Well, friends. We are still working on the garage. Yup. Still working. And not yet parking in it. Things are moving along, but slowly (obviously). I just read my last post about the garage (from early November! Ack!) to see where I left off last time.

The siding finally arrived and was installed by the construction crew. It matches the siding on the house with light gray lap siding on the lower level and dark gray shake siding on the top. The trim will be black…when it finally warms up enough to paint it black. We had hoped to paint all the trim before it was installed but the trim was super late (even later than the siding) arriving at the job site, so that plan was scrapped and it was installed immediately. I really really really hate that it is the gross color of nude pantyhose. But spring temperatures will be here soon and I’ll be out there with a paint brush ASAP!

In the photo above you can see the garage on left, house on right, and mudroom in-between. Just imagine all that nude trim around the window and door painted black like the trim on the house!

We also hired some completely amazing electricians this time! They are not only organized, helpful, educational, clean (as in they clean up after themselves at the end of each day), hard workers, and good sports, they are also a lot of fun! And they are very forgiving of our constantly-in-flux timeline.

They installed a new 200-amp box in the house and moved our 100-amp box to the garage, wired the whole deal, and rather than scoffing at my pages of drawings showing them the placement of every fixture, switch, and plug in elevation (as if you were looking at each wall from straight on) and as a floorpan (the structure from overhead), and my painter’s-tape tags noting the placement of each fixture, switch, and plug in the garage, they actually told me how much they appreciated the fact that I had a plan and they didn’t have to ask a million questions! I told you they were amazing. I love people who see the good in my insanity!

Here are some examples of their work (and my notes):

After the electrical rough-in, Ben went to work insulating and covering the walls and ceiling in plywood.

I helped a little. And it was TOUGH! Standing on a ladder while holding a full 4×8-foot sheet of plywood overhead and up to the 12-foot ceiling while keeping that sheet level, flush, straight so it gets nailed onto the rafter correctly is not easy. And it makes all those clean-and-presses, overhead presses, and crazy bootcamp workouts feel like actual functional fitness. #farmfit

Thank the good Lord, Tyler (The Doctor) came to help! If you’ve been reading since the start of Cockamamy Farm (April 2014), you’ll recognize him, below. Tyler and Ben have been friends for more than 20 years and he was generous enough to help Ben with all the demo in those first few months of our Cockamamy renovation adventures. If you haven’t been following along for that long, I encourage you to scroll down to some early posts (like this one and this one and this one) and watch some of the video of these guys taking down walls and ceilings. Pretty entertaining stuff.

This time around, Tyler wasn’t helping with wall tear-down. Instead, he was helping with wall and ceiling installation.

Unfortunately, all the photos I snapped show Tyler watching Ben work. But, I promise you, they both put in many hours and hundreds of trips up and down those ladders. And now, the walls and ceiling of the garage are clad and….drum roll please…the absolutely gorgeous garage door has been installed!!

You know that trim is driving me insane. Seriously. But when it is painted, that door will be even more beautiful!

The steel door is 16 frosted glass panels and it faces south, so that during the daylight hours, filtered light brightens the garage. Here it is, below, from the inside.

One a related note, the chicken in the photo above is a feathered Houdini. For several months she has been coming into the garage to lay an egg in the mudroom closet. But now the garage is closed—all the doors and windows are installed and closed. And still, every day she lets herself in to lay her egg. Ben can not figure out how she’s getting in and out. It’s a Cockamamy mystery….