Garage loft has been conquered!

With Sami mainly in the driver's seat, the garage loft has been transformed from a to-the-ceiling jig-locked traffic jam to a very tidy open space. The loft had been kind of (for me anyway) the place to toss things if no other logical or handy place existed. With an accumulation approaching 20 years, there was no fast way to deal with it. Sami largely went through it, 'nut and bolt' at a time, organizing and grouping things. As most of it was my stuff, I went through the organized version and did, in fact, finally let go of some things. The end result is shown in the pictures. Too bad we couldn't find the 'before' versions...the transformation would be more dramatic!

Hmmm...I can set up a train table in the northwest corner. By the way, the odd colors on the old dresser are the Southern Pacific RR colors for their old 'Black Widow' paint scheme on their diesels. I also added the hand railings, so that we wouldn't fall through the big hole in the floor where the pull-down ladder is.

I'm trying to duplicate Sami's effort in the main lower garage area. I'll add an entry when it reaches a similar 'show the world' state.

Don

BIG boxes and meatballs

We have been to IKEA both yesterday and today to get stuff needed for the “Plan, Clean, & Prep" phase of the remodel; storage shelves for the garage clean-up, and a wardrobe for the study, where I will relocate all of my hanging clothes that have been in the main floor closet. IKEA is definitely a BIG box store. Everything is packed flat and boxed up. We assemble the stuff at home. Today we had to deal with components of what we were after not being in stock and unsure when/if they would get in stock. Back and forth between two levels of the acres-large store, working with two very helpful employees. It all got worked out. As Don says, we had better get ready for a lot of the same thing during the project. We are tired. We have had our fair share of IKEA Swedish meatballs! They had a promotion on where the cost of your meal was deducted from the purchase of your items if you bill exceeds $100. No problem there.

Lists, and more lists

Christmas happened. Now we are ready to turn our attention more completely to the remodel. We continue to work our way through a forty-seven point to-do list called “Phase One – Plan, Clean, & Prep.”  It includes items such as, “weed all books,” “set up temporary kitchen in the basement,” and “consult with structural engineer.” The list also includes getting rid of furniture we no longer want or need. Does any one want a well-used and much-loved upright piano, or a single bed? Weeding our music collection is a tough one too. We have 78s RPM records, 33 & 1/3 LPs, audio cassettes, and CDs. Now that I play most of my music on my iPod touch sound system or with Pandora, do we need any of it? But we love all of it! Decisions, decisions, decisions!

We are also developing a gargantuan sequential list of all the tasks which make up the actual remodel. Its scary.