Labor Day = Day of Labor.

Holiday Weekend Project #1: Finish Painting the House
SCRATCH! This weekend was too rainy for painting. (I know! We'll never get it done.)

I HATE the idea of having a partially painted house! I don't want to spend the winter in a house painted like this!As soon as it's dry enough to paint (nice and sunny now...) I think I'll take a vacation day and be a house-painting commando. But for now... it's garage time. -Steve



Holiday Weekend Project #2: The Garage
It's amazing what you really don't need to live. We're collectors. That's one step down from the hoarders that are featured on those "can you believe how they live" news programs. Everything is a treasure! And I may need that "what-ever-it-is" someday. So everything we NEEDED was meticulously packed into a U-Haul and brought with us to the new house.


The first load went into the house... the second load didn't make it past the garage. And there that pile sat... for over a year. All our treasures, toys, books... carefully packed in moving boxes... all too precious to discard. And yet, we haven't missed them a bit.

Living in a mid-century modern house has given us the chance to live a "less is more" lifestyle. It's hard for collectors like us. But surprisingly, we like it.

Today was the day. We dove into the huge pile in the garage to see what we've been missing all these months. Junk. Junk. More junk. Hey, there's my college thesis... do I want this? Huh. Junk. Oh, here's some recycling! We loaded up the back of the truck... twice... and took it to Goodwill. Sorted the rest into KEEP, GARBAGE and RECYCLING piles.


Steve found his Volvo again! Charged it up and took it for a spin around the block. Not junk! But we've got to get in back in the garage before dark.
(...or at least under the cover. It's a 1971 Volvo 1800E. This pic is from the MCMLeague Parade back in June. It's a fun car, photographs really nice, and deserves a more organized garage! -Steve)

With the Christmas stuff stacked in the shed and the tools put away in the workshop area the pile is about half it's original size. Best hopes are that we can weed through the remaining boxes and shrink it by half again. Should have a nice garage when we are done.

Steve has big design ideas for the shop and garage. (I'll let him outline the details.) I'm excited to see how it turns out, but think it will probably be something like this:
I'll post pictures of the finished storage cabinets, work bench and shop when complete.
Yeah... I would LOVE it to look like that... I would also like that much hair... but the pic below is what I have to work with (garage space-wise... not hair-wise). I'm planning on building some cabinets with colorful, pegboard sliding doors, VCT on the floor, and some kind of workbench. My space is sorta limited, so I might wind up with a fold-up bench. But we shall see.... In any case, it's sure good to have a handle on the garage. -Steve



Very productive weekend, but hardly a vacation. Labor Day... ha!