Well, Lah-dee-dah, Mister French Man.

The garage has kind of been the red-headed stepchild of the house, being a dumping ground for all sorts of things, from siding to be installed on the house to wads of camping gear.

But as I worked to fill and organize Mr. Sta-Puft and get the shed into condition to be a very tiny shop, the garage has improved.

I was able to report yesterday that the only thing leaning against Michelle's portion of the shelves in the garage was a stepladder, while the portion I'm in charge of is almost obstacle-free, which is a good thing.

We have some suspicious empty spots on the shelves, but I'm chalking that up to our youngest taking some gear to go camping this weekend.

Mr. Sta-Puft update: It survived its first windstorm, albeit on the mild side, maybe 35 mph winds tops. I have anchored down the less sheltered side with a bit of rope and a big metal stake, so hopefully that adds a bit of stability.

Mr. Sta-Puft, Day Two

So I've moved a lot of, ah, stuff into Mr. Sta-Puft:

The pool noodles are there to help the place not to look too industrial.

I'm getting a little flack on having the spare tire for the camper in there. I counterargue that I have nowhere in or on the camper (the logical place for it) to store the tire.

It looks a right mess. I'm not that smitten with my PVC storage facility, or at least the presence of the funny pipe in it. I may have to bundle that up and hang it from the rafters. I've also got some more shelving and other crud to cram into it before I can declare it finished. I'm trying to get the stuff to crawl up the walls so I'm not taking up floor space.

I've also got two wheelbarrows and a yard wagon to stuff in there too, so floor space is going to be valuable.

I used this storage pile as kind of an object lesson in my Sunday School class this week, showing how I was storing up treasures on Earth rather than treasures in heaven. My wife chuckled at the thought of my treasures being pool noodles and PVC pices. So maybe I'm okay.

What's exciting is that, as you can see, I've got the shed padlocked. A good portion of the stuff in Mr. Sta-Puft was in the shed, but I've got that mucked out enough I could almost use it as a workspace, which is kind of exciting. Keeping it locked will make sure no one messes with the big boys therein (about 27:28 in if my direct link doesn't work).

Goodbye, Slanty Shanty, and Welcome, Mr. Sta-Puft

A few years ago, I used some scrap wood and a couple old tarps to build what I called the "Slanty Shanty" behind the shed, as home to some firewood and a few disused bicycles.

Inspired, of course, by the Slanty Shanty from The Simpsons:

It went in as a temporary measure, but lasted a bit longer than I anticipated.

At about the same time, our youngest brought home a used carport he got from a friend. I made it my goal this year to use that carport to replace the Slanty Shanty, and finally made is this weekend.

Behold, Mr. Sta-Puft:

The last photo shows the hastily assembled PVC rack I built from some scrap lumber. To continue the Ghostbusters theme, I had to add some bracing because of some wood fatigue in the load-bearing members.

This, of course, is also a temporary measure. I'm hoping we can build a shop before I become too feeble to enjoy one, but that's going to take some time and investment, so we'll see how it goes. In the meantime, I have a place to work and to store bulky stuff that right now is clogging the shed and garage.