garage transformation

we've been renovating our garage slowly over the last year or so... we figured it was a good place to start - for us to practice on.

first we started with the back potting shed, which although was very handy was rotting away and basically a rat hotel...

then it was time for a new door

which inspired a colour schemebut before we painted we needed to tackle the inside and make some space

in August we decided it was time to start stripping the outside and started with a heat gun - which turned out to be a very slow process... and if there was lead in the paint, not very safe

we found this great tool thanks to Lauren and Kyle over at Chezerby called a paint shaver pro which literally takes about 4 layers of paint off in one swoop.
you just hook it up to the vacuum cleaner and shave away

at first we thought it wasn't that great - they'd made it look so easy on their website

and then he got the hang of the tool (we were dragging the tool in the wrong direction at first) - and the paint came off so easy!

but we only got as far as this wall before we had to call it a day...

renovating is so glam...

a couple of weeks later, with the offer of a helper we set to work on the cracked up driveway

it took us a while, but by September we finally got rid of all that concrete. we used some of it in our berm, and the rest by piling it outside the fence and listing it for free fill on craigslist

then we kind of got side tracked on other projects, and work, holidays and getting pregnant... and before you know it it's April...

so with the pressure of the baby coming soon and so many unfinished projects hanging over our heads we decided to get some help and last week we hired Sergio! we introduced him to the paint shaver pro

and the real transformation began.as I snapped a few last photos for posterity

I went out to discover our neighbours were finally getting rid of the mess of trees that have been pushing over our fence

I'm usually not a fan of killing trees, but these things would drop sticky stuff into our yardand replacing our very old worn out fence would have just been a waste with them still thereso I was happy to see that everyone had caught the spring cleaning bug.

I left Coop to supervise Sergio and headed off to work

and came home to so much progress

by the weekend the garage had been fully stripped, patched, rotted pieces replaced, sanded and primed all ready for the gutters and paintall the tough work was done so we were excited to help
you'll note that my overalls don't quite fit like they used to... but Coop doesn't seem to mind. :)

yesterday I came home to this

and we wondered why we didn't just hire someone sooner...

hammer time

remember I told you that we were working on our garage a little while back? well this weekend we decided it was time to get physical and attack the cracked concrete driveway.

so we set off to home depot and rented a jackhammer!
it weighed 60 pounds (or 30kg) so you don't really have to do too much, it just hammers up and down and works it's way into the concrete at the pull of the trigger. the hard part is the lifting it back out again - especially if you get it stuck!
Bryce got a great upper body workout!
I gave it a go
as did Hannah - just so we could say we'd operated a jackhammer really... but we were both a bit short for it, so when it came time to lift it back up it was really hard. we decided Bryce was definitely better at it than us. we spent our time filling the wheel barrow with the broken pieces and hauling them away.to our berm

which is coming along nicely!
as Saturday night fell, we gave our neighbours a break from the constant jackhammering (not to mention our hands were raw and our bodies sore)
we didn't realise just how big a job it was to dig up all this concrete... some areas were as a foot deep!

so here's the progress we made in the 24 hours we had the jackhammer, and next weekend we'll do it all over again...

monday monday

this weekend was jam packed full of fun things for us, like watching dispicable me, frost nixon & slingblade. a poodle parade that was actually a poodle 'and pooch' parade. we started stripping the paint off our 50 something year old garage and finally got around to planting some vegies! in fact I wish I was still gardening right now...

how was your weekend?

photo here

all cracked up

we are still working on our garage and this weekend we plan to make some more progress on the exterior. we need to replace the guttering, replace some wooden trim that has rotted away, and I'd really like to fix this vent that has been bugging me how far from the middle it is situated! and then there's the concrete...

here is the delightful crack that runs from the start of the driveway, through to the back of the garage which was mostly likely caused by an earthquake some time in the last 56 years.

when we bought the house we didn't think it was that big a deal, but after some research we found out that the slab was not poured deep enough and was not reinforced by rebar so the solution to really fix it is to lift the whole garage up, dig up the whole slab and re-pour a deeper reinforced one ($cha ching$!!!)

so since that is not really an option with our budget we are going to try plan b - which involves digging out the cracked area and filling it back in with some concrete to make it smooth, then we are going to cover it with racedeck which is flexible enough to withstand the movement.

chances are this will be a temporary fix since the earth will continue to move, but we think it will make a big difference to the look of the garage. and I can stop tripping over this bit right here!

new garage door

on Wednesday we got a new garage door, which excites me to no end. the old one was original (about 50 years old) and was one piece of solid wood you had to tilt, but the springs had come loose on one side so it was a bit of a death trap each time you tried to open it. and that gigantic crack in the concrete extends all the way through the slab of the garage (we live in earthquake country here), so the door had been shaved off on each side so it could close, and they had not done a very nice job of it either...

here's our new bright shiny white clean lined door, with automatic opener, and a rubber edge that seals the uneven opening - amazing the things that make me happy these days :)I know the white clashes with the cream colour that the garage currently is, but here's the colour scheme we are thinking:

the front door to the garage will be red, with bright white trim, and the main colour will be brown

we really like the dark dark brown, but wonder if it will be too much since it is the main colour

and we intend to paint the house the same colour (it currently looks like this)

we're hoping it will look like this eichler we got the idea from

so we're starting with the garage to see how we like it. :)

what do you think?