Garage Studio

Introduction

There we were, four hours from home, living our best holiday life with the in-laws (yes, voluntarily), when my phone decided to play a festive duet of panic.

🚨 Act 1: Our home security system rings with all the cheerful urgency of someone literally breaking into our house.

📱 Act 2: Our neighbor calls – and trust me, when your neighbor calls on Christmas Eve, they’re definitely not asking for a cup of sugar.

Turns out, our friendly neighborhood hero (let’s call him St. Nick) was out there shoveling snow when he heard something – gushing water. Like any good neighbor, he did what any reasonable person would do: staged a completely justified break-in through our garage, to reach the main water supply before our house could transform into an indoor swimming pool.

And just like that, our garage’s brief career as a water park was cut short, thanks to our quick-thinking neighbor who probably deserves a lifetime supply of Christmas cookies. We ended up thanking him with a bottle of wine.

Details

Ever had one of those “well, that escalated quickly” moments?

Picture this: a lonely copper pipe, naked as a jaybird without insulation (why??), hanging out near the roof vents during what felt like the wind tunnel scene from any obligatory action movie. Yeah, it didn’t end well.

The pipe decided to throw in the towel – literally – and burst, water flooding across the ceiling before making its grand finale down the opposite wall. And then… BOOM! The ceiling gave us its best dramatic performance, dropping everything – drywall, insulation, and what felt like the entire Pacific Ocean – onto our stuff below. (And yes, I’ll admit our garage was doing its best impression of a yard sale at the time. No judgment, please! 😅)

But here’s where the plot twist comes in – this disaster turned out to be a silver lining. Finally, I had the perfect excuse to:

Kick those wobbly plastic shelves to the curb (they were actually sketchy and dangerous) and transform the space into something functional – an maker space / art studio.

Actually organize things like a proper adult

The Master Plan: I designed the shelving with a gap in the middle to create a built-in creative workbench. Basically a Hogwarts Room of Requirement, but for making stuff - mostly painting miniatures, artwork, 3D printing and UV printing.

For the floor, I went full fancy with Husky diamond plate flooring. Not only does it look like something out of Tony Stark’s workshop, but it also makes cleaning up sawdust and spills a breeze.

The Damage (The Good Kind):

• Weekend warrior timeline: Just 2 days
• Shelving supplies: $300 (cheaper than therapy!)
• Fancy flooring: $1,000 (worth every penny for that professional studio vibe)

Who knew a plumbing catastrophe could lead to such a glow-up?

Sometimes the best renovations (or life changes) come from the worst situations.