New Month, New Project ⋆ Growing Up Kemper

If you’ve ever driven past my house, you know this project is much needed. If you’ve ever had to step over my children’s toys, stroller, and a wheelbarrow just to get into my car, you know this project is long overdue. It’s a dumping ground for “things” and I’m ready to fix it once and for all.

Today’s all about my new project and all that I’m thinking for this space.

So welcome to my brand new garage!

Alright, we aren’t anywhere near that yet. We’ve got some ground to cover first. But this is what I’m working towards. A functional, clean, USEFUL garage that is an extension of our interior space. One that we can use as a mudroom, as a storage unit, AND a place to park our cars. A drop zone after a long day at work, school, and practice, a place for all our kid’s outdoor toys, and an organized area for our gardening supplies, paint, and everyday garage “things.” It’s a 2-car garage with a long wish list but with just the right maneuvering and organizing, I just know that this can be done!

My Goals for this Garage

Ability to park my SUV and my husband’s truck inside
Mudroom with 4 drop zone areas
Covered garbage and recycling bins
Miscellaneous garage pieces fit into storage closets along wall
Hang bikes
Spaces for ride-on toys
Designated toy and sports areas
Scrape popcorn ceiling, fix ceiling drywall and paint
Replace garage lights
Paint walls
Epoxy floors
Paint interior garage door and stairs
Organized shelving only where needed for miscellaneous items

So What Am I Starting With?

A pretty rough palette. Our 1985 home came beautifully adorned with brown paneling and popcorn ceilings, one single light bulb in the ceiling, and plenty to be dreamed of in relation to size. With my husband driving a Ford F-150 and me hauling kids around in a GMC Acadia, we have little to work with as far as space. We need to focus on walls and ceiling being the only areas of space to work with.

There’s also a 3’x5′ area of the garage that was utilized for our kitchen pantry and fridge placement during our renovation in 2018. At the time we weren’t ready to work on the garage, so we left it unfinished drywall until we were actually prepared to take this on.

I’ve done a sizeable amount of cleaning in the garage to get this project going. First taking all tools and moving them to the basement workshop so we can stop going from one place to the next looking for tools. All of our old paint cans and chemicals were dropped off at our county hazardous waste removal sites to clear A LOT of space. And finally, pieces were donated, added to my Rhea Lana consignment piles, or given to neighbors to have. This already left us with the ability to park both vehicles inside easily.

Now it’s just time to pretty this space up a bit!

Next Steps

I purchased 2 Sterlite Flat Gray 4-Shelf Utility Cabinet from Walmart to begin organizing some of our miscellaneous items in the garage. I was blown away by how much I could fit in each one! Now I’d like to purchase 1 or 2 more and take everything from the left side wall and organize it/move it/throw it away to completely remove the shelves along the wall. To think that these have fit all my leftover paint, supplies, gardening tools, dirt, fertilizers, extra pots, chemicals, AND a few extra pieces of kitchenware we only occasionally use. These are like little magic closets!

I cringe to say this, but it only logically flows to scrape the popcorn ceilings next. *shudders*

Then it’s on to repair, repair, repair that damaged drywall so it can be painted.

This is a dream project for my husband that I’ve already had fun taking on. He hasn’t been able to park in a garage for over 5 years. To think that this can be completed so he can fit his truck inside before our KC winter hits makes my heart so happy!

It’s time to make this garage pretty!