Awesome Ways to Re-Purpose Vintage Crates!

Do you have vintage crates in your home?  How do you use them? I have an old fruit crate I inherited from my mother-in-law -- she used it in her garden, but I'm thinking I'd like to use it to store extra blankets in the living room.

Here is a round-up of ideas for re-purposing vintage crates, as well as some craigslist crates I found this week.

Thinking about the Garage

Well, I'm back.  Thanks for your patience as I took the time needed to throw the "wedding of the century" and close on the "most complicated real estate transaction in history".  I suppose I could say "the wedding went off without a hitch", but actually the "hitching" was the most important part!   I'll share more about the wedding later.  Today, the house is on my mind.  Or, more specifically, the garage....

We're in that "budget meets reality" phase of the planning, soooo,  the garage I really want is not the garage I'm really going to get.  I want this garage....

but, alas, our local wind load and earthquake codes require lots of long expanses of sheathed wall.  My engineer tells me this design just won't work -- unless we have very expensive steel supports custom fabricated for the wall with the garage doors....

My contractor, a really sweet guy with very little aesthetic sense, thinks the garage should look like this.

I think this option looks kind of sad and naked, and not very welcoming.  The contractor says I will save money by not putting in the new doors and deck above the garage door.  He also thinks I will regret having the maintenance of another deck.  True enough, but I think "curb appeal" adds value, and lack of "curb appeal" subtracts value.  Plus, this is a beach town, and there is a beautiful bay view from this side of the house.  Wouldn't it be nice for guests to just throw open the doors in the morning and enjoy the breeze, the sound of seagulls, and the spectacular view?

The structural engineer says this is the best option (well, actually, she didn't weigh in on the balcony issue).

She feels we need a straight expanse of wall next to the garage door, so the house won't blow over in a storm.  That wall expanse would be sheathed in 3/4 inch plywood, to keep the house square and rigid in the worst wind. It's hard to argue with reasoning like that.  But I just don't like this -- it looks top heavy and unbalanced.  I can't help it.  I'm a designer, and designers are always looking for a better solution.

So, the structural engineer suggested building a "dummy wall" under the cantilevered bump-out to address the "top-heavy" issue.

Much better -- not top-heavy anymore, but still unbalanced.  Plus, it just seemed sort of silly.  Essentially, the space between the rigid structural wall and the bumped out wall would just be dead space.  Kind of a waste. Then the solution came.  Not from the oh so creative designer.  Oh, no.  It came from a most unexpected source. The One who admits to having No Aesthetic.  The Software Engineer.  The love of my life.  My husband. He, being the practical guy that he is, suggested turning that dead space into a tool shed!  Accessible from outside.  A place for shovels and rakes and such.  Brilliant.

This solution addresses budget (no need for extra steel), safety (our house won't fall over in a storm because we will still have rigid wall sheathing), aesthetics (the tool shed doors help create a sense of balance), and it actually adds function with the creation of a tool shed!

Of course, all designers know that research is important, so I had my realtors weigh in on the subject.  My biggest concern was that the home would be devalued by not having a second garage door.  The realtors agreed that two garage doors would be ideal, but did not think we would see a return on investment if we added the second door, especially since the garage already parks two cars tandem, with lots of room to the side for "toys".

For those of you who are new to my blog, you can learn more about the beach house project here.

Chicken Coop to Studio!

When we moved into this house, we had this long narrow "lean-to" chicken coop on the side of the garage.  The lean-to had three very low openings on the side, and a removable panel on the front and no foundation.  It was dark and cave-like.  

We built a foundation early on, but for years the old lean-to was still just a cave.  Then one day my husband came home from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore with a big grin, and an even bigger window!  And no idea how to install it  (I'm the construction expert in the family).

Sooooo, I drew up a construction document showing how to frame out the opening for the window.  It's very important to use the proper drafting supplies when doing these sorts of projects!

Then I "supervised" while my husband cut and framed the new opening. (see the supervisor chair just inside the lean-to?)

*it's very important to leave safety/tripping hazards such as garden hoses and extensions cords lying about whenever you do a home improvement project.  This will help to ensure the maximum number of construction-related injuries.

And I "supervised" some more while he and a couple of friends helped to install it (and, yes, I really did supervise, explaining exactly how to level the window using shims and explaining how to use shims-- God bless my patient husband)!  Once the window was level and plumb, we were in business.

And we were so inspired by how the window transformed the space, that we began our search for some french doors. 

We built a wall where the removable panel had been, bought some vintage doors from the local Resource yard, framed them out and installed them.  And we were so inspired by the french doors, that we decided the new studio was going to need a new brick patio....!