One of the things that comes with a “brand new house” is a completely un-finished garage.  I didn’t think anything of this, after-all aren’t all garages un-finished?  The answer to that is two-part, they are un-finished with regard to the rest of your house i.e. concrete floors no paint on the walls etc.  However, most are insulated and dry walled – ours was not.  With the sweltering hot days we have experienced up here in New England this summer, with several days in a row coming close to exceeding 100 degrees, the garage would heat up to a comfortable 150 (estimating, but not exaggerating).

Considering how Ken planned to turn the garage into tool central, the heat was not providing a enjoyable work atmosphere.  Also necessary in order for him to fully enjoy the space was more electrical outlets.  The only two the builder provided were in the ceiling to connect the garage door openers to (the house didn’t come with openers either – but that is another post).

So, before Ken could get to insulating and sheet-rocking the garage he had to run electrical.  This he did himself, although for the average person I wouldn’t recommend it as you could get electrocuted – duh.  Ken is no average home improvement weekend warrior, he knows a lot about how things work, had some basic electrical knowledge and learned what he needed to know before starting to avoid that whole electrocution thing.

Then insulation was put in between all the studs:

And sheet rock put up:

We unfortunately didn’t buy quite enough to finish the entire garage, but the back wall was the most important as this is where Ken wanted to build and put his tool bench. Even without the entire garage being completed there is still a HUGE difference in the temperature out there – but that may also be because we haven’t hit 100 in about a month… but I’m crediting the insulation.