Garage Renovations

Below are some pictures (I can finally justify the digital camera I bought earlier this year) of the work I am doing on my garage to transform it into a workshop. Unfortunately I don't have any "before" pictures of the second floor:

First floor before October 17, 1999. This shows all the junk we need to get rid of. Notice the single little light bulb. That will change. The stairs go up the second floor which is being worked on first.

First floor before October 17, 1999. This shows more of the junk in the ground floor level of the garage. It also shows the main garage door. This has a 1/4" gap under it that needs to be sealed to keep dust, dirt, and water out from the alley.

Second floor being fiberglassed October 17, 1999. This shows the progress of insulating the second floor of the garage. The north and south walls are sloped but there is still plenty of room. The window needs to be replaced.

Second floor being fiberglassed October 17, 1999. This shows the opposite wall. The sliding door on the east wall is going to be removed. I'm going to frame it in and make a solid wall here. We are going to keep this door until all the dry wall is up there. We can't get something as big as 4x8 up the stairs to the second floor. The plan is to use this room as storage and maybe a smaller work area. All the "real" work will be done on the first floor.

Second floor being fiberglassed October 17, 1999. Being an older house (built in 1885 - yes, over 100 years) all the 2x4 joists are 24" on center instead of today's standard 16". In fact, the 2x4's are actually 2 inches by 4 inches. We couldn't find R13 insulation in 24" size so we got normal 15" and just used 1 1/2 bats each - hence the tape. The dry wall will hold all this in place. You can see the three blue outlet boxes I wired up. Two are electrical. The third is multifunction - two cat 3 (phone), one cat 5 (computer), and one coax (cable TV). Overkill for the garage but what the heck. Do it now before the dry wall goes up. Maybe I'll put an old computer in the workshop for the sole purpose of studying the Cozy archives while building.

Outside of garage October 26, 1999. Here is an outside (obviously) shot of the garage taken from the back porch.

Old, beat up door October 26, 1999. This is the door that needs to be replaced. Our dogs did this as puppies. Better the door than the furniture I guess.

Second floor after drywall October 26, 1999. Here's the east half of the room with all the drywall up. The framed area on the far wall used to be the old sliding door (see one of the earlier pictures). When I took the door off the pulleys had some printing on them stating that they were patented in 1887!

New window in second floor October 26, 1999. This shows the west wall with the new window I put it. You couldn't even see out of the old one. The Yellow board is the old sliding door from the east wall. I'll probably use some of this wood to repair some issues with the floor.

Second floor mess October 26, 1999. The last of the mess just before cleaning. I'm so happy to have the drywall up.

Shelly texturing walls November 4, 1999. Shelly adding texture to the walls.

Shelly priming first floor November 7, 1999. Shelly touching up the primer.

South wall being primed November 7, 1999. The south wall half covered in primer. It's a lot brighter with the paint on it.

Priming the ceiling November 7, 1999. Priming and painting the ceiling was a pain in the neck - literally.

November 7, 1999. Here is a trip around the finished room. It will never be this empty or this clean again.

SouthWest Corner NorthWest Corner NorthEast Corner SouthEast Corner Ceiling

Here is a before and after:

Garage Before Garage After