Project: Garage

After being razzed by someone (Harold) at work (Harold), I decided it was time to get my garage in order. Initially I had been looking at doing something with the floor. Because I do welding and grinding, vinyl tile and paint solutions would not work for me. I am leaning towards doing porcelain tile if I can find it cheap enough. Until then the plain concrete with desifier will be good enough.

Next before I could could clean up our move in pile, set up my shelves and benches I needed to do something with the walls.

Last week I took a couple days off and started painting the walls.  My last garage had all white walls and everything from about four feet down got very dirty from grinding, welding etc. I decided to paint that area grey with a lista blue border.

Taping the walls off and painting them was a pain due to the poor quality paintjob the builder did when they finished the garage, I had to repair multiple areas along the tape line.  Lesson learned, if I ever build a home again I will take some masking tape to the final walkthrough and do pull tests on the paint.

The grey came out darker than I intended and the final stripe was too plain, so now I am adding a 1/4" pinstripe to the edges of it.

Mower

When we were in Indiana before we had a Simplicty walk behind with a 34" deck. It was basically a riding mower with the seat removed and handle bars installed, It was extremely overbuilt, cut and mulched very well but was at times difficult to turn. I would have bought another but was informed by the local dealer they were no longer produced. After looking at numerous residential WAW (Wide Area Walkbehind) mowers and reading how bad they were, I started looking towards zero turns and commercial walk behinds.

I settled on a Gravely ZT42 which was priced under many same sized box store mowers and much less than a commercial walk behind.

It has a 23hp Kawasaki twin, three blade 42" deck and a top speed of 6mph. Buying it from a local dealer adds the service and warranty that costs extra from the box stores. Its total overkill for my lawn and I love being able to mow it in less than 20 minutes, possibly faster once I learn how to actually drive it.

Gizmos Brother

Tania decided that Gizmo needed a buddy to play with, so two weeks ago she found Ozzy on the internet. Ozzy is a rescue dog that apparently has had a hard life to date. He is very good natured, plays well with Giz, but has a small flatulence problem that will make grown men cry.

Next Door

Wow its been a while since I updated my blog. Since the last update we moved in to our new home the following week and I have been focusing on work. I have many plans for home projects I will be posting on here, once the warmer summer weather starts.

Yesterday Kim and Andy came to visit and while we were having lunch a truck next door to us was dropping off a beam that was part of the floor support for the basement. The driver apparently did not feel outriggers were necessary for this small beam.

New Home Week 13

We took a lot of pictures this week.

 Here is Matty showing off the large driveway he will soon be scooping snow from.

Appliances installed in the kitchen.

Mirrors installed in the bathrooms.

Landscaping Tania is already planning on taking out, something about being the wrong type of shrub.

They finished painting the walls in the garage.

 Hardwood floor in the kitchen.

The wrong carpet all installed.

Tile finished up in the sunroom area.

Master bath, with a new stub wall that is now actually parallel to other walls in the house.

Chrome towel racks that will be removed to install the brushed nickle ones.

Frosted shower glass we requested in place of the clear glass, much easier to keep clean.

Master bedroom closet.

More of the wrong carpet.

Entryway with the flooring exposed.

Couple shots of the house with the sod installed, its very lumpy and rough right now.

New Home Week 12

Not a lot of new things to show this week.

The garage door openers are installed.

The washer hookups are now exposed after they sheet rocked over them.

Trees and shrubs were installed around the house in preparation for the sod to come this week.

New Home Week 11

This week they have the hardwood flooring put in, its all still covered with cardboard to protect it.

They have the counter tops installed along with the island in the kitchen.

The counter tops we chose in the kitchen are an oatmeal corian.

They installed the sink, water supply for the washer along with the cabinets in the mud room.

 
The cabinets in the bathrooms were put in this week.

We had the hardware in the house upgraded to brushed nickle. All of the faucets, door handles and hinges have been done but I will be having a discussion with the builder on the light fixtures, they are garbage and look like something someone painted silver.

New Home Week 9.5

Matty and I had to make a quick trip to Rochester last weekend so I didn't get pictures of the house last weekend. Tania went out today and took these.

They poured the driveway and sidewalks this week.

This is the front entryway.

This is the master bath.

They started putting in the kitchen cabinets.

Gizmo checking out the back yard.

They also poured the rear steps and patio.

New Home Week 9

Not many visible changes this week, they did install the siding above the brick and the cap over the front bay window.

The gas line is run, waiting on the meter

The sheet rock is complete waiting on finish work.