One Room Challenge Week 2: Garage Makeover - Floors, Walls and Oh Roof!

Alright, so it’s week two, and the big purge continues (come on guys, did you really think I could sort through that much stuff in one week)? Hell no!

But while the purge continues, I have to keep pushing forward, so the next thing on my to-do list was a fresh coat of paint. I literally just got home from Home Depot with my paint supplies to start the following morning when the concrete floor polishers called me and said they had a last minute cancellation for the next day. As much as I knew it would be easier and better to to paint before doing the floors, I had to say yes. I mean they originally gave me a job date of 6 weeks out, so the thought of having one more thing off my plate sounded amazing. At 6am the following morning, I hopped out of bed and started moving everything out of the garage and piling it on our covered porch.

So with most of everything out, the space was prepped (as well as possible) for the guys to start working on the floors.

I mean look at how lovely all these old oil stains are:) I knew that there was no way I could cover this and the space would feel the way I wanted it to. We had to pony up and deal with these floors.

They were SO GROSS!

The crew I hired came highly recommended from a developer friend, and they quoted me $2,500 for polishing concrete floors.

They said not to worry, they’ll fill in any cracks, holes or seams, but that I would still see the difference between the new concrete and old concrete, but honestly I didn’t care. Anything would be better than this.

The entire job took exactly two days. A team of two guys showed up bright and early at 8am and got to work.

Within minutes, there was progress!

Everytime I came out to see the progress, I would laugh so hard because a few days prior I was watching Youtube videos on how to do this yourself! Lol, and yes I’m literally laughing out loud as I write this. Between the equipment and concrete dust and just overall job, where on earth did I think I would be DIY’ing this?? And please don’t get mad when I say this, I’m sure you can, and I’m sure it’s not that hard, but when I saw all that it entailed, I was so happy I hired out for this job.

The only thing that was cringe-worthy to watch was how they didn’t wear masks! Ugh guys, you’re literally breathing in concrete dust! That can’t be good for anyone’s lungs!

The one thing I neglected to ask them though was if I was getting epoxy or polished concrete. I wanted a shiny coating, and I didn’t exactly do my research, just jumped in without blinking like I do with all of my projects.

But I got polished concrete, not epoxy. And after the fact did some more research, and I guess polished is the way to go for longevity etc..

At about 12pm the next day, they were finished grinding and sanding and ready to put the sealer on.

And bam! The great thing too, is that we could walk on them an hour after they finished. The only thing we had to do post polishing was to keep the floors dry and not get them wet for 14 days after.

They filled in all of the seams and divets with fresh concrete, smoothed it out, and made this floor shine.

Now if only the walls were done…but wait!

Our incredible handyman came back to help me demo the last of the shelves and paint. We put another coat of paint on after this, but forgot to take pics, oops! I’m so grateful he cam to help because my neck has been all jacked ever since my DIY demo job, so I’ve sworn myself off demo for now.

BEFORE

AFTER

Night and day!

BEFORE

AFTER

So as for all of our stuff, it’s currently chilin’ on my covered porch, and while I’ve already gotten rid of so much, there’s still so much more to go. Oh, and the rain started! I walked outside one afternoon and looked up and saw black clouds, within 10 minutes it was torrential downpour! Luckilly my handyman was there and helped me get everythig covered with a tarp. But we had planned on putting a new roof on the garage in a couple of weeks because we’d seen some water damage, and he happens to be a roofer. However, neither one of us checked the weather, so this sudden and very rare California rain storm came out of nowhere! Thankfully, he ran to Home Depot and jumped on the roof to at least seal up the edges where he saw the biggest leak potential (all in the middle of an insane thunder and lightning storm)! Needless to say, he saved our roof and all of the hard work we’d just done on it. He came back the following day when it stopped raining to complete the roof, and thank god because it rained again last night!

New Roof (Left) vs. Old Roof (Right)

Thank you for reading and following along as I makeover my garage! And please follow along with my fellow guest designers HERE.