Mom's Roto-Rootering and Garage Reorganization

I want to take the time on the top of the blog to thank everyone for all the prayers, good wishes and kind thoughts for my Mom.  She underwent some heart procedures over the last few weeks that culminated in an angioplasty and implementation of 2 stents yesterday.  (I called it Roto-Rootering)  She came through with Flying Colors!

She got two special new stents where the polymer coating dissolves off after the drug regimen is completed.

Very interesting:

The SYNERGY BP Stent is the first and only FDA-approved drug-eluting stent with abluminal bioabsorbable polymer coating available in the U.S. It was designed to address the challenges associated with permanent polymer stents such as inflammation, neoatherosclerosis and late stent thrombosis.

The SYNERGY BP Stent provides synchronous drug elution and polymer absorption; the polymer is absorbed shortly after the drug elution is complete at 3-months, providing rapid healing and freedom from long-term polymer exposure.

She did so well, that she didn't have to stay overnight as expected, and was released on the same day.  I am sure she rested better at home in her own bed anyhow.  I called her this morning and she was so bright and chipper sounding. She is moving better and will follow all of the doctors orders from here on forward for sure. Today she was planning to head out on the new deck Lyle built around their home since they moved it. She wants to finish painting the spindles.  Like mother, like daughter?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As most of you blog readers know, we call our place "Our Old House".  We enjoy making things nicer, easier and try to restore it back to original if we can on our 103 year old house.  Some things are newer, but most of the original features are still there to keep us hopping with upkeep and maintenance. 

The garage is newer (built in 1974) after they moved off the old garage to someone else. Steve and I both have been unhappy with all the "STUFF" we seemed to have accumulated in the garage. Since the basement does have some water seepage during heavy rains, we opt to not store anything down there.  As we work on projects or collect lawn and yard items, the garage has become cluttered and not too orderly.

Steve saw an ad on the Facebook Buy Sell Trade Marketplace pages... and thought he would buy three of these steel racks with nice cream colored coating to put up around his raspberry plants next year.  They are 7x4 and he figured three would work around his plants.  They are coming out of a closed video store down the street.  She was selling them $10 each, but if you bought 2 you could get another free! 

We bought three panels for the raspberry bushes and stored them away for next spring.  But... but ... but... Steve's brain was thinking.  Remember what I said about an unorganized garage???  See what I mean?

How about getting some MORE panels and suspending them from chains and mounting to the back wall and making some overhead shelves in our garage???   We got ahold of the seller and bought four more sections!

This is a $30 investment to see if this will work.  We also bought some heavy welded link chain and S hooks from the hardware store, cleared out all the "STUFF" to the other side of the garage and went to work. 

Honestly, I was helping, but I only stood back to take pics.

The board is taking my place while holding the racks up and level

while he screws them into the back wall with brackets.

We are putting the shelves up high enough to walk underneath.  Well, most of us. They are 77" inches off the floor so Steve can just walk underneath it (at 6'4") and knocks his hat off. LOL .....  This way we can pull the car forward all the way and the nose of the car will nicely fit under the shelf as well. 

We had a couple supervisors watching all that we did 

from the safety of their "boss chair" 

It was a little tricky to screw the top screws into the brackets--- unless he would lay out across on top of each shelf to do it. Instead, he pushed the drill across from the top to get it over to the wall.  Then he reached up in between the mesh holes to hold the drill and take care of each brackets' upper screws.  We hung the front edges with chain rated for 250 pounds.  Once each panel was level, he crimped the S hooks shut so they wouldn't ever slip sideways and drop the chain links. 

Each panel was bolted together end to end to keep them all in row....

That steel stuff was pretty thick to drill through, for sure. 

This looks like it is actually going to work!  Two panels up, two to go!  We also added more chains than in this pic, It was only enough to get them level at this point.

 I opted for a fourth panel to be hung below the other three to the far right of the garage. This was originally my area for my shipping boxes and pots and planting stuff.

By having a lower shelf, I can reach my stuff without needing a ladder or Steve to fetch things for me.  I ship out a lot of things and need all the assorted sized boxes at hand when I am heading to the post office or shipping out from home.

Underneath this last shelf, I can still fit our wheelbarrow, red wagon and my rolling garden cart. But not being too low, the floor space can also be used when Steve puts our utility trailer all of the way back to the wall.  The garage is deep enough to fit the trailer behind and the Tracker in front in the same slot....

Three remaining panels and an extra metal door are setting underneath.  Those three are being saved for his raspberry plants next spring.  Or maybe more shelves?  Who knows what ideas he will come up with.

We added more chains for extra support. We don't think they are really needed, since we are not putting any really heavy things on the shelves. But we had the chain already bought, so we might as well finish it up as planned.

We took a break for a little lunch and then headed back to the garage to start arranging our "STUFF" on the shelves.  Oh my... for only living here just under five years, we have too much "STUFF"!  We sorted some, set some for donation to the thrift shop, and some to the garbage can.  The remaining items were lucky enough to get put up on our new shelves.

By three pm, we were getting chilled. It has only been in the 30's today and cold and damp and icky.  We don't have a garage heater hooked up (yet) and I was thinking enough was enough for the day.

We still have more to do, but Steve was heading for a hot shower and I wanted a nap in our bed with our heated mattress pad. Ahhhhhhh  he joined me in time for our nap.  Gosh we are getting old, eh?

But at least we have an organized garage. LOL!