COURTESY OF
KAREN CONNOLLY
TIGARD, OR
A garage can be a thing of beauty—not just a dirty place to keep your junk.
Trick it out
Give your garage some personality. Many builders do not finish attached
garages. They do finish the walls and ceiling spaces shared with the house,
but unless the buyer works out something ahead of time, there are usually
two or three walls left unfinished. Adding drywall is an excellent do-it-yourself project.
Now add some color. Look at garage color schemes. Auto enthusiasts’ garages
often feature a theme such as racing, vintage cars or popular models such as
Mustangs or Corvettes. Other garages may feature a favorite sports team.
Choose a floor covering. Whether you fancy a modern, sophisticated epoxy
look or a classic checkerboard pattern, many options are available. Paint,
epoxy, tile and parking mats are the most popular. Keep in mind that you get
what you pay for when it comes to garage floor coverings. Paint typically
requires continuous touch-up maintenance; epoxy doesn’t. Floor tiles can be
pricey, but they don’t require any surface prep as paint and epoxy do.
Add some gizmos. There are all kinds of modern products for your garage.
One of the most useful is an automatic garage door closer that attaches to the
opener so you never have to worry about forgetting to close it. Parking gadgets are also quite useful. You can choose from laser pointers to guide you to
the same spot every time, proximity sensors that work like stoplights, parking
stops that are similar to car wash stops, as well as the classic tennis ball on
a string guide. You can also add security devices such as motion detectors,
glass-break detectors, open-door alarms and open-window alarms.
These days, more and more garage owners are taking advantage of their
garage space by making it more useful for their particular needs. You can
use it for piling clutter or as a multifunction extension of your home. You
can shape it up on a shoestring budget or spruce it up with the best products
money can buy. What really matters is to decide what you want your garage
to do for you, and then put it to work. A
Ben Jacobs works in the facilities industry and is the father of five. While looking for
ways to maximize his own garage space, he launched the Web site
www.home-garage-help.com in 2005 to help other homeowners get more from their garages.
PUT A DRYER SHEE T in the pocket of your car
door. It is a cheap and very effective way to
keep your car smelling fresh and beats hanging
something ugly from your rear-view mirror.
The trunk is another great place to keep a
dryer sheet. A
COURTESY OF
PATRICK MINICK
JUNEAU, AK
THE PLASTIC JARS that Costco peanuts come
in are great for storing screws and nails. In my
basement I go one step further by hanging
these jars from the ceiling by screwing the lids
into the ceiling joists. They are in easy reach
and you can see at a glance what’s inside.
You’ll probably want to put two screws into
the lids—with just one screw, the lids tend to
spin around when you screw in the jars. A
