8 years!

Russel and I have been married 8 years this month.  YAY!

Even after 8 years of marriage and many more of dating, I am always in a conundrum about what to get Russel for birthdays, anniversaries and Christmas.  

He is a man that is hard to buy for (which one isn't).  I say that because he goes out and buys items that he wants.  If there is something that I think he wants it is normally something that I can't say - "Hey - I need a extra medium blue in that" - It is something with 15 different models, 10 different speeds (faster is always better - I have learned that in 8 years) and 55 colors.  It's never a decision that I want to make - so I end up getting him a gift card for somewhere that carries said object and let him pick out his own.  I know - I am a terrible gift buyer for Russel.  We've even went to "stocking gifts" at Christmas with each other because I am hard to buy for too. 

 So this year for our anniversary I decided to DO something for Russel.  I hope that he likes it as well as the men that I have mentioned it to have said that they would like it. 

I CLEANED THE GARAGE AND ADDED HANGING STORAGE!!!

(not by myself)   

Russel left to work out of town on Monday morning.  I came home itching to get started on my anniversary project.  The first task was to move the fridge and stand up freezer from the garage to an unused wall in our downstairs "office".  Easy Peasy Right????

Our fridge and freezer for whatever reason always seems to be a hub for junk.  Lay something up against one, slide it between the two or stack it on top.  So I got busy moving all the junk so that I could move the fridge and freezer.  I started with the fridge and got it to the door to go into the other part of the basement and GOT STUCK. Well there went my momentum.  I went outside and through the house to get on the other side of the fridge that was now currently standing in the doorway and wouldn't go backwards or forwards.  I took the door off the hinges thinking that would help.  Not so much.  So I called our friend Dave who lives down the road  **side note - I had planned on calling Dave later in the week to help me hang the wall storage but had to call on him MUCH earlier than planned**  Dave was to the rescue and helped move the fridge and freezer.  We discussed the wall storage options and he agreed to help me later in the week.  

Dave's question when I said it was an anniversary gift - "You are going to have this cleaned up when Russel gets home, right??"

"Of course!" So I started cleaning.

After some internet research I picked up the pieces that I wanted for our gladiator wall storage system.  Dave came over for mechanical and engineering assistance - you can't hang these things with only two arms.  We stagger hung 16 feet of the gear track channels and then started adding different hangers.  I think we came up with the perfect balance (bottom picture above).  It got so much up off the floor that I wondered where it all was before - Oh right - in the floor, in the corner, on top of the fridge, hiding out in the RZR.  

After that I went ahead and swept & cleaned up oil spills and put up what I thought I could.  

The result?  A clean semi organized garage - which is probably the best anniversary gift I could give Russel - if he can find all his stuff now. 

Stacey