Over the years, this 1950s structure had been used as a garage, garden shed, indoor basketball court, and, of late, feeding ground for termites. That’s when our Reader Projects, Kat McCarthy, and her significant other, Ron Delay, stepped in and decided to fix up the garage his dad built.

“It needed a major overhaul,” Kat says. She and Ron replaced the side door and window and built new garage doors. Next they painted the outside gray and the existing lattice white. Finding antique touches for the outside followed. They also bought and installed a structure to support Kat’s porch swing.

With the help of a friend, they turned their attention to the inside, which they basically stripped to the studs. They put beaded board on the walls and added a ceiling and ceiling fan before giving the interior a fresh coat of paint. Finally they furnished the inside with “cute garden stuff and big cabinet pieces, all from antique shops,” Kat says. Click here to see the finished interior.

In the space where an outdoor workbench had been they built a water garden. Other exterior touches include a new picket fence and newly planted birch tree. Since finishing the major work, Ron and Kat have been “doing odds-and-end things and finding little things to make it ‘femme’ for me,” Kat says.

See the before pictures: Garage Door; Side Door; Lattice.

See more finished pictures: Garage Door; Lattice.