Pretty Garage Plans

Blogging's been a little slow lately - we're both busy at work and in the midst of a few projects from this list when we're not working, but not at a posting point with any of them.  Don't you hate those in between phases?  I'd post pictures of our dead lawn that we're reseeding for you, but really...it would be a picture of dead grass.

So reviving the backyard aside, the next big project I want to tackle is the garage.  My grandpa used to paint his garage floor almost every year.  My mom cleans her garage once every few months.  B's mom and dad tackled the organization of their garage a few years ago and it still looks spotless - they even bought us the awesome low white cabinet underneath all the tools as a housewarming gift.  We come from a long line of garage pride.

And the garage pride didn't pass us by.  Seriously, one of my biggest pet peeves is when the neighbors park their cars in the driveway instead of in their garages - it was my mission to get both of our cars into our garage the night we moved into the house.  I get secret joy out of watching the non-garage parkers scrape ice off their windows in the winter and drive away cackling to myself "Serves you right, suckers.  Park those cars inside where I don't have to look at them!"  I am aware that I'm not a very nice person, I'm working on it.

This is half of our garage.  We keep it pretty clutter free, but it could use some sprucing up.  Last year, B wanted to Epoxy the floor, but the Home Depot paint guy told him that it wouldn't work because we'd parked on our garage floor for two years and it was too dirty.  He gave us a brochure to have it done professionally, we were annoyed with the sales tactic and didn't think about it again.  Then, last summer, I stumbled across Katie's garage floor and she assured me that an old and dirty garage floor could be pretty, too.

So I'm back on the garage beautifying plan.  The first step is to clear everything out, power wash the floors, apply a solvent to any oil stains and get started with the epoxy process so that we go from what you see above to something more like this:

Credit

After that the plan is to pare down - organize all the cans of paint that we have laying around, get rid of crap, and get everything off the floor - in an organized manner.  On the other half of the garage, we need to come up with a recycling and trash solution that doesn't involve trying to toss recycling over my car and into the bins.  I leave the house frequently to find empty cereal boxes on top of my car.  

So that's the plan - I'll share more photos as we get started and things are underway.  My side of the garage is a disaster - oil stains, cereal boxes and all.  What's the status of your garage? Beautiful piece of art? Dumping ground? Somewhere in between?  Anyone successfully epoxied their floor?  Suggestions for dealing with So that's the plan - I'll share more photos as we get started and things are underway.  My side of the garage is a disaster - oil stains, cereal boxes and all.  What's the status of your garage? Beautiful piece of art? Dumping ground? Somewhere in between?  Anyone successfully epoxied their floor?  Suggestions for dealing with the grudge I hold against the people who can't fit their cars in their garages? I think therapy might be my only hope at this point.