Garage

This was the garage right after I moved in. And it stayed like that for a while, a staging ground for unpacking boxes. It's a single car garage with old wood plank walls and virtually no organizational system other than one cabinet and a few random nails in the wall. And for the record, I absolutely love the wooden walls. Several people have suggested that it would be easy to insulate and put up sheet rock. But the idea of covering those walls just makes me very, very sad.

After I got the last box unpacked, I started drilling and arranging and now have a system of hooks for things to be stored along the walls. I made some plain sheer curtains to let in light but allow for privacy.

I put up the long board from the book shelf I tore out of my room and under it a small cabinet with a door that I brought from my old house. And yes, I am the kind of person who thinks a garage can stand a little art.

The cabinet sustained water damage when the washing machine faucet sprung a leak, so after I'd cleaned it with bleach and let it dry thoroughly, I painted the side and the doors with a can of paint the former owners left behind. The doors are made of oriented strand board and I discovered in my last house that a couple of coats of paint make OSB less rough. Those three enormous pipe wrenches I found at my old house.

The door into the house had been scratched by a dog (I'm assuming). I filled that in with wood putty, removed the door handle and dead bolt and painted it with the paint I'd originally bought for the dining room and then hated in there.

But it works on this door - it seems very cheery to me. (I have some crazy backlighting going on in this photo because I had to open the garage door to get the shot.) I like knowing where everything is and not having to step over things. But you know what I like most of all?

That my car now fits easily inside.