The Affordable Garage Renovation Project: Only $158!

My partner and I completed our latest renovation project – renovating our garage! – during this summer.

Since I wasn’t smart enough to take “before pictures”, let me set the scene instead:

1.5 car lengthwise and one 0.5 car in the back were loaded down with leftover building materials from past projects as well as junk that we took to the recycling center (plastic bags, boxes, styrofoam, screen doors and fertilizer etc).

These shelves were weak, rickety and scattered along one wall.

Only one of three walls had been completed (drywalled), featuring five different paint colors, several holes punched into it, and some vintage Garbage Pail Kids stickers as decor. Oh Adam Bomb, how I miss you.

Insulation between wall studs left exposed, easily poked and torn, housing just about every spider species found in Michigan.

An incidental discovery revealed an opening in one corner of the concrete floor housing a pesky chipmunk.

At first glance, our home was an utter disaster: cramped with no room to spare, vulnerable to insect and rodent infestation, energy inefficient, and bearing an embarrassing appearance mark if we ever wanted to sell or rent out our place.

Those of you who follow my blog for any length of time know that I strive to live an uncluttered life. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, my garage became the repository of all our stuff that wouldn’t fit inside our home – something which eventually become overwhelming and inconvenient to deal with.

So I decided to take a week off work in order to tackle my project head on. That may sound daunting at first glance, but let me assure you: it was absolutely worth my while: one day spent clearing away debris; two spent installing and repairing new drywall and old; two dedicated to mudding/taping joint tape (2 rounds every 24 hours); priming; then finally painting. These steps included no full days spent mudding/priming as necessary – only wait times while waiting for it dry –

As this was my first experience drywalling, the garage became my perfect opportunity for practice.