Friday, April 20, 2018

FMM - Inside the Garage, Mid-Renovation

An unexpected bonus that has come out of our house renovation is getting free storage in our garage, by way of our old kitchen cabinets.  I didn't think of this, but our contractor offered to hang the uppers in the garage once the kitchen was demoed, and we jumped at that - while we've had open shelving in there, it would be nice to have some closed storage as well.

We decided to stack the cabinets, and all we had to do after they were hung was drill new holes for the knobs on the bottom set, as they needed to be at the top of the door.  Well, I take that back, because we still need to adjust the doors a bit, but I have to say, it was nice, in the midst of all the renovation mess, to be able to straighten up the garage a bit over the weekend:
I say straighten in the loosest sense of the word...everything not on the shelves or in the cabinets either belongs inside the house, or is on deck for our garage sale.

We also got more storage in the garage - and, well, less in the laundry room - by changing up the plan for the laundry room cabinets.  Originally we were going to have both of them raised to ceiling height and then have a short bar for hanging clothes below one.  But we replaced our old washer and dryer recently and the new set is bigger, so there wouldn't have been a lot of space between the washer and the wall for hanging clothes.  I happened to see a picture of our neighbor's laundry room when they put their house on the market, and they had a single cabinet, with a shelf and a longer bar, hung higher, so that's what we decided to do.

So that meant we got another cabinet for the garage:
It's in the background, behind the dishwasher, stove, washer, and dryer.
Cleaning supplies plus lesser-used items (like Goo Gone)are stored in here.  We're going to hang the Swiffer mop, a broom, and a long duster underneath it.

We ended up hanging the white cabinet ourselves, and bought a couple of much-needed tools to do so.  First, we bought a new level, because Jeff's old level was about a hundred years old and so hard to read that every time we'd be working on a project where he wanted me to read the level, old blindy here would get frustrated.  I'm not exaggerating - see for yourself:
The dye in the level liquid had turned clear a long time ago.

We ended up buying this one:
It's a Johnson 24 inch Level and Tool (affiliate link).  I liked it because the liquid vials were larger than some; Jeff liked it for that, plus the viewing window from above was generous.
 
Do you like how I'm showing you levels on a not-level item?

The other tool that we bought, and sometimes I wonder about us - why do we go so long without some things - was an electronic stud finder:
It's the Zircon center-finding stud sensor (affiliate link).  Weirdly enough they also sell edge-finding stud sensors, but we figured knowing where the center of the stud was would be a better bet for hanging heavy items.

This thing not only found the studs, but also alerted Jeff to wires in the wall by way of showing a lightening bolt symbol, which he noticed that pop up on the screen and then glanced down and sure enough, there was an electrical outlet close to the floor.

By the way, Jeff saw the picture of the stud finder and asked me where I found that background - it's the current kitchen floor!  Bare concrete after tile and thinset have been chipped away.  Looks interesting in a close up shot, but not so much in a full shot:
Soon...very soon you will be covered up with beautiful tile.

Have a great weekend!

13 comments:

  1. We did the same thing with our old kitchen cabinets--they hang in the garage and they are full of god knows what. My husband is a pack rat...

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    1. Mine used to be more of a pack rat, but he's gotten better. Plus having to pack everything changes your mind on why in the hell you are keeping so much stuff.

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  2. What a great repurposing for your cabinets! Seeing an organized garage just makes me want to yell. Due to Mr. Helen's broken leg and the long, cold winter our garage is a stupid mess. I'm chomping at the bit to get out there and declutter it.

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    1. Having more storage has made Jeff actually get rid of some stuff in the garage, which is a miracle, seriously. I'll have to post a picture once all the extras are out and he's finished with his version of organizing. Different than my version, but sometimes you have to let that go...which I can, in the garage. Not so much in the house, LOL.

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  3. I want that electronic stud finder! What a great thing to have. I wanted to use my old kitchen cabinets in my "wet studio" but Jay convinced me that it would be easier for him to build new shelves than to try to fit the old cabinets in there. I think the size was an issue.

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    1. It is really neat - they've come a long way over the last few decades. I think using our cabinets in the garage worked out because we had open space for them, and didn't have to try and fit them into a room, if that makes sense.

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  4. Please tell me you pointed the stud finder at Jeff and made the obvious joke. :) I do that every time I pick up the stud finder (which admittedly is not very often) - my husband appreciates it every time. ;)

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  5. Great use of the old cabinets. You guys are getting so much done, you'll feel like you bought a new house when you're done.

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    1. That's what we keep saying - it's turning into a new house!

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  6. Well, now that you have the stud finder, you *have* to do the joke. Run it around the area and make beeping sounds when it gets near Jeff. I do this with ours to John every time we use it. It never gets old for me. I think it does for John, but I still laugh :D

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    1. And I see reading the other comments that at least I'm not alone in doing that LOL!

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  7. Yay for more storage!!! You can never have enough! And yay for new tools. Is Jeff tool crazy? Like, gets exited about getting them?

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