The garage is almost done!

It's been awhile since I've updated you all on the garage progress, partly because the county held us up on our framing permit and partly because the last few weeks have been very stressful and a bit of a blur.   It's definitely paid off for my husband to act as general contractor, but it has been exhausting organizing inspections and contractors.  We had 4 different companies at our house during the past couple weeks and we needed to make sure one project was completed in time for the next contractor to begin their work.  I may have even had a few screaming sessions with the driveway company after they failed to show up as promised and almost forced us to push back our garage door installation.  The guy actually called my husband right after I got off the phone with him and my husband said, "You have to take that up with my wife."  I thought that was pretty funny!   In the end, it all got done, but not without a few speed bumps along the way.

Let's take a look back at how our little modest house looked before.

Here's how it looked as of the last update about a month ago.

About 3 weeks ago the new siding went up as well as all new gutters and soffit on the entire house. 

Then we ran into an issue.  We realized our front step wasn't going to be the correct height unless we raised the floor a few inches.   This minor issue was delaying the completion of the siding so we had to fix it ASAP.   As a temporary fix and to appease the county we installed leftover boards from our deck.  In the Spring, we'll more than likely tear out the deck and pour concrete. 

To cut cost, we had originally planned on only drywalling part of the garage and using pegboard for the remaining walls.  Well, the drywall guys talked us into doing it all now, which meant we had to get the entire garage insulated and painted before the garage doors were installed.   This pushed the installation of the garage doors back twice. Ugh!Our electrician friend also came out and wired the garage and mudroom for all the outlets and lights.  He looked at me a little funny when I requested more lights be installed over my work area.  Hey, a women's work space is just as import, right? 

After all the electric was run and the insulation was installed the guys came and hung the drywall.  The drywall was finished last Monday morning and Monday afternoon my awesome painter brother dropped everything to come out and paint the garage, just in time for the garage doors to be installed. 

The siding is now complete, the driveway has been paved, garage doors have been installed and the front posts have been wrapped.  

(I have the hardware, but I want to make 100% sure I want to add it before I go drilling into these beautiful doors.)

You guys have no idea how EXCITED I am to finally have our garage doors installed.   They were a total splurge and completely worth the extra money.  They are super quiet, triple insulated and the perfect craftsman style door.

We're getting close to the end, but still have a few more important projects that need to be completed.   Here's what we'll be working on over the next few week/months.

• Install interior garage steps
• Add molding to all windows and doors.
• Hang shutters
• Install garage fire rated interior door. 
• Plan layout for workspaces, buy and stain/paint cabinets and hang T.V (my husband had the garage wired so he could hang a flat screen, must be a man thing)
• Coat and seal the concrete.  (we're leaning towards gray with flakes of black and white)
• Pick color for pardge coating.
• Paint mudroom
• Build bench for mudroom
• Work on flooring project for mudroom. (I'm leaning towards painting and/or possibly stenciling the floor)
• ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE!