Tboy's short attached 2 car!

[tboy]

Tboy's shallow 2 car!

Like so many others, I really enjoy coming to the GarageJournal almost every day. I find the posts and build threads inspiring, and they have given me lots of motivation to get to work on my own garage. I will share some things here in the hopes that others might find it useful, pay back somewhat to already great content, and hope to continue to motivate me to keep going.

Some brief backstory. I've always been a car nut and as a a senior at University (BYU) I decided to try my luck at fixing up a 1994 Saab 900SE. It needed an engine rebuild as it was run mostly out of oil. I figured I had friends to help and was dumb enough to start! (Still have that car!).

When my wife and I bought our first house the garage was a 1928 single that would be appropriate for a Model T. There was no way a modern car was going in there so I was fortunate enough to meet a friend from Church and work in his father in law's 40x40 pole barn. We got alot done, and had great space to work and store projects. I really credit him for any mechanical prowess I have as he inspired me to try. He was my backup plan, and I'd have to use him from time to time, but what great partner and teacher. Life happens and we moved, and his father in law did as well so we lost the barn about four years ago.

My new house is great, in a quiet neighborhood cul-de-sac with no HOA and some room to build a larger garage. After three years working out of my move in mess and dealing with other issues (I'll get to them) I finally decided to make the garage as useful as I can, and still hold on to some glimmer of hope that I will add on something bigger some day!

First, here is a rough drawing of the garage:

You can see it is not very deep! The builder of this home decided to "side load" the garage. This gives me a great driveway and makes the house have some presence (like it doesn't look dominated by the garage) but it seriously cuts down on the depth. This can be a challenge!

 

[tboy]

And Thus it Begins

Here are a few pics from the days we moved in:
Front Wall looking towards street:

Entrance to kitchen:

The pile shortly after move in:

I was in heaven! See above that I even had some old kitchen cabinets set in place because of a much needed kitchen remodel. I now had more space than I ever did!

 

[tboy]

Oh Goodness: Raccoons!

I wasn't in the house for very long when we decided something was up with the garage. This house was a foreclosure so it had sat empty for a few years before us. There was a large black spot on the ceiling, and it stunk. I remeber opening the window and letting it air out for a few weeks without change. We decided to tear down the drywall on the ceiling where the black spot was (assuming a roof leak). It turns out that was a latrine for raccoons! We ended up catching a baby at that time and then removed the entire rest of the ceiling to deal with the problem. I could write PAGES of Raccoon story, and might if there is interest, but for now I will just leave you with these pictures:
Mama:

Trapped:

Babies:

In the end we pulled out six ***** over a period of several months. It took a bit of effort to find the entry point, but once we did we were finally able to move forward with the clean up. I say you never really know the previous occupants of a house till you move in!!

 

[tboy]

Now starting in 2018

I've been happy to use the garage for since we moved in. Even tough it is still small it beats working outside. Over the years it has mostly housed one car, and the other side filled with stuff. Not necessarily junk, but stuff. I don't keep any particular car in there, just the one that needs working on. In Sept of 2018 I decided to start making some changes.

First step was to create some storage space. Luckily the garage has nearly 11 ft ceilings, perfect for over the garage door storage:

First, I insulated and dry walled the door wall:

Added a used minisplit (but is not hooked up yet):

And then put in a loft:

(pictures do not show the center support installed, but there is one)

At this point I was doing pretty good and had cleared out some space:

note the old kitchen cabinets on the wall

I should have stopped right there for the winter, but this garagejournal bug had bit me hard. So I decided to continue around the way, insulating and drywalling around.

What was once cleared became a pile again

But there is light at the end of the tunnel! I put the upper cabinets back up:

(still working on project cars in the meantime)

Those old cabinet were not good enough anymore so I started to work on them.
I added another cabinet to finish out the wall:

Then I trimmed the cabinets up top with a 1x2 and below and built a rack for my harbor freight storage cases:

Purpose of the trim was to make the cabinets a little bigger on the wall (its a tall wall!), provide a lip for storage on the top, and hide under cabinet lighting (planned) on the bottom.

All primed:

And painted:

So I decided to make new doors! This garagejournal place just inspires me to tackle new and exciting thing!. Here are my frames:

Painted with the first coat:

And just so you don't think I'm some sort of woodworker, here is the back side showing how i cheated with Kreg Jig:

Next up was some pegboard to get some more storage:

And LED Strip lighting:

 

[tboy]

Today!

So that brings me pretty much up to today. I spent the last week cleaning and organizing and for the first time since we moved in was able to get TWO Cars in the garage!

Terrible picture I know, but I was super pleased. I completed a water pump on the green one while waiting for parts on the hazelnut one! I felt really blessed to be able to use the space, and work in such comfort. It is a far cry from the 40x40 I used to play in, but nonetheless I was really glad to have it and be able to work in it.

You might notice I have not put the base cabinets back in place yet.... I'm debating on those. As I mentioned the depth is really short, and I am hesitant to put in 24" deep base cabinets in front of one of the cars. For now, the base cabinets are on the side opposite the window (I'll get a pic later) and that seems to be OK!

I've been studying Lilscorpians thread and contemplating building my own base cabinets that would be only 14 inches deep. This would give me some work bench, and I would build with all drawers. I don't really like doors on base cabinets, as I hate to stoop down to get stuff out of them. We have all full extension drawers in the kitchen and that is really nice.

Plans are to put a ceiling back on this Summer. I may just hire that out (at least the finishing). As it is now it is not to code, because there is living space up above. I'm trying to be real careful with that and not using the garage except for project work. No running cars in there, no daily in and out (apologies to my wife!).

Thanks for checking in, would love to hear your thoughts!
Tboy

 

[captain14]

No pictures showing up in any of your posts.

 

[jnkpile]

Pictures are working for me...

Nice job on those cabinets


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[WarrenJ]

No photos here either.

 

[bczygan]

No photos.

 

[PugetDude]

No pics here, either- but great documentary!

 

[tboy]

Dang it. I’ll edit and try again tonight. They are imgur hosted, that not allowed?

 

[wasfast]

Imgur doesn't work with this site format for photos.

 

[MINIz guy]

Looks great! You have the patience for drywalling that I don't have.

 

[PugetDude]

Looks great! You have the patience for drywalling that I don't have.

Still not showing up for me.

 

[Kevkx125]

No pics for me either!!

 

[tboy]

I think they are fixed now. Apparently needed to remove the S from the https for imgur host to work....

 

[PugetDude]

I think they are fixed now. Apparently needed to remove the S from the https for imgur host to work....

Yes!

 

[Unruh]

Looks great! Those cabinets turned out fantastic.

 

[bczygan]

Wonderful space!

Bill

 

[tboy]

Spent some good time in the garage today, but it wasn't improving the garage! I pulled the motor from my Dad's Convertible today. Found some timing chain guide remnants in the oil pan so decided to drop it out and find out what is going on.

Here was the pinnacle:

 

[tboy]

Looks great! Those cabinets turned out fantastic.

Thank you!

I am starting to plan a build for new base cabinets. I've decided that I only really like drawers (no doors) in a base cabinet. It is just so much easier to pull out a full extension drawer, and look down into, and pick up what you need.

 

[tboy]

Wonderful space!

Bill

Thank you! Really starting to enjoy it. Even though it is winter, and my heating situation is poor (especially with no ceiling) I am really enjoying being out there!

It is so much more pleasurable to be out there now that I have made a few improvements! More to come for sure.