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Tearing Down Garage: What to do with Blue Bottle Stash?

concretenprimroses
11 years ago

Many decades ago (5 or 6?), someone built a very good small 2 car garage on top of very poor concrete foundations. The garage was so study and well built that it still lasted through many years including through mega snow storms when new buildings collapsed all over the state.

Long story short: We have to tear it down this weekend cuz new insurance Co. won't cover us otherwise. 30 years of accumulated stuff! Including a lot of useful wood and my garden stashes.
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Yes we live next door to a huge pink house.

Heh heh another project is the windows in the dining room which are behind interior storms so I couldn't clean them off for this photo.

We set up a tent garage and we have porches but not everything will fit.

Here's where I put the bottles that I'd been saving for a bottle tree. Along the edge of the raised beds.

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Fortunately the ground was warmish on Thursday, which I took off from work, and I could push them in. The round bucket shapes are frozen compost that I dumped out of the buckets we had it stored in the garage.

I'll let you know next week if I'm relieved to get rid of stuff or unhappy! I did find quite a few things I'd forgotten about.

Kathy

Comments (10)

  • Shades_of_idaho
    11 years ago

    Aw a good purge is always good even if heart breaking.BTDT many times. Love the bottle edging. LOL at the frozen bucket compost. Sorry about the loss of your storage space. My first thought was so get a couple of pallets and store the stuff you want to keep on top of them under a tarp or two for the winter. Several pallets would make a quick box of sorts that could be tarped off. Good luck and do be careful.

    Pink house...............????????? Was is paint gone way wrong or what??

  • jeannespines
    11 years ago

    Bottle edging looks great! Ohh, what a job, crete! Good luck & good recycling where you can! Jeanne S.

  • toomuchglass
    11 years ago

    How can anyone get rid of a 30 year stash ??? OMG --- it's like giving away a relative !!! It's like Christmas when you go through things and find things you've forgotten about !!! Decisions,decisions ....
    I'd say keep the bottles -- somewhere ! They're not easy to collect . Places to keep a secret stash are :
    under the bed
    spare closet
    on the backs of doors
    in empty suitcases

    .......ask me how I know *wink* ! LOL

    Oh yeah --- what's with the pink house ????? I always say they must have gotten a deal on discontinued paint :) heheh

  • spedigrees z4VT
    11 years ago

    Well I like the pink house! I would paint the trim a maroon color however to blend better.

    Can you leave the bottles and compost where they sit until spring? Perhaps spring would be the time to create your bottle tree. Those look like good solid wood posts holding up your fence. Could you drill holes and install long screws and turn the posts into bottle trees? Or leave them where they sit? They make an attractive border.

    I don't envy you the task of clearing out 30 years worth of accumulated stuff. Will you be building a new garage where the old one sits? Good luck with re-organizing. It's a shame that your nice garage finally went, but it had a long run at least.

  • nonacook
    11 years ago

    I have the same problem--lots of storage buildings!
    Been 'collecting' since the 1980s. Had to have new
    roofs put on most, (hurricanes!) but the foundations
    are still good!
    I am so sorry that you have to do this......I would be poking things everywhere-spare bathtub-LOL----

  • oldcrafty
    11 years ago

    Sorry to hear about your major clean-up problem......I agree...giving up precios items tucked away for so long is like tossing out a family member. I have a ton of blue bottles too and I have a small yard and active grandkids, which I fear might accidently break them. I made a border of a few bottles. I put down 3 bricks and then fanned out 5 bottles, as in pushed in the outer bottles further in ground and at an angle and then another bottle pushed not as far in and at an angle and then the middle bottle stands straight up and is highest. then 3 more bricks and another set of bottles and on to complete the edging of that bed. The bricks are light colored and looks nice with the bright blue bottles. Good luck on finding an area to save as much as possible.

  • concretenprimroses
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I like your blue bottle idea old crafty.
    Hopefully mine iwll be ok where they are for the winter.
    I do regret letting my dh throw out my many paned window without glass. Othther thatn that I'm ok so far!
    Kathy

  • beachplant
    11 years ago

    My brother always wanted to paint his house pink. After Ike when he had to raise the house and rebuild he painted it pink with orange trim! Since his house was so much taller it really stood out. The city gave him a grant to finish the work and they painted the outside a light tan/beige brownish color. He hates it and all he talks about is painting the house pink again!
    Sorry about the clean out. It was much easier for us, everything under feet of salt water, nothing to do but throw it all out. The roofers burned the house down, same thing, threw it all out. So the yard AND the house got cleaned out.
    Tally HO!

  • concretenprimroses
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    wow! What a disaster beachplant. What state do you live in? I hope you had what ever kind of insurance would cover that.

    I love the fact that your bro painted his house pink with orange trim. And I'll definitely suggest maroon trim to the owner, spedigrees, if I ever seem him since he now lives elsewhere. I like that idea. I don't mind the pink house. The real problem is that the siding is asbestos and it is crumbling in some parts. Just glad its not my house!

    I still have no regrets except that many paned door insert. And I had many years to do something with it and didn't. We probably kept other stuff that we sholdn't hve tho.

    Kathy

  • Shades_of_idaho
    11 years ago

    I had to get rid of so many things the last time we moved. At least I was able to find a place that does what we all do with things. Create other things from found stuff. So it was not as painful as it would have been going to the dump.

    Kathy that is sad about the many pained door. So much possibility. Friend brought me two glass doors I was going to use in the house but they did not fit:^( I ended up laying them down around the porch railing making a bit of a wind and snow break for the porch kitties.

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