StormcrowAz
Well-known member
Hello, my name is Todd and welcome to Ernie’s Place. First, I’ll address the: “why is it called Ernie’s Place?” question up front. Ernest (known as “Porky” by most of his family and friends) was born 1920, WWII veteran, father of three daughters, grandfather of four boys, one of which happens to be me. He was a welder by trade who worked for a company that repaired hydraulic cylinders, suspension systems, pumps and motors for local mines. He tinkered as a hobby, fixing and building things in his spare time. His workshop started out as a simple concrete slab he poured on the side of his house, several wood benches to work on, all shaded by those green fiberglass roofing panels attached to a wrought iron framework he put together. This served him well for many years until, with help of family and friends, he built himself a real cinder-block workshop. At the age of 62 cancer took my grandpa, leaving behind a host of friends and family that remembers him as a good, honest, and caring man who loved his family and left a positive impression on those he met. It’s taken me these 30 years now to realize just how much of an influence he has had on my life, even though I only knew him for a short 12. So I suppose this is a dedication of sorts, I’d like to think a little part of my grandpa goes into every project I work on.
Anyhow…my garage journey began with my first house and the garage was used for simple vehicle parking and misc. storage. This was until ’06 when I bought my Hummer and started tinkering. Fast forward several years and a few vehicles/toys later and I started feeling a bit claustrophobic. I got the itch to do a complete restoration and found a 1964 Scout to suit this purpose. After completely tearing it apart and doing some repairs I really had it with the limited space. The Hummer took up literally half the garage space and moving all the vehicles around to get any kind of space was tiresome. The house didn’t have an RV gate and a pretty small yard. My spare parts collection was growing and was tired of being within spitting distance of our neighbors. Thus we (the wife and I) started our search for a new place. After a lengthy search for something we both wanted (big kitchen for her, nice shop for me) we finally found it. 2 acres at the western edge of Phoenix, the place has been foreclosed and vacant for almost 2 years. It needed a lot of work but we got it for a good price. Oh yeah, not only does it have a decent-sized garage… it has a detached shop, too! It may not be the Concrete Underground or the Big Party Barn, but it certainly is my own little slice of heaven. I’d like to think that if Grandpa was around he’d get a kick out of the place and might even hang out and do some tinkering with me.
Here come the pics…
The old house - Working on big stuff meant moving vehicles around:
Here’s how much room I had on either side of the house, most of it taken up by my collection of “stuff”
Now onto the new shop, as it was when we acquired it. 30 x 50, three man-sized doors, three small windows, RV-sized roll-up door, skylights, etc.
North side of the shop
South side. Before the place was foreclosed the previous owners cut out every single gate on the property and sold ‘em off.
Inside of the shop from the front. The room off to the right was used by the previous owners as a dog rescue pen. They cut a really crappy door in the south wall to let them out and used the area south of the shop as a dog run.
Heavy duty shelving bolted to the wall. Tons of storage!
These stairs by the front door lead up to more storage. The room below is a bathroom.
My upstairs fortress of solitude, man-cave, what have you…most recently utilized for a cat-rescue room. Smelled like it, too.
Here’s the bathroom in a lovely shade of green…
Shower-ready
Hook-ups for a washer/dryer
It’s been just over a year since we moved in and it’s been a lot of projects and a lot of work but certainly worth it. Still a few more major things to go before I get to really play in the shop and finish off that Scout.
More pics to come as time permits….
Anyhow…my garage journey began with my first house and the garage was used for simple vehicle parking and misc. storage. This was until ’06 when I bought my Hummer and started tinkering. Fast forward several years and a few vehicles/toys later and I started feeling a bit claustrophobic. I got the itch to do a complete restoration and found a 1964 Scout to suit this purpose. After completely tearing it apart and doing some repairs I really had it with the limited space. The Hummer took up literally half the garage space and moving all the vehicles around to get any kind of space was tiresome. The house didn’t have an RV gate and a pretty small yard. My spare parts collection was growing and was tired of being within spitting distance of our neighbors. Thus we (the wife and I) started our search for a new place. After a lengthy search for something we both wanted (big kitchen for her, nice shop for me) we finally found it. 2 acres at the western edge of Phoenix, the place has been foreclosed and vacant for almost 2 years. It needed a lot of work but we got it for a good price. Oh yeah, not only does it have a decent-sized garage… it has a detached shop, too! It may not be the Concrete Underground or the Big Party Barn, but it certainly is my own little slice of heaven. I’d like to think that if Grandpa was around he’d get a kick out of the place and might even hang out and do some tinkering with me.
Here come the pics…
The old house - Working on big stuff meant moving vehicles around:
Here’s how much room I had on either side of the house, most of it taken up by my collection of “stuff”
Now onto the new shop, as it was when we acquired it. 30 x 50, three man-sized doors, three small windows, RV-sized roll-up door, skylights, etc.
North side of the shop
South side. Before the place was foreclosed the previous owners cut out every single gate on the property and sold ‘em off.
Inside of the shop from the front. The room off to the right was used by the previous owners as a dog rescue pen. They cut a really crappy door in the south wall to let them out and used the area south of the shop as a dog run.
Heavy duty shelving bolted to the wall. Tons of storage!
These stairs by the front door lead up to more storage. The room below is a bathroom.
My upstairs fortress of solitude, man-cave, what have you…most recently utilized for a cat-rescue room. Smelled like it, too.
Here’s the bathroom in a lovely shade of green…
Shower-ready
Hook-ups for a washer/dryer
It’s been just over a year since we moved in and it’s been a lot of projects and a lot of work but certainly worth it. Still a few more major things to go before I get to really play in the shop and finish off that Scout.
More pics to come as time permits….
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