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Carpeted Garage Combines Luxury With Economy
When Adam and Ruth Schreiner of Westlock, Alberta retired from farming in 1992, they decided to build a house in town. Their goal was to do it as economically as possible. The couple worked with their children and spouses to completely design and build a tasteful and comfortable home from scratch, hiring out on
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Carpeted Garage Combines Luxury With Economy FARM HOME Miscellaneous 24-5-37 When Adam and Ruth Schreiner of Westlock, Alberta retired from farming in 1992, they decided to build a house in town. Their goal was to do it as economically as possible. The couple worked with their children and spouses to completely design and build a tasteful and comfortable home from scratch, hiring out only the electrical, plumbing, heating, flooring and cabinet work. Adam did the framing and helped with the drywalling, and Ruth headed up the painting crew. By doing their own building and finishing, the retired couple was able to complete their 1,200 square-foot home (including an attached two-car garage) for only $85,000.
Rather than spend $2,000 to pour a concrete floor in the garage, the couple chose to haul in sand and pack it with a roller. If they picked it up themselves, they were able to get the sand for free from their local cement plant.
However, when they started using the garage they found that too much sand tracked into the house, so they needed to find a solution.
A local shopping mall was doing some renovating and pulled out all of its carpeting. When Adam asked them what they were doing with it, he was told that it was being taken to the dump.
"I asked, if you're just going to throw it out and it's going to go to waste, do you mind if I take some of it, and they said okay," Adam explains. "We laid that carpet in the garage. It worked real well, except that when parking your vehicle, the carpet would push ahead when you stepped on the brake. To solve that problem, I nailed it down with 8 inch eavestrough spikes into the packed sand, which is pretty hard."
When water drips off wet vehicles onto the carpet, it just soaks down and away into the sand beneath. Every once in a while, the couple vacuums it to pick up the dirt that accumulates from their vehicles' tires.
The carpet gives their garage a cozy and luxurious look and makes the neighbors think they must be pretty well off to afford carpeting their garage floor.
Contact FARM SHOW Followup, Adam and Ruth Schreiner, 10416 ű 103 St., Westlock, Alberta, Canada T7P 1L1 (ph 780 349-2243)
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