Progress in the Garage

The previous owners of our house were not "garage workbench" type of people and they didn't have anywhere close to the quantity of crap that we have so since we have moved in to this house the garage has been kind of infuriating and disorganized because there was no storage in there and space is tight. Our old garage was only a one stall but it had extra space on the side so that another car could fit as long as you didn't want to take it out very often and it also had an attic so we packed it full.  There was a full set of 1950's era metal kitchen cupboards down to the corner lazy Susan cabinet for stashing anything and everything 

 

Even though this one is a double stall and you would think we would have more room now we have less room.  Justin bought some commercial grade shelves right after we moved in and that helped but we had to stack stuff in front of them to fit everything. It was at the level that I preferred to go buy a new item instead of trying to find the old item that I knew was in the garage somewhere.  After Tessa was born we discovered that a box full of my non-maternity pants was lost in there.  Like, we looked in every container several times and didn't find them and they finally showed up the third time.  It's bad. 

 

This week he finally finished a project he has been planning for months:

 

 

He build that workbench and installed some old kitchen cabinets.  It was a complicated ordeal because, since our garage is built into the side of a hill, the back walls are also the cement foundation of the house. 

 

Now, I think if you know my family and have spend any time my childhood home these cabinets might look familiar!

 

That's right!  They are from my parent's house!  They date back to 1973, when my grandparents and every other prosperous farmer in America realized they could gut their well built, old, classically designed houses an turn them into 70's monsters!  Stained glass?  Who needs it!  Hard wood pocket doors with ornate woodwork?  Ugly!  And out it came, to be replaced with lime green linoleum, mediocre light colored trim, and windows with fake windowpane inserts. 

 

These cupboards are in so many snapshots of my family throughout the years.  This fabulous shot of me is on the first day of school which was also a basketball game day.  I think this was probably in the afternoon before I went to get on the bus for the game.  We had to "dress up" on game days and, even though this outfit looks exceedingly casual, I am wearing khaki shorts behind that warm up jersey which qualified as dressed up. Haha...classy lady...those Doc Marten sandals could take any outfit from day to evening!  Also, notice the dish towel thrown over the smoke detector.  That blasted thing would be set off anytime you put a piece of bread anywhere near the toaster.  And if you microwaved a bag of popcorn a few seconds too long...watch out!  So it was always covered with a towel.  I'm sure if there had been a fire the smoke would have gotten around the towel anyway...

Here is me and the cabinets after I had my "hair trial" for prom.  As in, I actually went to the salon in town and had a practice style to make sure it was how I wanted it.  This day was not actually prom. Everyone did this.  Whaaaat?  Who did we think we were?  Celebrities?

When I was looking through my scans I found a few from Wyoming that I had to share to tie in with the post from yesterday. 

 

This is in the living room. That window is the main front window of the house.  Those hardwood floors were discovered under some very nasty pet stained carpet right after we moved in. 

 

Here we are at Flinstone Village in the Black Hills!

 

There is our swing set in the back yard!  I was probably at school when this was taken.  Wyoming was a great "play in the snow" state.  It was never frigidly cold so being out in the snow was a possibility most of the winter.