FD, IA - The Garage

I find it hard to believe that 6 weeks ago we were in southern California, basking in sunshine, without a care in the world, wondering which mountain to hike. Now, we’re in Fort Dodge, IA and Gary’s father’s home has been emptied and it’s almost ready for a really deep cleaning so that we can sell it. What a long journey it’s been and I’m not just talking about the distance our RV travelled to get here. I haven’t had much time to write in my blog since we’ve been so busy but I thought I’d take some time now to summarize what we’ve done and there’s nothing better to demonstrate it all that some pictures: the before and the after. Though, I’ll have to admit, that I’ve been so wrapped up in the process that I’ve forgotten to take many before pictures and it’s almost too late to take the individual after shots.

Lug, Gary’s father, was a child of the Depression and, to put it mildly, he kept everything - and then built the cubbies to hold it all. I showed some of the cubbies in the basement but those cubbies were matched by those in the garage: equally everywhere, equally ingenious and equally full.

Here’s a section of the upper level of cubbies in the garage. We’ve begun to empty them but you can see how full they still are. Notice the garage door near the top of the picture so you can see how high these particular cubbies were. All had doors so no one could really comprehend how much Lug had stuffed into his house. And, by the way, he had what is called a ‘tunnel’ garage: it could hold 2 1/2 cars in a line rather than side by side. These cubbies are in the deepest section. And, another ‘by the way’, the rafters were laden with 2x4’s and 2x6’s and gutters and miscellaneous long things so we had to empty those too. Note how Gary is dressed: it’s only 30 degrees out and the garage is cold. I had on a heavy coat, gloves and a hat too. Where are those California palm trees?

Here’s a drawer in the garage which was one of about 8 drawers below the workbench.

Note the axe handle completely duct taped up. He loved duct tape and used it whenever something looked like it might be broken and need to be tossed. But, nope, certainly wouldn’t want to toss anything - it might come in handy someday. Gary and I emptied the cubbies and the closets and the cupboards and the drawers in the house and put it all out for Dawn and Cathy to go through to see what could be donated, what they and their families wanted and what could be tossed. And, believe you me, lots went straight to the ‘toss’ piles. And, did we ever have ‘toss’ piles.

In the garage, Gary put up an old door as a barrier against the garage door so what we were tossing wouldn’t keep the garage door from opening and block entry.

And, then we started to toss. I would fill a wheel barrow with what ever I had found and roll it to the far end of the garage and pile it next to the doors as you can see above.

Not much there right now but we continued for 2 days and this is what we got in the end. In the last picture I’m looking from the far end of the garage towards the front door. He had rebar out the ying yang and enough small pieces of wood to build a shed to hold it all. But, once it was all out on the floor of the garage, it was quite easy to see how much there was and then to decide how big a dumpster to order to put it all into.

Every now and then Gary and I would toodle inside to get warm but we got the main job done: un-cubby everything that Lug had in his garage, pile it into sections to make it lots easier to figure out how large a dumpster to order and then, in the end, lots easier and quicker to get it into the dumpster.

In the meantime I made several more trips to the recycling area with loads of cardboard from boxes we had broken down and lots of glass jars and tin cans. Lug had saved every screw, nail and bolt that he had ever touched in tin cans and jars. When we emptied these out, we had the jars and tin cans for recycling. By this time, the car could find the recycling place all by itself.