Beware of the garage

Across North America, when it comes to prioritizing renovation and decorating investments, the kitchen and bathroom are inevitably the first choices, much to Mom’s delight. Next comes the family room – the living room – to the delight of the whole family. But what about Dad, who’s always responsible for cars, garbage, snow removal and so on? Is he the only one responsible for the state of the garage? In honor of Father’s Day, we’d like to suggest a new way of looking at this neglected area of the house. It’s not enough to simply tidy up, we need to renovate and enhance this space. Why do we do this? Because, in the short term, it’s a safe place to store lots of everyday items that don’t belong in the house, such as the car, the motorcycle, the kids’ bicycles and so on.

By Christian Lavigne, originally published in the Votre maison section of the Journal de Montréal, Saturday, June 20, 2009

In the medium term, a well-stocked garage will enable us to carry out DIY projects, among others, and to store seldom-used appliances in a safe and organized way. Finally, a well-appointed garage will probably give your home more resale value in the long term than a swimming pool, since it will always be needed and doesn’t require any special care. Before concluding, here are two pieces of advice: firstly, before starting your renovation project, put aside anything that might still be useful to you, and distribute the rest to local self-help organizations. Secondly, plan your renovations around your projects, because you’ll be surprised at how the accumulation repeats itself. Today, we’d like to introduce you to a Quebec company based in the greater metropolitan area that specializes in the complete renovation of residential garages in Quebec. Espace Garage Plus was founded in 2006 by Roberto Wilson and Michel Marcoux. www.espacegarageplus.com