Houseworks, LTD Garage Kit, a Perfect Fit

It's late April and we are supposed to be doing spring garden clean up, cutting back last year's canes on the roses, hacking away at the over grown ornamental grasses, raking away all the debris that blows in during the winter; instead I spent most of the last two day building this garage kit--only because we've had typical spring weather--cold and snowy. What can I say? It's spring on the Colorado Plains. 

I actually opened the Houseworks, LTD Garage box months ago and had it taped together sitting in place next to the Manchester Country Home. I even featured it prematurely in a post a while back. Now it is nearly completed.

The kit is easy to assemble, but does require patience and care when assembling the working garage door, the favorite feature of this single card garage. 

The kit comes with adequate instructions that are easy to follow, but I am a visual learner and would have appreciated some illustrations. Still I was able to follow the directions, instead of taking off on my own and missing an important step, ending up with a mess to fix. 

With a new layer of butcher paper on my work table, I laid out all the pieces and assembled the 3 paints the I'd use: Kilz primer for the base coat on both front and back side of each to the main building pieces. Next two coats of the tan semi-gloss interior/exterior house paint, a thick, rich creamy paint that goes on easily and dries quickly.

 

 

I like to purchase small sample cans of good quantity latex house house paint for the exterior of my miniature structures. I painted the window white and the door white and the blue that I used on the doors of the main house.

I as able to do the two coats of the tan yesterday then let the building rest. Today I painted the garage door, did some touch-up work on the door and window, and installed them. I did a test fit the the mustang then prepared to paint the garage door.

 

I gave both sides a quick sand and taped the windows on both sides. The kit directions say to paint the door on both sides at the same time to avoid warping. 

Note the wooden wheels on each side of the door. They will fit in the door frame.

The directions are easy to follow on how to install the track pieces. I did find that the placement of the tracks on either side of the opening had to be adjusted from the 5/32" from the edge to exactly on the inner edge of the opening. The photo shows the suggested placement of the track pieces, making the opening too wide for the wheels on the garage door to fit.

However, in this photo, the track pieces fit flush with the edge of the door opening. The wheels fit nicely between tracks, but as the directions caution, the wheels are delicate and require a gently touch. 

The interior garage walls will not be painted. Many garages are not finished inside, so these will remain "skim coated" as we find in our own garage. I did paint the inside of the door and the window just to give them a finished look. 

Now, dry fitted together, the garage takes shape. I have a bit of touch up work to do and I need to figure out lighting. I have on gold porch light like the 3 on the house, but I need to buy another one for a balanced look, but the lights are becoming so expensive. On the interior, with the garage door open, there isn't room for a centered ceiling light, so now I am rethinking the the entire lighting plan. I have a great ceiling light for the 2nd floor that I could hook up to a battery, so I may just go with that light. 

To finish the interior upstairs I need flooring and wallpaper. I want it too look rather rustic and masculine. It will be man cave, or in my family, we call it Outside Upstairs, which I'll explain in the next post. 

 

The garage will be a perfect fit for the vintage Manchester Country Home.  

Lighting or not? This morning, I'm leaning toward not. 

Come back next week to see what I decide.

Have a fabulous week. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers,  Ann