Last Tuesday I actually got home from work at a reasonable hour and still had the energy to do something other than flop down on the couch and become a zombie. I spent a productive couple of hours outside mowing the lawn, pruning some bushes, removing more of the ever invasive Ivy from the garage. Generally enjoying the fact that the weather was completely beautiful and that I was actually outside enjoying it. The sense of accomplishment of also having gotten some things cleaned up so that my back yard actually looks less like the wild kingdom and more like a city/suburban yard was nice too.
On this rare and miraculous occasion the sun set before I had run out of energy for projects. I must have had an extra cup or three of coffee that day or something. I cleaned up and went inside to start on one of the many many many inside projects I still have on my list. I decided to finally put up a light fixture on the upper landing of the basement stairs. I've had the fixture for quite some time but just hadn't gotten around to getting things wired up etc. I did a quick inventory of what I had lying around and decided I needed a quick trip to my buddy Homer's for some supplies.
No trip to home depot is ever quick and short. There are always exciting new things to see and often I'm standing in an aisle puzzling out how to solve some home improvement woe so these trips often take 45 mins to an hour. This particular trip was pretty quick. About 45 minutes later I pulled into the alley behind the house. As the headlights washed across the garage I noticed something odd. There was something in the garage that hadn't been there previously. After pulling into the driveway I got out and checked the garage and there was a huge pile of branches in my garage.
There are few things as despicable as dumping your trash in someone elses house/garage/yard. The worst thing is how powerless you are once this crap has been dumped in your house/garage/yard. Whether it is branches, or tires, or toxic waste, or a dead hooker. It really doesn't matter. It is now your problem to deal with, clean up, dispose of, and or explain to the cops. I guess I could have picked up the branches and "paid it forward" and dumped them in one of my neighbors' back yards or something but that's even shittier than having stuff dumped in your yard.
I have countless projects on my to do list at the house. Painting, cleaning, flooring, walls, counters, cabinets, the list goes on pretty much forever. One of the minor items on the list that has stayed pretty near the bottom of the list was to install some doors on my garage so that I can lock up some of the outdoor tools and things outside and I can stop dragging my lawnmower up and down the basement stairs every week to mow the grass. This project has been low on the list because it hasn't been that big a deal. Now that I have once again had to deal with a whole load of crap appearing in my garage thought this project became a top priority and I vowed to spend my memorial day weekend putting in some doors.
Of course with my tendancies towards being a big dork I planned the whole thing out and drafted out every detail of the doors, took detailed measurements and did everything just shy of creating a 3-d rendered model of the whole thing in software before beginning my door project. Of course even with this anal retentive level of planning, all projects of this nature require at least 3 trips to the hardware store before they can be done.
After coming up with the plans I knew I'd need some help to get this done so I prevailed upon poor old dad to come slave away in the hot hot sun for a day to help me haul away the trash and then fabricate my grand vision for new doors.
Things went pretty smoothly with the whole construction process. Only one unplanned trip for some more 2x4s for framing out the doors and after many hours and only a few Advil later.
This is the part where the chorus of trumpets plays the regal fanfare. Ta Ta Ta Ta Tum De Dum Te De Dum etc etc.
Behold there were doors.
For more photos of the process and the final results with paint etc check out the gallery here. Special thanks go out to my Dad for helping me out with this project. I'm sure it took far longer and was way more involved than he had planned for but he stuck it out to the end and was invaluable in helping me plan things out, fabricate the doors, and providing wheels for hauling around the trash and plywood plus a few key tools to get things cut and measured and built.
I'm pretty thrilled at how everything turned out. I think the doors look great and will both help to keep people from dumping crap in my garage and will give me some much needed storage space for all the outdoor maintenance stuff I've accumulated in the past year.
If these doors aren't a deterrant to the random acts of dumping all your unwanted crap at my house squad then my next step will be to build a moat and fill it with piranha, crocodile, alligators, or friggin' sharks with laser beams. Stay tuned for more on this developing story.