The Garage Project - Or the Devil That Has Consumed Our Lives

Oh wow, where do I begin this post?  I want to begin by moaning and groaning about this stupid never ending garage project.  But instead I will begin with the positive.  Because of this stupid garage project, we unearthed my old collection of Barbies.  And with that a whole lot of happy has been brought to my children's lives.

Shall I begin by saying that in looking at my old collection of Barbies and clothes, I was relieved to find that even 25+ years ago, Mattel was making scandalous and inappropriate outfits for my Barbies to wear.  Just take a look at this gold lame severe extreme cropped top, complete with matching skin tight sparkly leggins.  Here I thought the trampy outfits Barbies come with today were just a sign of the decline of our civilization.  Nice to see we've been on the decline for over 2 decades yet we're still hanging on.  Even Syd was dumbfounded by her choice in club wear.

By the way, can we take a moment for Syd's big boy haircut?  He looks so grown up with all his curls and waves chopped off!  The mowhawk and red tips are temporary; our tradition every time he gets his hair cut is to let the stylist do this.  He loves it and it gets him all excited to visit the salon.  I can't believe he'll be 5 in less than 2 weeks!     

But clothing choices aside, the bin of Barbies has brought the kids a lot of fun playtime over the last few days.  Look at our family breaking stereotypical gender roles, with Syd playing right along side Taylor.  Makes me proud.

My mom saved my Barbie Corvette!  Rad!

I had forgotten that I used to have a thing for chopping off all my Barbies hair.  Most of the time I gave her a very stylish and on trend asymmetrical bob.  But I went a little nuts with a couple and gave them more of a punk rock do.  You know what's scary?  In my box of Barbies we found a razor blade!  The kids picked it up and were all "what's this?!"  I guess I must have used the razor blade to give them their buzz cuts?

Whoa!  It's Michael Jackson!  I completely remember getting him for Christmas when I was about 9.  Neither of the kids were impressed.  Art was.  He suggested I list it on eBay.  Never.   

Makes me laugh hysterically, and makes me sad, all at the same time.  

I also used to have a thing for designing my Barbie her own clothes.  We found lots of strapless dresses, tube tops and maxi skirts I had made from old tube socks and stockings.  I thought that was pretty genius and resourceful on my part.  Talk about being ahead of my time with the upcycling.  Apparently, I also used to take a free hand to some clothes with a tube of glitter glue.  As you can see I was really into music and wanted my Barbies to show my love of new-wave.  KROQ, Rock of the 90's.  Their slogan back then was "I Rock with KROQ."    

So down to serious business.  Here is where we stand on the garage.  People, it's not perfect and it's not 100% done, but we are so close I can taste it.  This is what we've accomplished:

• Floor is epoxyed
• Entire garage was rewired and all new outlets and switches were installed
• The drywall is complete  except for a small piece of ceiling
• The cabinets are installed 
• Every single bin and box in that garage has been gone through, thrown out or donated, cleaned up, organized, labeled and put in place. 
• We've replaced every bit of cardboard with plastic air tight bins to keep critters out.

We still need to tie up some odds and ends including:

• Finish drywall on one ceiling section (should take 1/2 day)
• Paint the walls (we're putting up the white flag on this one and having it done)
• Hang the wire grid that will run along side of the left wall and above work bench
• Put final pieces in place (bikes, tools, etc.)
• Sweep and clean up
• Buy a ping pong table for backyard fun!

Every time we finish up a home project I always say "wow, that was a tough one".  But this one was. a. tough. one.  Probably one of the toughest.  Toughest in terms of stress level, time commitment, and overall tediousness. No one wants to spend hours upon hours going through boxes, bickering over what to keep and what to toss, making HUGE messes in the backyard in the mean time.  Sunday was the breaking point for both of us.  We were both tired and stressed and so cranky we snapped quite a bit at each other.  We were both mad at each other and disappointed in ourselves I think, for letting it get as far as it had.  I really don't think of ourselves as hoarders or pack rats at all.  Just since we've moved here we kept holding onto things "in case we remodeled", or "in case of this or that".  We had to finally be realistic with ourselves and let go of the " just in cases". 

We each narrowed down our childhood-memory type stuff to 1 bin each.  This included yearbooks, photo albums, toys, general memorabilia.  After seeing how much the kids are enjoying my Barbies, I'm convinced that some stuff from our childhoods has to be saved.  I feel good about this.  Things like craft stuff and old party decor that I had been holding on to "in case" we had another Hawaiian themed party, or a garden party, etc., all went bye bye.  Only toys we want the new baby to have were kept and spared.  We are saving each of their bikes in case we have a boy or a girl, then once we know we'll get rid of one or the other.  The old ride-on toys that had become really junky were sold at the garage sale.  I have no idea why we had so many ride on toys and push toys??  Most tools were kept, but Art is finally getting rid of his tile saw he used to tile both of our previous homes.  We don't foresee any tiling in this home's future, so good bye to a bulky piece of machinery.  Obviously things like the stroller, changing table and crib have to be saved.  

I wont bore you with the rest of the details and inventory, but as you can gather we thought about everything we kept and tossed/donated.  Whether we still have a lot of stuff or too much stuff is no longer up for debate.  Everything has been gone through and agreed upon, so what we now have, we know we have for a reason, and we know where it is, and this has been such a mind altering relief.

Our drop dead due date for completion is next weekend.  We'll see if we make it.  Wish us luck!  Linking up with my friend Jules for the William Morris Project.  Come on over, you should see what she did with some bookshelves!

Are you all working on any projects right, and are you ready to pull your hair out?