Garage Workshop Progress

First of all, let me just tell you that an epsom salt bath might be my new favorite thing. Cures soreness.

And I am sore.

Today, I worked on reorganizing (and cleaning out) the garage into a new workshop for me, while still having enough storage for all our sports equipment, coolers, etc.

I’m not finished yet, but I thought I’d share my progress with you.

Here is what the garage looked like before I started today:

I bought a countertop for the cabinet yesterday. Add that to the mess!

You may remember me telling you about that brown cabinet? I got it at the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store for $21! Score! It’s solid wood and just needed a little love and clean-up.

So, that’s where I started today – the cabinet. First, I cleaned it up and vacuumed the inside (seriously love my shop vac; it tied for MVP today with my new drill). Then I reattached the trim piece and door on the right side – you can see the door and trim missing in the picture above.  If you look in the picture above beyond the cabinet, leaning against the desk, there is the back of the cabinet with the trim piece.

Once that was done, I moved it to the back of the garage, its new home. I added some wood around the top edge to make it level (there was some wood already there, but some was missing – see pic above) for the new countertop.

I prepped the laminate countertop by ironing on the endcaps and then placed it on the cabinet. I caulked around the bottom edge, securing it in place.

I still can’t believe I got this solid wood cabinet for $21! Sure, it needed love and a countertop, but that’s easy to fix.

Someone asked me whether I was going to paint the cabinet. I’m not. Right now, it’s painted brown, but there is so much character there. There are other colors of paint splattered on it and knicks and bumps. The history of its life as someone else’s workshop cabinet. I don’t want to erase that. I want to add to it.

Anyway, after it was all ready for action, I started organizing paint brushes and rollers, wood glue, shims, etc. in its ample drawers. I put larger tools in one of the side cabinets and spray paint and related supplies in the other. I used chalkboard labels to show what’s in each drawer (that way, I can change them if I need to reorganize).

There it is…all done. (The tray is one of my lingering, unfinished projects…)

I’m not finished yet with the rest of the garage. I will tackle that tomorrow or Friday.

I’m excited to have my own workspace and to have the garage clean and organized again!

For now, though, I’m going to take some Advil and go to bed.