Saturday, August 29, 2020

Garage Progress Finally

Now that the end of summer is rapidly approaching, I finally kickstarted my garage organization effort. As a reminder, this is the plan for two free-standing garage racks. They're going to be installed along the left wall.
It's too bad I didn't buy the wood last year because it was quite a bit more expensive this summer. I ended up buying framing lumber because it was the least expensive real wood option. I did buy sanded plywood because the lowest grade of plywood was so rough I was worried it would tear up the bottoms of my plastic tubs.

When I made the plan, I had expected to paint the wood before we assembled it because we have lots of leftover paint in the garage, but the wood is so rough I don't think it will look very good, even after I've spent a few hours sanding the boards. They're still not great, but they're better.

Last week, while I was sifting my closet I found a nearly-full gallon of really old shellac—I think I bought it in 2013 when we put in the closets. I should have used it to finish the sewing room, but I forgot about it and bought a new can. I opened it up this morning and tested it out on a scrap, expecting to have to trash it, but it actually dried surprisingly quickly so I decided I may as well brush it onto this wood.
I've finished one coat on the 2x4s today. I'd like to finish the 2x2s and plywood tomorrow. I doubt I'll get more than one coat out of the single gallon of shellac so I'm just putting one coat on all the pieces to start. It makes the wood look nicer so I think it's worth the effort.

I scheduled time with Jeff starting next Wednesday to start disgorging the garage so we can put these together and put them into place and do a better sift and organize, so that's my deadline to finish preparing the wood.

6 comments:

  1. Looks like a good set of storage shelves! Having organized storage really does not only help with the physical order, but mental calm as well. If you ever watch old episodes of Mythbusters, you may notice their massive wall of spare parts and supplies, all carefully cataloged and stored in clear plastic tubs with labeled.

    I built something similar along an entire basement wall in our last house with dimensions optimized for storage tubs as well. I used 2x3s in the flat direction for the horizontal shelf supports, and rabbeted them for 3/4" plywood to sit flush with the top, so the shelves themselves only consumed 1 1/2" of space. I could have put the plywood on top and only consumed 3/4" more space, but I felt like getting fancy, Haha.

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    1. I am excited to finally make progress on cleaning up this garage. It is a terrible mess right now and so hard to work in. We have actually resorted to buying tools again because we can't find them.

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  2. Starting is the hardest part! Congratulations on beginning what will surely be a very rewarding project!

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    1. Finished sanding and shellacking the wood today. I'm looking forward to resuming the process on Wednesday.

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  3. Don't put anything wet on those shelves. Shellac doesn't do well with water.

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