The Garage Has Arrived

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.

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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.

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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.