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Earlier this year, we were invited to attend an outdoor event sponsored by The Home Depot. There we were able to see and try tool offerings from various tool manufacturers. One of those tools was the Expand-It system by Ryobi. 

After the event, we were asked if we would like to try out a couple of offerings from Ryobi, including the 40V Brushless Expand-It System. This system has a variety of heads that can be swapped out to be used on the same powered head. We tried out the hedge trimmer, edger and string trimmer. 

After Steph tried out the system, she decided to design and build a wall hung rack for the various components. The rack holds the attachments, as well as makes it easy to attach the accessories while the handle is still firmly held in the holder. It's a pretty cool idea!

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot.

Now that we are at the end of the #garagemakeover, it's hard to believe where we started! We wanted a fully functional garage complete with work and storage zone and space to park my car. We meet all those goals and then some. Take a look back at how the garage went from the mess below to what you see today!

A big thank you to The Home Depot and Wall Control for their sponsorship of the garage makeover project!

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One of the goals, alright the entire #garagemakeover was based on this- to make the garage a comfortable space to work. By comfortable, we mean, not ninety plus degrees inside the garage in the summer!

A couple of projects that made the biggest difference in comfort level was the replacement of the garage seal. The old weather seal allowed hot air in and any cool air out, as well as bugs and a snake at one point.

The second project was the installation of insulation on the backside of the door. With these two, along with a shade on the window, and four fans, we're seeing about an 8 to 10 degree difference between the inside and outside temperature. That might not seem like much, but in Steph's garage, the inside temperature was ALWAYS higher than the outside temperature. 

Take a look at the video to see how it all came together or read on for all the details. 

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The first project we tackled in the #garagemakeover was to paint all the walls and ceiling. Doing so left this interior door looking a little less than its original white and in need of a fresh coat of paint. 

Previously, I've used another brand of door paint with mixed results, so I wanted to try the DecoArt Curb Appeal brand to see how it compared. We are all about the purple and blue, so this Vineyard Purple color was the perfect choice for my garage!

The plan was to paint the trim in a mix of the purple and a bright tin metallic color, paint the door with the purple, and use a fun stencil in the tin color for a little whimsical touch. After painting, we changed out the door handle and added a keyless entry pad for convenience. 

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot.

One of the last projects to be completed in the #garagemakeover was storage for scrap wood. Leftover wood is an ongoing byproduct of woodworking, and we have our fair share of scraps and offcuts. Prior to this build, we did not have an efficient way to store these wood pieces so we ended up not using them--because we didn't know what we had!

We were determined to find a way to store all the wood leftovers in the new workshop. Steph did some Pinterest research and designed a customized a storage piece that would work for us. 

Take a look at how it all came together. We now have a place to store large and small pieces of wood. 

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot.

Our #garagemakeover project was designed out of necessity. When we were in the planning stages of the garage makeover, I said I wanted a way to store the grandkid's toy car. I needed it out of the way, but accessible. Toy cars are notoriously difficult to store efficiently! 

The car storage started out as a simple box with a little open storage on top. I had envisioned it sitting next to our large shelving unit right beside the door. Well, as things do, the project evolved into something totally different and way more functional!

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After painting, the next step in the #garagemakeover was the installation of the Wall Control Metal Pegboard wall. I have been looking forward to having this pegboard in the garage after installing and using a mini setup in my utility hallway.

I am, by nature, highly disorganized and tend not to put things back where they belong. That results in me being frustrated by not being able to find what I need when I need it! I can't even express the joy I find in being able to find what I need on the utility wall pegboard! Bonus, now that everything has a place that I can see, I find myself consistently putting things back.

That's why I was so looking forward to seeing the pegboard go up in the garage. I was itching to get everything in place so I could start using it!

Many thanks to the family owned company, Wall Control, for providing all the pegboard panels and accessories for our project. Wall Control is made in the USA, right up the road from us in Georgia. 

Take a look at our Wall Control installation:

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. 

Never in my life did I ever imagine myself building a wall, but here in my sixties, I've just helped build one! It's very gratifying to have researched how to build a wall, participate in the planning and building and then to see that the finished wall is strong, plumb, and in NO danger of falling over! Yes!

Let me back up a bit to tell you why we built a wall. As you may, or may not know, we are in the process of giving my garage a complete makeover. It started as a cluttered mess usable only for storage of more clutter. We are slowly making it over into a space where we can work as well as store things. 

That's where the wall build comes in. We wanted part of the garage to be a storage space, and since most storage spaces are not very attractive, we wanted to be able to "wall off" the area so we wouldn't have to look at all the stored stuff while we work. 

Now, if you're a professional reading this, you may be shaking your head at why we built our wall the way we did. I will explain as the tutorial progresses, but know that our design choices were made based on our skill and strength level, as well as the tools we own. 

Let's get started. You can start with the video or head down to the tutorial. As always, the video will show you exactly what we did!

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot.

We always knew some kind of garage floor treatment was going to be a big part of the #garagemakeover project. We have only had experience with a paint-on metallic look epoxy product so we knew we didn't want to tackle that again. Plus, we did not have the luxury of taking everything out of the garage for the amount of time it would take to prep and apply a painted or epoxy coating. 

I researched various options relying heavily on the website allgaragefloors.com which has a wealth of great information and reviews of various kinds of flooring options. I ultimately settled on G-Floor vinyl flooring as the best option for my garage. It needed very minimal prep and was ready to use as soon as it was positioned onto the floor. 

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot.

The most important thing I wanted in my garage makeover was good lighting! I've been in my house for 20 years now and the lighting in the garage has always been terrible. The two overhead lights didn't give complete light coverage so there were lots of dark corners. It was a chore to work in there. 

Steph did a lot of research to determine what fixtures would be best to give wall to wall light coverage. She found these LED lights that only needed to be plugged in and not hard wired. Plus, up to 9 could be daisy chained together to work together. 

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot.

A long overdue makeover of my garage is well underway. We've partnered with The Home Depot to  transform my garage from useless and full of clutter to an organized workspace that will also have room to park my car! Along the way we will be sharing videos about each step of the process. In the videos and posts we will share the tools, supplies, and products we are using. 

In this video, we are sharing some of the painting tips we have learned from our many DIY painting projects. Please add your own tips in the comments so we can learn from each other! 

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A simple trip to The Home Depot to buy spackling had us standing in the aisle a lot longer than we expected. We fully expected to quickly pick up our standard DAP DryDex with the pink lid and be on our way. However, the red lid variety caught our eye and we paused to take in this different and very lightweight product. 

We were intrigued enough that we ended up buying both varieties to try them in a side-by-side comparison. 

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This past summer we were introduced to a new type of fan by Stile. We thought it would be a perfect fit for the studio at Steph's house. The space is small and the existing fan overwhelms the space. Also, it doesn't provide much overall light at all.

Over the Easter weekend, Steph decided on a whim to go buy the fan and install it with a little help from Andrew, Steph's nephew, my grandson! 

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign. THD provided the DeWalt Compressor used in this post.

One of our new tools is the DeWalt Cordless Compressor. Rather than just review the tool, we wanted to show you a real life project on how you can use it. Our favorite use for a compressor is for upholstering with a pneumatic stapler. Using this type of stapler takes all the effort out of upholstering. I find it very difficult to use a standard manual upholstery stapler. The electric ones I've used have not been able to drive the staples in completely. 

A pneumatic stapler with a compressor saves your hands and efficiently drives the staples into the fabric down into the wood. This is the only method I'd use to upholster now and in the future!

We were very impressed with the new DeWalt Cordless Compressor. It filled quickly with air, it was as easy as turning a knob to set the output force, and refilled quickly. It is loud, but not any louder than others we've used. Hearing protection is a must as far as we are concerned. 

The project we decided to make is a folding screen. I decided on this after I observed my yoga ball and mat are always in plain sight when not in use. I thought with a screen, I could place these in a corner with the screen in front and not have to look at them during the week! Bonus, I found a piece of mid-century looking vinyl for the screen that has jumpstarted the redecorating of my bedroom.

With the success of the organization of our craft closet with Wall Control and other pre-made components, we were eager to organize another small space as soon as possible. We found that few tools are needed to install the panels and only a little skill with a drill is needed making this a project that is doable for many DIYers. 

We contacted Wall Control, the family owned and operated business making metal pegboard, to see if they'd like to provide product for our next project. As well as being family owned, the pegboards and accessories are made right up the road from us in Georgia! Family owned and "made in the USA!" We love that. 

We decided to add a Wall Control Laundry Value Kit to Steph's laundry room. This room is very tiny making it a good candidate for wall hung storage and organization. 

Take a look at the video to see how it came together. And, yes, it probably only took 20 minutes or so to install the panels!