tackle it Tuesday

(Click the photo to see more great Tackle jobs!)

This is our garage that I've cleaned many, many times. I have children (and a husband) who like to make messes. (It's MY blog...I can blame whomever I want!)



We moved into this house four years ago with intention of immediately remodeling to suit our needs (lots of kids). We made part of the living room upstairs into a fourth bedroom. That was it. Construction was delayed by hockey season. If you don't know anything about competitive hockey let me just tell you that last year three boys played on three different teams. The monthly "cash call" was $600. That doesn't include $400 skates (times 3), all that gear (times 3), $100+ sticks (times more than three), replacing the two full sets of gear stolen out of the truck, something like six trips to Anchorage (700 mile RT, 12 hotel nights, eating out), flights to Detroit for one, Minnesota for one, California for four, Arizona for two and Vernon, Canada for two...you get the idea. Construction on hold for hockey!



If you follow my blog you'll know that for the first time in ten years football replaced hockey. It is much, much, much (did I say much?) cheaper. Now back to remodeling. Yea!

So on November 25th I took these photos of my messy garage, and then set to cleaning it.

(BTW this area is now cleaned and under it all we found the air hockey table! I should have taken stock in rubbermaid totes...do you think I have enough crap?!).


Here's the boiler Mr. White installed. He's handy like that.

The grand plan is to build a "temporary" kitchen in the first stall of the garage that is next to the living room we are also finishing. We will then be able to turn the kitchen and rest of the living room upstairs into 3 more bedrooms. That will give us 1600 square feet with seven bedrooms, a laundry room and two full baths upstairs. Soon we will be using the 1600 square feet downstairs that we are currently living without (it will have a 1/2 bath). What will we do with all that space?!

We'll eventually add on a kitchen and turn this stall back into garage. Someday. Mr. White says that the staircase will add another 200 square feet and then the kitchen will add another 900 square feet (or so). He figures we'll have to take stock in BP in order to pay the fuel bill. Can you run a Bed & Breakfast without the breakfast? (remember: I hate to cook).

Here I am smashed in between pipes finishing the painting. (Yes, I would suggest painting before installing a boiler!).

This is Mr. White building a wall around the boiler and water pump. The white water softener you see in the front of the photo will also go in there.

Cody helped hang the sheet rock, and then they sprayed a little texture on it.

That wall is actually painted and ready for the cabinets which you can see a little on the left of the photo. There's a new dishwasher sitting there, too! :) Yahoo! Yesterday, Mr. White had to fly to Prudhoe Bay so we didn't do anything last night. Maybe tonight we'll put the lower cabinets in place and I'll paint the floor. Then all that will be left is the ceiling, upper cabinets, stove (we have to order it) and then bringing the fridge downstairs.

Not too bad for a weeks work!