In October, we made a lot of progress on the garage. The kids continued to help me clean out the garage, painting the walls, and moving the monster freezer and other items. We’ve continued to sort and clean out junk, and keep moving the line.
They also were a big help to me with installing our new garage organization system. After many months of reviewing the multitude of organizational systems, I decided to go with the Gladiator GarageWorks system from Whirlpool. Using either their single GearTrack or the larger GearWall products, you fasten these to every stud, then use their specialty hooks, baskets, and shelves to organize the madness.
After some learning errors, we got pretty good at finding the studs, deciding correct height & placement, and whatnot. Although I drafted preliminary designs, I’m rethinking it. I’ll proceed for now, but I reserve the right to reorganize at a later date.
As you can see, a lot got done in October on weeknights and over the weekends. The floor got seriously cleaned out, most of the painting got done, more shelving is up, and layout is getting finalized. As a test run, I was able to park my car IN THE GARAGE for the first time in years. I even changed all the warm low wattage incandescent lightbulbs to daylight color higher wattage LED lightbulbs instead. Huge upgrade.
Speaking of electrical, in my mind, I’ve intended for a long while now to add additional features to the house, including lighting. After polling a few people, reading reviews, and looking compatibility with the various smart assistants, I decided to standardize on Lutron switches. Install the Lutron bridge to connect 50 devices, replace the basic toggle switches with smart ones, use new wallplates, and set up in the app and Google Assistanct.
As a test run, I started with the exterior driveway lights and front door entryway lights. Why? Because no one but me remembers to turn the outside lights on or off. Bugs the heck out of me. I attempted to replace the garage switches, but that was a confusing mess, so I had to call one of our local electricians in for a quick fix. After that, smooth sailing, and I replaced the bank of switches in the foyer.
What a mess 
Success! So far, pretty damn awesome. They’re on a schedule, so now I never have to worry about them.
