To get the garage to its current state feels like a huge accomplishment for me! To recap I started in the early spring of 2019. First I had to clean the whole place out, get everything off the walls and then haul yet another pile of crap to the dump. Then I ran power, insulated, covered the walls, installed the doors, put EVERYTHING back where it belongs, made a path and enclosed my stock tank complete with a barn door on top of it!

I had a lot of motivation to get it to that state for my friend’s birthday party in early July 2019 so the majority of that work I actually got done that June.

It wasn’t just the party though that drove me but to have electric garage door openers. And that started the snow ball effect of everything it took to get to that moment. Power, outlets etc.

My brain works like this: I want to get HERE so…….. If I’m doing that I might as well do that, oh and that too, it would be silly to do that if I don’t get all that done first. And pretty soon what sounds like a simple job: Electric garage door openers turns into A MAJOR UNDERTAKING.

I brought in all eight of my livestock mats to make a giant area rug in the center. My Indoor to Outdoor furniture plus my sofa, an end table and the coffee table from my living room made up the whole seating area.

I found out I could actually USE my twenty year old surround sound speaker system with a little $20 bluetooth adapter which totally rocked my garage to the next level. I also put in some little under cabinet lights for my “buffet” as well!

No one would believe it if I said I was anything short of totally thrilled at that point with the space. I adore my house but for as long as the weather held in 2019 I spent a TON of time out here! The first month I had it to that state I came out here and just chilled every single night after work.

All of my friends and family that came for my 2019 parties were all glad to have the garage to be comfortable in. (My house is comfy but not child proof and I know many of them fear “wrecking” something after I’ve worked so hard in there.)

All of that was just perks though because I got what I had been dreaming of since 2015:

Electric garage door openers!

No more having to drag my frozen shut garage door open all winter long now I can just hit a button.

It is AMAZING. Beyond that though was the sweetest thing my family could ever do for me. My mom and aunt went in together and purchased not just the openers for me but to have them installed too!

I may be the only person to cry over electric garage door openers but it was so incredible of them to do that!

What a wonderful gift!

I had plans to build a bar out here but I got this one for free. My friend Rachie and her husband asked if I wanted it from their back yard so I, of course, said yes! (It won’t be staying in its current state – I look at is as “bones” we don’t have to build.)

I had a “real” working garage for about a month after all of that in 2019 before the weather turned…

And then Lodi moved in in March which meant with the basement not yet complete we filled the garage with his furniture. So, I totally lost the garage I had FINALLY “completed” in 2019.

Fast forward 7 months and FINALLY we finished the basement and got the garage back!

Lodi helped get rid of half a dozen VERY heavy things from this space that have been a thorn in my side for many years. Combine that with Lodi creating storage above the rafters this garage has never felt so awesome.

We came in right to the wire getting to the current state of the garage nearing the end of 2020. But we did it! Its finally, once again, a real working garage with plenty of space for our vehicles, yard tools and even my old seating area.

It took nearly a year to get “back” to this space after Lodi moved in but we’ve already brought it several steps ahead of where I left off in late 2019.

In 2021 there’s so much to look forward to!

There’s lots of paint in this garage’s future, the cabinets need a face lift and hardware along with the buffet/work bench beneath them. I’m not sure if it will be a skirt or maybe sliding doors of some kind but I want to cover the front of that buffet.

(And I want to come up with something of a “back splash” there too…)

The bar needs some serious work. I’m thinking all of the PVC I will sand down and spray paint in chrome to make them look like steel. The wood bar top needs to be totally replaced. The plastic corrugated roof and base need to be painted out or covered up as well.

Not to mention it really needs seating!

we’ll be putting up a projector out here somewhere because playing Mario Kart on the wall is my dream.

We’re thinking about installing a pellet stove out here someday to make this a full three season space. Lodi’s mini refrigerator will definitely be finding a spot out here as well!

We’re also considering adding some windows on the back wall for a breeze when we need it.

I wanted to write this post not on what the garage could/will become but to celebrate the amount of work that got me to the state it was in in late 2019 and now, finally, how far we’ve brought this space together at the end of 2020!

Not to mention, the celebration of electric garage door openers, OMG!

I know its not much to look at yet but it is SO good to have the garage back!

Can’t wait to hang out here next summer!