Garage project #3: last steps and finished product

Catch up on Post #1 (demo) and #2 (foundation and framing)

By December, we were happy to see progress.  Some days were busy, others nobody arrived to work.  There was a general lack of communication we found very frustrating.  One day in January, the electricians showed up and sent me on a rush trip to the hardware store to buy a fan, sconces, garage lights, bathroom vanity light, and an emergency light for behind the garage.  I couldn’t believe it! Some advance notice?

Mid-January, we had painted walls, windows, and flooring.

A topic of much discussion was these posts.  Mr. B and I had seen some posts that were wrapped by wood to resemble actual trees, and we tried very hard to make that happen.  We ended up with hardy planks. The garage door and wood accents were to be stained dark brown, but they ended up mainly red.  I had to get them to do it over.

Our agreement included new concrete for the upper driveway where the electric work happened.  However, the entire driveway needed help, so after pondering pavers, we decided plain concrete was expensive enough.  We said go for it…

We reconfigured the front walk as well to include a curve.

And finally in March, things were done and we fit TWO cars into the new garage!!! That remains a huge triumph 4 months later.  Every time I park in there, I think how nice it is.

And then the floor paint started peeling.

We waited many months… the issue ended up being that the floor should have been primed first because it’s smooth new concrete.  This guy scraped up the entire floor and did it right.

I ordered some cabinets from Home Depot and sent my handyman to help me bring them home.

Besides installing the cabinets, he made this ceiling storage for our hurricane boards.  I was happy to get them out of our sun porch! (You can see this is the peeling floor paint.)

Here’s the finished product:

It’s painted to match the main house.

This is the door to go upstairs.

We shortened our screened in porch by one segment in order to make it easier to go out the double doors and directly across to the office.  We also could go from the garage into these doors if it were raining.

Here’s the side area by the pool.

Where Mr. B makes his magic.  We just got the shades last week.

The rest of the space.  The couch is from Crate & Barrel and opens into a Queen bed.

Exiting and heading back home.

We love how the overhang on the side of the house is shortened.

Thanks for following along!