This garage was a mess. There was no order to the packing and you wouldn’t believe the things we found. Hidden beneath the mess was a nice workshop. It would take time and effort to build it, but once that happened it would be great. This dream workshop would help me rebuild the house and provide me a place to have higher power service installed. The only thing in our way was stuff. A lot of stuff!

First I had to build a decent driveway. The property is close to the road, so I needed to dig 20 feet. I don’t have a tractor and I am doing this on no budget so a shovel and mattock were my only tools. I started by killing the grass by laying plywood and tarps down. This process took 3 weeks, but I only had to dig a 4×8 rectangle. I figured since I was doing it myself, I would take my time and not over exert myself. I found some cinder blocks buried in the ground, but to tell you the truth, nothing shocks me at the farm.

Once I removed the dirt and compacted the base, I placed gravel for the base of my future driveway. Since my plans were and still are bigger than the original goal, I am glad I only put down a minimal amount. With a decent driveway and a ton of patience, I emptied and continue to empty out the garage every chance I get. Each weekend spent cleaning brings the farm one step closer to being repaired. The only problem with cleaning out this garage, other than the other 99 on the list, was that all the floor space was taken up by something. There was no room to walk and no where to put stuff that had a place. So I figured I would build the shelves and storage around the mess to aid in the organization process. Once I built enough additional storage space, the mess started to disappear. We aren’t talking instantly and it still isn’t perfect, but over the last few months the garage has went from barely usable to a decent workshop.

Our old farm house was built in 1908 and was originally a one room cottage on top of a sandstone root cellar. Over the years additions have been made, but the foundation of the original house has stayed the same.

When I first started to clean out the old cellar it was a daunting task before me. There was years of dirt and rot. The old shelves that once held the canned foods for the family, were crumbling from dry rot. The old tank that held the drinking water was long past soiled and was still somewhat full of rusty water. So I had to get all of that cleaned up to assess if the project was worth undergoing.

Once the cellar was “clean”, everything was sprayed down with 5 treatments of borax and my good friend white vinegar. This was able to kill any mold or mildew that had set in over the years.  To keep everything from getting wet and musty again i had to build a better door.

The construction of the door was very simple, because I am just trying to close this up for any possible snow this winter. Once the door was on and the temperature dropped, I noticed that the temperature was always 55°. This made it great for work in the cold winter evenings.

Once the cellar was clean and dry, I was able to build shelves out of 2×4’s and cedar fence slats. This gave the air a nice aroma and naturally resists moisture damage.  These shelves gave me enough storage to start my next daunting task. Cleaning out the garage.