New guy in Sarasota, Fl... needs help

[darkbuddha]

I've lurked here for a good while and joined not so long ago, but now I think I'm ready to enter the fray properly.

We purchased our first home last July (2009) and I'm just getting to the point of making progress on setting up my garage. After spending the previous 10 years in Seattle using our condo carport as my garage, it's simply overwhelming to have a real garage all to myself, which is why I need some help with ideas on how to set it up. I'll probably start a separate thread on it, so look for it there. But here's the sweetness I'm working with:



And here's a rough sketch (done in Photoshop) of the floorplan... it's got some oddities that are challenging me:

BTW, thanks in advance and in retrospect for all the awesome info and ideas I'm getting here. It really is inspiring and helpful.

Cheers.

 

[Scout Driver]

Welcome to the Garage Journal.

Scott

 

[Wingnut65]

Welcome to GJ and to Florida.

You will first have to determine what you will be using the garage for - woodworking, weekend car repair, car restoration, welding, machine shop, junk storage, a place to get away and do stuff or as some have done, a party place. I have been browsing here heavily for the past month and have come up with some creative ideas of how to creatively put 7 or 8 pounds of stuff in a 5 pound garage and still fit cars in.

You have a cool Bonus with the golf cart door. Yours is the first roll-up I've seen here for getting toys in and out. The sink is also a Bonus! With only 12" on one side and 24 on the other and a few feet up front, some decisions are predetermined. Flat storage (ladders, wood, hurricane panels) on the right, possibly wall cabinets on the left and workbench and layout area up front. You need to figure out where the flatscreen will be most visible from all areas of the garage.

Good Luck with your project. Keep us posted on progress.

jeff

 

[wormwood]

Nice Merkur!

 

[chopper1]

Welcome. You aren't in Gulf Gate, are you?

 

[darkbuddha]

Thanks for the welcome guys. Yeah... I've definitely got some figuring-out to do but I basically know that I need the swiss army knife of garages. I'm primarily a car guy and do most of my own maintenance, modification, and restoration stuff and need room for lots of parts storage, but like most, I've also got a family who needs their cut of the garage for bikes, sports gear, home maintenance stuff, etc. And I also need to be able to do other types of projects like maybe some basic woodworking and welding. You see what I mean. The good news is that I won't have to store any bulky yard maintenance stuff in there... I simply don't do lawn work and we have a service that does the cut/whack/edge/blow.

The golf cart door is a really nice bonus actually, though I like to think of it as my future Fiat 500 Abarth door. In any case, it's nice to have access to the side yard space for grilling and staining/painting area, and it creates excellent crossflow ventilation when the main door is open as well.

Ultimately, I'd like to be able to get 3 cars in there, like so:

I know that'll be tricky and have enough space to actually work, but it's the ideal. At least until we expand the garage to be another bay deep, which I'm hoping to do in 7-10 years.

I should probably start another thread about all this today.

 

[darkbuddha]

Welcome. You aren't in Gulf Gate, are you?

We're up in Palm Aire area, but my in-laws are in Gulf Gate and we're down that way a lot.

Nice Merkur!

Thanks! It's a work in progress, but I've done a bunch of stuff, including adding a bunch of European Cosworth bits:




And here's my other long term project... my '70 Mach 1 that I bought when I was 15 back in 1988. It's living at my parents' place in Riverview Fl:



And where we started from 2001 (after daily driving it for 7 years and then letting it sit for 6 more):


Still lots of work left to do, but the core of the project is solid and mostly complete, so I'm looking to get it on the road by autumn.

 

[wormwood]

Mach 1 is pretty tasty!