Garage Attic Remodel

Garage Attic Remodel in January 2010

With the completion of the backyard remodel we thought we were done with remodels for awhile. No such luck. After 14 years of nagging MJ finally got her wish for a full garage attic. This happened because George felt guilty since he was going to get a new car (later he decided not to get the new car) and Marguerite found out the way to fix the lifting problem was to get an electric lift (she got this idea from her daughter-in-law's mother, Karen). George was now trapped. We then spent three days taking all the stuff out of the attic and putting it into the living room and dining room in preparation for our contractor, and good friend, to do the work. George got on the internet and found the 350 pound load attic stairs and the Garage Gator Electric Lift.

The attic has four lights and a switch near the stairs plus an electric outlet with a fan and a music box attached. Marguerite can listen to music when she is working in the attic on her stuff. The attic ranges in height from 1" to 5'5". Men people cannot stand in the attic. Marguerite has a table and chair up here to work on her stuff (the attic has a solar attic fan to help keep it cool, in the summer after 1 PM ........ forgetaboutit)!

Now with the attic for auxillary storage, the pig pen (shown below) should remain de-pigafied and MJ can now use it to wrap her presents at her pig pen desk listening to music. Yes, she has a boom box in the sewing room, the pig pen, and the attic. Plus of course surround sound in the family room.

Garage Junk Temporary Storage in Living Room

Two years ago when we did the home remodel the living room was temporary storage for the bedrooms. With this remodel, again the living room became temporary storage for the garage junk. We coordinated this with Christmas since much of the junk is Christmas stuff and during Christmas the stuff is in the home, so we just packed it up and left it in the home.

First Step Attic Reinforcement

Our tract home had a very weak truss roof which is fine for holding up the tile shingles but not OK for walking on. So all the rafters were reinforced with two 2" x 8" beams plus the addition a mid-span beam that really now holds up the entire roof. In case of an earthquake, the safest place in our home is now the garage.

Kevin, Oscar, and Marguerite

Here you see our contractors Kevin and Oscar watching Marguerite check out the electric lift. Our contractor has been in business for 30 years, this is the first electric lift he ever installed (he has installed elevators).

Marguerite Checking out the Attic Stairs

Here you see Marguerite checking out the attic stairs. She is fully trained in putting the stairs up and down. She is not trained in backing out the Murano so there is room for the stairs. In this photo you can also see the black lift frame. Can you imagine putting up dozens of boxes using the stairs? That is why Marguerite had to wait for her attic. She had to wait until somebody figured out we could put in a lift to get stuff up and down from the attic.

Attic Before & After Looking North

Photo on left is attic finished and photo on right is attic full of Margueritie stuff.

Attic Before & After Looking Southwest

These photos show the southwest corner. The southwest corner has Marguerite junk, the west corner has Gar's junk, and the north corner has my junk. All of this together is not much junk. Major junk is the 45 boxes of Christmas decorations, the 20 boxes of party stuff, and the 10 boxes of miscellaneous stuff.

Marguerite's Working Desks

The photo on the left shows Marguerite's table and chair in the attic so she can work on her stuff in the attic listening to music. The attic actually has room for about 50 more boxes but one would have to move a lot of stuff to get to the box in question.

The "pig pen" is shown on the right. The pig pen started off as Marguerite's sewing room, but then we made a nice sewing room for her so it became a storgage room. As a storage room it was not well maintained so that is how it gots its name.