Organizing The Garage…

Ever seen the Garage Gorilla?

The motorized storage system comes in two sizes –   GG125 (Sams Club $115 , Amazon $170)  that holds up to 125 lbs,  and the GG220 (Sams Club $158) which holds up to 220lbs.

The system comes with a loading bar,  4 sliding bike hooks,  and 2 bike cables which can be positioned anywhere on the loading bar allowing you to maximize your storage capacity.   The 3′x6′  Platform, which has to be purchased seperately,   (Sears $70)  can hold up to 200lbs.    Simply replace the bike bar with the platform and you have an instant movable flat storage space.

Last year we bought two 220 units and a platform to hang off one system.    You know when you ‘find’ something and just love it?   This Garage Gorilla is one of those finds.  It was simple enough to install, it did what it said it would do, and its nicely built.  The  remote switch is heavy duty and easy to use.  You raise and lower your ‘stuff’ at the touch of a button, and this thing ZOOMs up and down!  (One similiar type system I saw online has a hand-crank type thing – you had to use a hand pully to hoist the storage up and down!  Could you imagine?  No way….)

We hung ours side by side.  Obviously, off a stud.  Tapped right into existing garage door unit’s power plug.    The one on the left has the platform and holds the snowblower in the winter and lawnmower in the summer, as well as other yard power tools and my work toolboxes.  The standard bar system on the right usually has our 4  bikes and 3 scooters hanging off it, however,  the kids have 1/2 the stuff unhooked for summer exercise.  I love having all this clutter OFF the garage floor.  Mark and I don’t even leave our bikes down for the summer.  We’ll usually only bike on weekends with the kids, and its easy enough to drop them down, unhook, and go.     I still find it wierd, though, to walk UNDER the platform one – I get the willies that it will suddenly drop and squash me.  On this note, the remotes have a key that you can lock and put the key up – this way kids can’t play around with it and lower it on accident -

It felt great to get into our garage this past weekend – we  gut it, reorganized,  then sprayed  it all out with the hose.  I even took this  metal plank that was stored (I occasionally use it on jobs) and stretched it across from cabinet to cabinet, to create a new section of storage.  I put all my paint deck cases up on that shelf, as well as folded tarps -

The garage is done, at least for another 6 months!

A Dr. Seuss, Cracked and Framed…

Saw this today, hanging in my client’s’ library.  I love it -

GREAT frame…   cool  color and crackle -

Update on the Caromal Colour Master Bath…

Remember my before Masterbath post and the starting of this facelift project?   Well, I’ve come a long way –    almost there.      I still have a couple cabinet fronts that need the Caromal Color Toner applied,  then I’ll apply a topcoat – in this case, Minwax Wipe-on Poly.   And, I haven’t painted the ceiling yet.    I even silver leafed the two basket toilet paper drawers that are exposed -

and a closeup of the Caromal Colour Plaster finish -

Follow along on more great DIY projects by visiting Kimba’s A Soft Place to Land’s Linky Do It Yourself Day!

A Nice Little Bathroom Gets A Facelift…

Lovely new tile work, compliments of the homeowner.    I had tile envy!

The walls and ceiling were ready for a new paint finish.  The existing wall finish was a previously painted  ‘faux’ finish, from, I would guess, years ago -

The new wall finish was to be

- a layer of troweled metallic plaster (Lusterstone Champagne Mist) with some more metallic plaster pulled through it (Lusterstone Silver Taupe and ShimmerSuede White Gold)

- a layer of  stone  (Sandstone mixed with Villagio Corrado) , randomly wobbled on and knocked donw

- a layer of Gilded Walnut Glaze and Brown Faux Creme over top

Ceiling -  simple glaze over Setcoat Neutral

I made a judgment error.  I assumed my first troweled layer would cover the existing finish pattern.  I guessed wrong.  The dark swooshes of green on the walls?  Those relayed through the plaster. So I had to wipe off what I’d started, dry it , and then base paint all the walls with Setcoat.  Cost me an extra layer – time and money, but at least it was not a huge area.

Basepainted

Layer Troweled Metallic Plasters

This was the finished goods, but the power was out – (huge wind storm that downed lines and trees)-

When they get everything put back together I will stop by for more photos – hopefully the lights will be back on!