Interior Garage Renovation

So last year we put up vinyl siding on the garage.  This year it was time to fix the inside.  When we bought the house the garage rafters still had a bunch of crap from the previous owners.  The inside was awful, it had wood grain vinyl coated drywall for the walls.....blech.  Well, the drywall had water damage from the old wood siding being in such bad shape, so it was crumbling in some spots.

Luckily, I had a hookup on getting a Bagster for free, still had to pay the 'pick up' fee though.  I thought were going to need 2, but those things hold A TON of crap!!!  The main goal for redoing the interior of the garage was to get all of our tools and stuff organized better and to utilize the space better while still being able to put a car in there for the wintertime.  We were able to get 2 matching kitchen pantry cabinets for NOTHING from the place my dad works at because they were from sets that were either discontinued, scratch/dent, who knows what.

We didn't want to deal with drywall in the garage, so we were thinking of alternative options such as particle board, plywood etc.  We settled on hardboard but if we had to do it again, we probably wouldn't use it.  it was kind of hard to cut, we had to use a circular saw to do the edges, then used a jigsaw to cut out outlets and switches.  Once we got the hang of cutting and getting them up, we were able to hang 3-4 pieces in one night towards the end.  Due to work schedules and weather this took MONTHS to get it to this point.  We have done a few more things since the last of the pictures, we really only need to fix the gigantic crack/holes in the concrete floor and put everything in its 'winter home' so we can park a car in there.

Without further adieu, here are pictures!!

This was the mess of our garage before we gutted it

You can see in the corner those pieces were all crumbled from water damage

This was the during renovation

We had to keep shifting stuff around the garage as we worked

What a mess! This was after the Bagster was taken to the road for pickup

First piece of hardboard in, tried to use nails, but they
kept buckling, so we had to use screws

It's looking better!

Free cabinets!!  My dad made shelves for the insides

So much better looking! Saves space by putting the bikes on the rafters

Tool organization!

BONUS PICTURES OF BAGSTER!!

That thing was FULL!  Still could have added more though

Pretty cool watching the whole process

Halloween Eyeballs (Peanut Butter Rice Crispy balls)

Peanut Butter Rice Crispy balls dipped in White Chocolate...AKA: HEAVEN

So here's the deal, these are TIME CONSUMING, I mean, it took me HOURS to do these start to finish.  Seriously, the easiest part was the very last step...the food dye part.  But they were totally worth it!  They were a hit at my bowling leagues Halloween party and 2 people want the recipe!

So let's go!  (I apologize for not sticking to my normal layout, I forgot to take a picture of all the ingredients)

You will need:

5 1/4 cups Confectioners Sugar
6 cups Rice Crispies
4 cups Creamy Peanut Butter
1 cup melted Butter
2 lbs. White Chocolate Chips/Wafers
3/4 bar of Paraffin Wax
M&M's or Reese's Pieces candies
Red food coloring


(I increased the white choc and wax measurements in this post because I didn't have enough white chocolate to do all the balls I made)

1.) Line ~4 cookie trays with wax paper

2.) In a large bowl, mix rice crispies and confectioners sugar together.  (Mix carefully, it will make a mess otherwise) 

3.) In another med-large bowl, mix peanut butter and melted butter together

4.) Fold peanut butter mixture into rice crispies mixture.  Mix as much as you can with a utensil (wooden spoon worked well for the most part) but you will most likely have to use your hands to get the rest mixed.

5.) Once all 4 ingredients mixed well, roll into 1" balls and place on trays (you can place them relatively close together as they aren't being baked) Refrigerate for 15 minutes

6.) Cut up the bar of paraffin wax (a serrated utility knife did well with fine shavings) and mix in with white chocolate chips/wafers.  Place into the top of a double boiler  (if you do not have a double boiler, a stockpot with a few inches of water and a glass Pyrex bowl to sit over the top of the stockpot will work)

7.) This part works best with 2 people, not sure if I could have done it by myself.  Once chocolate is melted, dip peanut butter balls in then place back on tray.  The second person should put the M&Ms or Reeses Pieces on top before the chocolate hardens. As for the dipping, if your balls have thawed a bit you can probably spear it with a skewer (mine unfortunately split into pieces because it was to hard, so I flipped the skewer around and it acted like the dipper for dyeing Easter Eggs)

8.) Once all balls have been coated in white chocolate and topped with candy, refrigerate again for 15 minutes

9.) To finish these off, use something shallow and put a few drops of red food coloring in it and add a couple drops of water to dilute it.  Take a toothpick and go to town making red lines on the eyeballs :-)

10.)  Let sit for a bit so the red dye dries, then eat!


ENJOY