July, 2022 | Stews Garage

Bright New Paint and Lights!

The inside is looking like a brand new space! Our fresh paint has dried and it looks so much better inside than what it used to be! The old yellow/tan paint covered in a few decades of grease is officially gone. We matched our Kirkland location with the same two-tone grey and white look for a nice bright and clean appearance. The white helps reflect as much light as possible while the grey down low helps reduce visible dirt/grease/grime before it can get wiped up. That’s not the only fresh new paint though.

Fresh Outside Look Too!

Is it a new building, or just a fresh coat of paint? You’d have to forgive some people for thinking it’s a new building because other than the shape, the building is very different now! No more pale yellow and red paint, say hello to our fresh color scheme of grey and Stew’s blue! While Kirkland may remain yellow outside, it is not by choice, so we weren’t going to let our Auburn location suffer the same fate. We didn’t want to leave the clean looks to just the inside, and we knew this color scheme would look great for years to come. Next up on the visual changes list is our big sign on the street that’s had a coming soon banner over it. We are excited to have the new sign panels put in!

So What's Left?

Our electrical inspection just happened and we are now signed off on that. We still need to get our fire safety permits done, and there’s still lots of finishing work to go. We also are awaiting on a garage door to arrive so we can have all 10 bays ready to go. We are also working on hiring a whole new team to staff the Auburn location. We have started the hiring process so we can start training them in Kirkland to be ready when we open later this year. Right now we are focusing on getting the workbenches in place and stocked with tools. We are getting closer and closer to announcing a grand opening day, but for now we have to wait a bit longer. We know everyone is very excited, and we are too!

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Major Progress!

In just a months time we’ve made a ton of progress! Demolition work started on May 20th, finally kicking off the start of construction. There was about 5,000sqft of mezzanine storage to bring down, and on that mezzanine were quite literal tons of shelves and other stuff. The electrical in the building was from the 80s, and there was a lot of not so safe wiring added through the years in the building that had to be ripped out as well. We ended up removing 6 dumpsters that were 45 yards each, as well as 2 scrap metal dumpsters that were 15 yards. This was a lot of stuff, and it’s a huge difference in before and after. When we took over the space we really had to use our imagination to picture what it would look like, but with all the mezzanine gone it makes it easier to picture. After all the old stuff was ripped out and hauled off, we had the entire interior cleaned with degreaser and pressure washed. As you know, we put a big emphasis on cleanliness, and we wanted to get everything cleaned so it could start with a fresh slate.

Lifts are going up!

We’ve also had equipment and tools start to arrive! We were well planned, timing out deliveries for things to arrive when they needed to be even accounting for supply chain delays. Our 2 post lifts have all arrived, with our 4 posts arriving soon. As the electricians work in the space, the 2 post lifts have started to go up. This works out perfectly since the electricians are already here wiring the rest of the building, they’ll be able to wire in the lifts as they go up. We will have 8 of the 2 post rotary lifts, and 2 of the 4 post rotary lifts, and the 4 posts will have rolling jacks. The 2 post lifts will have a 10,000lb capacity while the 4 post will be able to hold 14,000lbs. We look forward to you guys getting them broken in!

What's Next?

As we are starting fresh with all the electrical in the building, there’s lots to wire, but the electricians are making great progress. We are bringing in over 40 new light fixtures, lots of circuits in each bay, charging outlets for EVs, and more. We are looking forward to having lots of lights as the building lacked them, and we want to have as bright of a work area as possible. Next up will be paint! The interior of the building was a pale tan covered in decades of grease and grime when we took it over. Now that the inside is cleaned the primer will be able to stick to the actual wall and not a layer of grease. The walls will be painted the same color scheme as the Kirkland location, grey on the bottom and white above it. We want to maximize lighting efficiency while doing our best to not have visibly dirty walls all the time. After the inside is painted, we’ll be adding a fresh layer of paint to the outside as well. We look forward to sharing the new look with everyone!

Check Out Our Progress Video!

We saved the best for last! Here’s a little preview of the construction progress. Progress is happening fast, and we hope to have another video soon. For now though, enjoy the sneak peek!

Fresh New Look