Month: October 2019

Soon after I had the garage completed, I began moving the tools and such that I wanted out of the shed.  I didn’t really have a place to put the tools, but I did have floor space, so that’s where they ended up.

As I was moving some things around and cleaning, my neighbor stopped over to see the new work.  I mentioned to him that I wanted to get rid of the shed and he said he would make a few calls.  A few hours later he came back over and said he found someone who was interested in looking at the shed.  A few minutes later, he comes back over with another guy and we all look over the shed.  He says he’ll take it.

The guy comes back the next morning with a large trailer and begins taking the shed apart.  I was actually still in bed when this was going on and I only caught the last bit of his work.  He was working alone and I saw him yanking on the roof.  The walls started falling apart and the rest sort of collapsed.  Oh well, not my problem.

A little later my doorbell rang and the guy was out there.  He said he had it all loaded up except for the floor, which he would need to come back with some helpers in order to move it.  No problem.  Whenever.

Whenever was supposed to be the next couple days, but went on until the next weekend.  but in the end, it was all moved out.  I was left with the few items I did not throw away – some tiles, some flower pots, a plastic tub.  And underneath the shed was a mound of sand.  I cleaned up the leftover debris and moved it to my trash area so I could ration it out over the following weeks.  I was still rationing carpet from the garage, too.

I guess I’ll have to get a rake and smooth out the sand mound and hopefully some grass will grow in the area. 

Nearly 15 years after I purchased the house, I finally have a garage.  As I’ve mentioned many times previously, the former owners converted the garage space to a game room.  In my neighborhood, there are very few garages used as garages.  Most are storage units, and some are more like semi-enclosed patios.  Others are converted to living spaces.  I guess that’s the way of the world with people just having too much stuff and/or too many people in their house.

I got the call to schedule the work on Thursday and the work was planned to happen the next Monday.  The contractor would come in the morning to tear out the wall and install the framing and the door would get installed in the afternoon.  I should be able to park the car inside the same day.  Of course, there’s plenty of other things that need to happen first, though.  Removing the old carpet, cleaning the concrete, reorganizing shelving, etc.

This is also the next step to eliminating the backyard shed.  Once I have a place to store all the yard tools in there, it will be time to shop it out.  And then, this is also the point where I can begin shopping for my next car, now that I have a place to store it.

The demolition went pretty well.  The installers had done a good job by filling the block with concrete and installing rebar that extended into the existing walls.  Some of the stucco was broken, which will need to be repaired and obviously painting will need to be done.  But, at the end, I had a large opening in my house.

The garage door installers were running a little behind, so instead of showing up around 11:00, they got there around 2:00.  Their work was pretty simple with no surprises.  They finished it up within three hours, and the big hole was closed up.

One thing that was completely shocking about the install was the door operation.  Possibly a combination of the 3-layer door construction and the belt drive opener, but it was dead silent.  It was unbelievable.

After everyone had left, I began the process of cutting up the carpet.  I made it about a third of the way through before I gave up for the night.  The whole process would involve moving everything in the garage from one side to the other, then back again, which I was not entirely in the mood for right then.

Later in the evening, when I went out for dinner, I realized that the carpet removal was going to be a top priority.  In the years of its life, the carpet has collected moisture from rain through the windows and a blown hot water tank.  And now, the carpet is a mildew factory.  Without any ventilation from the former entryway windows, the garage now stunk beyond belief.  I opened the side windows and started a fan running to continue the airing out of the room.  The carpet will be removed and the floor will be sanitized ASAP.

And somewhere in that whole process, a large-scale tile-shuffling game will be played with the contents of the room.