Inspiration vs reality: Elfa garage systems

An organized garage has always been a main priority. This Elfa set from Container Store was the our inspiration.


On a recent trip to the States, Mr. Big picked up various options for us. Shelves, bins, hooks, all sorts of goodies. And this weekend, we drilled, leveled, screwed, and arranged our way through the installation.


Wow! I can't wait to get everything properly organized and fully utilized. Our garage floors should be finished this week, which is (once again) one step closer to completion. (By the way, how bad are those brooms in the last picture? It looks like new home construction is going to lead us (yet again) back to the hardware store.)

But don't let this new organization mislead you, a 90 degree turn reveals this...


Just a little bit left to clean out of the garage by all the sub-trades...

We're one step closer to completion, but quite a few from proclaiming it.

Talk about inspiration...

...apparently The Container Store is having their annual shelving sale just in time for our project. You can enter the dimensions of your space and then call their service center to have them custom design a solution for you. But to be honest, the standard sets that they have are far beyond what we have now. My favorite has to be the garage recreation center.

Garage Recreation Center

Reach in closet in birch and white

Garage Gardening Center

Okay mom, you can stopping laughing at the gardening center now. We do fully intend to have a nice fruit garden, herb garden and overall lush Caribbean space...all cultivated in the many leisurely hours that we will have once the house is done.

Oh any by the way, how many people now want to paint their garage because of that last photo? My hand is up!

Long overdue update

It's about time for an update, don't you think? Life's been slightly hectic here with work over the past few weeks, but hopefully it will be slowing down. To be honest, we haven't really done anything on the house because we're just too exhausted at the end of the day to make any more decisions. Thankfully our builder is staying quiet at the moment, but I suspect that will all change soon.

So what are the most recent updates with the house? Not much really. It seems that we've hit the "slow down" phase. There are a few bits and bobs that are getting sorted but the next real push will likely come when the windows arrive. And yes, they should be leaving Canada next week...so not much longer!

As you can tell above, the spray installation has been applied to the ceilings and walls in the granny-flat above the garage. It's really quite cool because it foams out from the walls and then the installers scrape it back to be even with the framing. This has been done on the high open ceiling in the main house, but the walls won't be completed until the sheet rock can be applied. Soon come...

We recently made a fairly substantial change to our wine storage situation, which was originally planned to be in our great room. Mr. Big spent weeks mulling around underneath our stairwell before he came clean about his intentions...he wanted a wine cave in there.


This wasn't the easiest adjustment to make because the builders had to jackhammer out 18 inches of slab. In any case, you should have seen the stars in Mr. Big's eyes the first time he was able to step down into his soon-to-be wine storage. And at least now I know why he was spending so much time under the stairs...I was starting to get a bit worried. :)

Our cabinet orders will be placed soon so that they can arrive on the island by August. It looks like we will have a full weekend ahead of us going through their final proposals. It will be nice to get that planning off the table and into production. Then again, there will be something else popping up right behind it...

So there's a bit of an update. Hope you enjoyed!

The garage

Not dissimilar to the rest of the house, the story of our garage has been a bit of a saga. We originally were not going to build the garage at the same time as the house. Unlike back home, there are a lot of detached garages here and people use the space above these garages in lots of different smart ways. Seems sensible enough, right?

Part of the reason that we were delaying the build of the garage was due to the fact that we don't know exactly how we intend to use the space above. And trying to get us to make up our minds obviously isn't an easy feat. As we got closer to breaking ground, it became more and more obvious that building over a 3-5 year timespan might become a tad tiresome. So we decided to bite the bullet and build the garage now.

Mr. Big and I are both really happy with the decision...although we still don't know how we will be using this extra space (surprise, surprise). I'm leaning towards a pseudo guest suite and Mr. Big is leaning towards storage and gym space. (Please feel free to email Mr. Big with your preference...as I suspect that I might get some support in this area...)

So here is the upstairs area, which will be complete with balcony and views. The ceiling will be a bit low at the corners, but high enough in the center. We've piped for future plumbing and electrical if and/or when we decide to fit out the space.


It's quite a cozy little space and the views aren't too bad either. There are canal views from the main front window and the back balcony. I think that our friends might be happy here, although I did notice one more view today that wasn't originally anticipated...


...yes, that is our master shower...and it is within a stone's throw from the back balcony. You can all breathe easy because we will have glass privacy block to keep your views "rated-PG". Well, at least that's one decision that we've made. :)

So there you have it...if you happen to stay in said proposed "psuedo guest suite", you'll now know the story behind your surroundings...and all the indecision that came along with.