been on the to do list. However, it is now numero uno.

I gotta say. Dustin is a neat freak. He isn't a fan of clutter. When we have yardsales, I have to follow him around the house making sure he doesn't get things we use on a daily basis to sell--because he does. But, it is NICE. Our garage is always tidy.  (and he loves to clean the kitchen- major score for me!)

But, even through the garage is always clean and tidy, it's a bit...icky. The picture above shows what all of the concrete walls looked like... the right side, with the black gunk on it. And, the floor isn't awful, but it's not sealed and I tend to go in there and spray paint wherever I want, leaving paint outlines of my victims. And, it is usually damp.

So, it looks as though the garage is about to become Dustin's office until we scrape together a "Blacksmith shed" fund in the Dave Ramsey Budget. At the rate we are going now, it should be fully funded by 2078. :) That's ok... we improvise. 

So, now our garage walls are starting to look like this. We had a 5 gallon bucket of concrete and masonry sealer that we used in the laundry room. We just went and bought 2 more gallons. And, we bought an epoxy paint sealer for the garage floor.So really, the whole "seal up of the garage 2010" has cost us less than $200. (so far, HA)

(see what I mean about spray painted outlines....)

Our first summer here, a mother raccoon and her 5 babies got trapped in our garage. I grew up in the STICKS, so animals are no big deal. However, they had trapped themselves in there all night and made a MESS. They used the bathroom everywhere and tried to pull their way out through the bottom of the door. Our garage door is wood and if you look closely, you can see how momma raccoon pulled about 2 feet of the rubber seal off the bottom left and got into the wood. 

So, we REALLY need a new garage door. But, that's not in the ole budget... along with everything else :) So, we are looking for a 'right now' fix. When it rains, water comes down the bank on the left, over the stone wall and into the garage. Nothing can stay in the garage for more than a few days or it gets wet and mildews. Yeah, not all too convenient.

So, we're painting and sealing... and we are looking to put some type of "bumper" there for the time being to divert the water.

Oh, and did I mention, the ceiling isn't tall enough? He's gonna have to drag out the forge every time he wants to work... details, details....

So, once we find a good deal on an anvil, we are in the blacksmithing business! (anybody have a spare anvil laying around??)