OJ's Single

I guess it’s about time to start a full garage thread, to keep track of all of my messes in one place.

The house I grew up in didn’t have a garage, but my dad did have a decent sized workroom in the basement, which is where I learned most of what I know about tools, and how to build or fix things. I spent many years as a “flashlight holder”, but a lot of what I was watching also soaked in, and I did a lot of projects there too.

Years later, my wife and I bought our own house in 2009, which has an attached single garage. Having lived through winters with 2 cars in a gravel driveway, it was of paramount importance that we always keep room to park in the garage. Since the whole thing measures about 10 x 20, that doesn’t leave a lot of room for anything else. Thankfully, I have learned a lot from other GJ members and projects, and I have a pretty good idea of what direction I want to take this in.

The garage will be for parking, yes, but its secondary use will be as a workshop for me. I need a place to keep all my tools somewhat organized and accessible, and to work on projects as they come and go. I like to tinker and build and DIY, and having a decent base of operations should make all of that a lot easier.

My first project was to pop some insulation into the Garage door. Eventually after that, I moved on to the floor, and after reading a ton on the various options, I decided to go with porcelain tile. I’ll try to keep a running update of what projects are under way for quick reference. Note for fast readers... this will be a slow thread. With a 2 year old running wild, and another one on the way, work time is pretty limited.

1) Garage door insulation (in its own thread)
2) Porcelain tile floor (in its own thread)
3) Above garage door storage started (post #2)
4) Workbench started (post #20)
5) Additional lighting (post #27)
6) Backyard shed construction (post #38)

Here’s a quick look at the “before”. Unfortunately I don’t have a great one, but this is just after putting up the insulation in the door. Bare concrete floor, and no storage.

FRONT WALL BEFORE:


FRONT WALL CURRENT (July 27, 2015):

(sorry for the poor cell phone quality)

BACK WALL BEFORE:


BACK WALL CURRENT (Sept 30, 2015):


The next projects on my list are (in no particular order): lighting and electrical (round 1), more storage and shelving, workbench and tool storage, wall storage, paint and make pretty. We bought a nice shed earlier this year to help get some of the yard tools and other items out of the garage, which will likely pop up as a side project later this summer.

After putting down the floor last fall, I didn’t get much done over the winter. This spring/summer I was hopeful to make a dent in the construction needed to make this place more habitable, and although I haven’t gotten very far, I have managed to make some progress.

I decided that the first priority should be to free up some space, and that the pile of tires in the corner was as good a place as any to start. The shelf should be a pretty basic design, I wouldn’t need to worry about doors or fine details, and it would be a good way to get back into building stuff.

I made a run to the store for a sheet of plywood and some 2x4s and 2x2s, hoping desperately that I would be able to fit them on the car. Success!!



It was (as will be the recurring theme of this thread) a stretched out project, with a little bit done at a time, but the hardest step is the first one, and it felt good to be doing something productive. Since the front wall of the garage is still unfinished for some reason, that was my first problem. I considered insulating and drywalling the whole wall, but figured a) with some electrical work to do it might be easier to leave exposed; and b) that would take me more time to do. So I whipped up some small patches of drywall, left enough room to slide insulation in later, and I had enough to be a base for my front horizontal supports.



I knew this was going to be a tight fit, and I spent a lot of time measuring, calculating, and opening and closing the garage door to figure out where I needed to put the shelf. Once I was pretty sure I had it right, I tucked in some temporary supports to mock up a test.



Everything seemed good, let’s keep going! I had originally planned to build the frame using pocket screws (mostly because I have the jig but haven’t been able to use it yet). After some testing, I realized that this wouldn’t be the best application, and I gave up.



Lucky for me, my parents came out to visit for the weekend, so I put my dad to work and we measured, tested, and did some cuts to put together the basic ladder frame for the structure. I didn’t have enough room over the door to use 2x4, so I stuck with 2x2. This would be a svelte, space-efficient design!



I also had some help from my son, who was happy to use the new toolbox he got for his birthday last week.



To secure the main 2x4 supports to the walls, I might have gone a little overboard. I sunk two 4” lag screws with a washer into each stud along the length of the support. I countersunk a little with a spade bit, just because I felt like making things complicated.



When the shelf was up and in place, I had just about an inch of clearance from the peak of the garage door’s travel, before it settles down flat. I’d say that’s pretty good, considering I haven’t built anything in a while.



And here she is in all her glory. You can see the final angled brace we put in for the unsupported corner. You can also see that we forgot to leave an extra 1 ½” protruding from the shelf frame to catch the wall stud for that support, so we had to improvise a bit.



The sag is a little more pronounced in this shot than in person but there is a little droop in the middle, so I will probably run a support up to the ceiling near the middle of the shelf. The most I could get was 3 tires, which I knew ahead of time, so the plan was for 2 tires per side and some “seasonal ****” storage in between. I think when I get the matching one up on the other side and eventually paint them they’ll look not too bad, and should do the job. Hopefully that will also be this summer.

VERY cool!

I'll be watching.

Bill

OJ Bartley said:

The sag is a little more pronounced in this shot than in person but there is a little droop in the middle, so I will probably run a support up to the ceiling near the middle of the shelf

Click to expand...

The 2x2's obviously can't handle the weight. Two suggestions would be sister boarding another 2x2 or better yet run a cable with a pair of eye hooks to the ceiling to get rid of the SAG

Welcome! To this section hahaha.

bczygan said:

VERY cool!

I'll be watching.

Bill

Click to expand...

Thanks Bill! I hope you're a patient man.

mrvm said:

The 2x2's obviously can't handle the weight. Two suggestions would be sister boarding another 2x2 or better yet run a cable with a pair of eye hooks to the ceiling to get rid of the SAG

Click to expand...

Thanks mrvm. I knew it would be a possibility, so I'll investigate the ceiling joists for some kind of support, likely a simple cable and hooks like you mentioned.

dubber said:

Welcome! To this section hahaha.

Click to expand...

Thanks dubber, good to finally be here!

I always ask this question of people who are clearing and organizing their garage. And you, with a shed, are a prime candidate.

Could you move all the yard tools to the shed?

That would give you a lot of wall space for cabinets and tool storage.

Combine that with a wall mounted fold down table top, and you have a god workspace, especially when the car is outside.

Door insulation and floor look great!

Do you have room at the end of the garage for a roller or service cart?

What other uses do you want to make of this space?


Bill

bczygan, good questions.

I do plan to move the yard tools to the shed. The main reasons for the shed are 1) yard tools; 2) the extra cushions from the patio furniture that don't fit in the bin/bench that we have, and are living in the basement; 3) bikes would be great; 4) maybe some outdoor kids toys. I won't have room for all of it, but I'll do what I can.

The main workspace will be a bench at the back of the garage. It will only be about 18" deep, but I can live with that. There's just enough room for me to put the tablesaw against the back wall and tuck the nose of the car under the rails, so the bench will be built to have the saw slide under.

I haven't settled on a final workbench design yet, and this keeps evolving, but here's a sketchup design that is roughly what I want to do.



You can kind of see the walls will have upper cabinets (those will continue to wrap around on the sides as well), with a section of slatwall below for hanging whatever stays in the garage. The cabinets will be the bulk of the storage... oil, washer fluid, other assorted car stuff... power tools that don't get used regularly... likely some household and seasonal stuff.

I still need to revise the underside, probably put drawers in the open space, but not in the space with the saw or the wheeled worktable (and mitre saw stand). But that's the basic idea. I might build in a tool cabinet, or I might just put a small 26" chest on top. Too many ideas.

Just a small update. I'm chipping away at the other side when I get a bit of time, and last night I slapped up a drywall patch to go behind the support 2x4s on the font wall (ignore the cobwebs). I'll probably leave the short one up there, but I'll predrill the long one and take it down to assemble the frame like we did with the other side. I think having the plywood secured well to the frame adds a good deal of rigidity and makes me feel more confident about it.



While I was tidying up on the weekend I put up a few of these magnetic tool strips that I picked up cheap at Princess Auto months ago. They were great to get a bunch of stray tools off the tablesaw (which has been accumulating stuff since the tile job last fall).





I put up 3 at various locations in the garage, and love how convenient they are for just slapping something up instead of putting it down somewhere and forgetting where or digging through a pocket or pouch. It's almost like having an extra hand when switching between tools working on something. These are just up in temporary spots now, but I think I'll work them into the final garage design too, they're just so convenient.

Another weekend gone by without any actual work IN the garage, but we had a crew over to put stone on a section of the house ABOVE the garage. The builder standard "accent" on many of the models on our street was poorly painted plywood with some simple trim. A lot of neighbours have had issues with the wood rotting, and have replaced it, and we decided to do the same before it got messy. I've seen these guys work on several other houses, and they do good work, so we had them come and do ours.

Before:


During:


After:


We're really happy with how it turned out, and now have a full brick/stone exterior. and my garage has a fancy new hat.

Yes, the Christmas lights are still up in July.

That looks great!

I'm also laughing at the Christmas lights. One of the reasons i don't want to put any up there, the thought of also bringing them down each time lol... Should have thrown them $20 to take them down with all that handy scaffolding they had

Thanks dubber, we like it.

You know, I took the lights down last year, and cursed myself come November when my fingers were freezing off putting them back up. So I said forget it, they're staying. I'm thinking about switching to the fully enclosed LED rope light type, that I could semi-permanently attach, and they wouldn't stand out as much.

/\ That sounds like a good plan. I see the argument in regards to leaving them up, but....

Finally had a chance to make a little progress that wasn't all baby steps. On Saturday my little helper got all geared up to "do a project" and help daddy.



(Ignore the unrelated forehead boo-boo). This attention lasted long enough for me to cut out the 2 sections of the shelf I had previously measured before something more interesting came along and work ground to a halt again. I went back out after bedtime and stayed until I had a fully assembled shelf to deal with the next day. Sorry, my phone takes atrocious pictures in low light now.



With the shelf completely assembled, I was waiting for my neighbour to drop by to help me put it up, and I came across some primer in the garage. I figured it would be much easier to paint out on the lawn than up on the wall so I gave it a quick coat.



With the heat and sun it dried in about 5 minutes, and we put it up later in the evening with relatively no trouble. I still need to put in the rest of the lag screws, but it has enough to keep it stable up there for now. It is quite level along the wall, and once I put in the last corner support and raise that section a little it will be pretty good overall.



Hopefully I'll get out and get that done this week so I can reclaim some more floor space. I think the next project may be the beginning of the workbench, which I'm pumped about!!

Great CAD drawing of workbench. I really like that layout. Beautiful home as well, great style on exterior. You will have a great garage and shop.

Best Regards
Herb

Thanks Herb, very much appreciated! The bench is a mishmash of the ideas I keep pulling from GJ, and it helps me to visualize them better in 3d. I'll start out simple, but with the capacity to add on. Hopefully.

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Great pic of the helper. "Dad you want me to do what?"

Thanks dubber.

I'm doing some workbench planning now, and trying to figure out power. I had originally planned to put a strip at the back of the bench (see rendering above in post #8) but now I'm contemplating a pair of switched 20 amp 4-outlet strips, sharing a dedicated 20 amp circuit, one at each end of the bench. Or maybe one at the back in the original position and one underneath the bench to plug the table saw, etc. into so I won't have to run a cord over top of the bench.

Then again, I already have a single 15A outlet underneath, so maybe that will be enough and I can just do a strip up top like I originally planned. And do I really need a 20A line for anything? I haven't come across any tools that need it so far. Would I be limiting myself in the future if I don't have a 20A line available... welding maybe? I can't think of anything I've seen that needed 20A.

And so I keep circling around and getting nowhere. But here's another pretty picture for putting up with my ramblings. This is getting closer to actual measurements, with the tablesaw bay, and rolling mitre saw stand/worktable bay about the right size. The bay on the left will stay open because of the faucet access, and I'll probably tuck a stool in there.

dubber said:

That looks great!

I'm also laughing at the Christmas lights. One of the reasons i don't want to put any up there, the thought of also bringing them down each time lol... Should have thrown them $20 to take them down with all that handy scaffolding they had

Click to expand...

Putting them up is ALWAYS easier than taking them down, lol. Coming along nicely OP!

Thanks azula.

With the tires up and off the floor and that project out of the way, I can finally shift my focus...



It's time to start my workbench.

I've been waiting to get this project off the ground for a while, and the delay has had me in a constant cycle of design, redesign, reevaluate, redesign, etc. etc. so now that I'm finally ready to get started I'm taking a layered approach. I've decided to just build a simple, sturdy bench that will leave me plenty of options when I decide to complicate things.

The first step was to get out and pick up supplies, and with another pending house project coming up I figured it would make sense to get all my wood at once. So I rented a truck for the morning and started at Home Depot where I found 20 surprisingly straight 2x4s, and then was off to Peacock Lumber in Oshawa to pick up 3 sheets of really nice Baltic birch plywood. Infinitely better than what HD had to offer. Originally this project (window seat) was to be painted white, but I might have to consider staining it now, the grain is so nice. I also picked up some 3/4" MDF to use for the rolling workbench that I'll build once the bench is finalized.



I sat down and thought about the assembly order and method, and put together my own instruction manual to follow as I go. I'm veering away slightly from the usual 2x4 subframe assembly in practice, but keeping the general idea intact. Rather than building one big honkin' strong frame and attaching the top, I'm taking a more modular approach to the legs that will leave the front more open. The 1 5/8 solid core doors I'm using as a bench top are stiff enough that they won't sag, and this will give me more room to park the table saw and rolling bench underneath, and maybe add a simple drawer.



The legs will be sistered 2x4s, as usual. Since the floor has some slope, and dips slightly to the middle as well, my plan is to construct the 8 sistered pairs of legs first. To get 16 repeatable cuts and not have to worry about measuring, I set up a quick board stop (I'm sure there's a proper term for this) out of scrap and was able to just "place & chop" to get the legs exactly the same size.



These were all cut 1" longer than the planned height and quickly taped together temporarily. When I have all of the pairs ready, I will place them in the exact spot they will sit with the finished bench, and hit them all with the laser level. Then each leg will be the exact right height for its place, and I should end up with a dead level work surface. Again, I'm sorry my phone takes awful pictures in low light, but here's a quick test with a scrap 2x2 standing in.



Hopefully this week I'll get all the legs paired, placed, lasered, marked, and cut. Then I can test for level and if everything's OK I'll cut the stringers and start assembly.

Since I want to have some modularity with this bench, I'm considering attaching the bench top to the legs and frame using bolts and large threaded inserts. I'll probably just stick with plain bolts though, since it won't frequently need to be disassembled and plain bolts still give that option. In any case, I'm getting excited to have a permanent place to work and store some tools.

It's been a while, but I thought I'd try to keep from updating with tiny incremental progress every time I sunk a screw. Over the last week and a bit I've managed to get the bench almost completed, and am very happy with the way it's turning out.

The laser worked great to give me some pretty precise cut lines for each individual leg. Keep in mind my tile floor isn't perfectly flat, and that it slopes from back to front as well as dipping toward the middle of the garage. I don't know if I could have measured individually with any degree of success. I set it to the height I wanted, and placed all the legs at their exact locations.



Somehow I forgot to take a picture with them in place and the laser on, but you get the picture.



The outside legs pitched inward quite a bit when standing on their own, so after consulting with my neighbour I decided to cut them to have an angled foot. It worked out quite well, although they weren't perfect. When I propped the cut legs back in place and checked across 3 of them with an 8' level, the result was encouraging...



Now that they were the right height, and all reasonably level, it was time to assemble the bracing. I put them together in pairs first. For all of the stringers I used pocket holes. Mostly because I hadn't had a chance to use the jig I've had for over a year and I wanted some practice, and also because I thought it would be strong enough while being easier than sinking straight 4"+ screws straight through all the legs. Setting the jig for 1 1/2" material and using the 2 1/2" screws worked well and was actually quite strong. I'm happy with it.



I checked level again, both front to back and sideways along the length and was pretty happy with my results. The bubble was always inside the lines and rarely touching. Then I put in the long stringers to connect the sections of the bench. I started with the right side (table saw bay), then connected the middle. I was able to assemble up to there on my temporary bench, but I had to put the last section in while it was in place. Lots of clamps to make sure it went in the right spot, and I was all set.



Another test for level, using the 8' across the back as well as the mini level in each section and I was actually astonished at how well it all came together. I was prepared to accept far sloppier results, and very happy with what I ended up with.



Now I'm not quite done, but in the closing stages. I placed the top on to see how it fit, and how it feels in place. Almost dead flat and level, only a minute amount of wobble, and the height is great for me although it may be a bit tall for some. The wobble doesn't worry me because it now sits about a foot and a half out from the wall. I have a hard pipe for mounting central vac coming out of the wall at the exact height of the bench that I will need to relocate. Once I get that cleaned up I'll move the frame into place, cut the 2 solid core doors to size, and anchor them to the legs and that will pretty much be done for now.



It's been a fun project and even though it could be done by some in an afternoon or weekend, I don't mind spacing it out and chipping away when I have time. That's just how work goes with kids in the house. I hope to get this finished off this week so I can get started on the window bench seat for my son's "big boy room" this weekend.

Another item I've been debating was the method of attaching the bench top to the legs. I picked up some regular 1/4" lag screws and washers like I used for the tire shelves, but wasn't really in love with the idea.

When I was in Lee Valley the other day picking up pocket screws, I happened to see these guys:



Info HERE

And I thought they might work well. They're not as fat as the lags, and have a wide head without needing a washer, and would only need a shallow countersink compared to a hex head lag and washer. I was thinking 2 per leg would make it nice and sturdy. I'd prefer coarse thread, but since this probably won't be disassembled/reassembled at all, I think once they're set they should be OK. Thoughts?

Quick progress update. The bench is about 95% done. The two sections of bench top are cut and in place, but I still have to attach them to the legs. The gap between the slabs looks worse in this pic than it really is, but I might run a bit of caulk or something between them just to make it look a little cleaner. I don't think the sacrificial MDF top will be done anytime soon.



The surface is dead level across the length and almost perfect front to back as well. I'm very happy with it. I think I might paint the legs and frame if I can pick up a nice gallon of mistint paint in dark grey this weekend. Then I can also use that for the lower section of the wall like I originally planned. We'll see. I'll try to tidy up and get a better pic during the daytime.

I know exactly how you feel with the "slow pace", as soon as I got underway with a home extension/renovation, certain little people appeared I call this the "Grand Designs" effect - if you've seen that UK series you will know what I mean. Will be 6 years next month since I started, so am wrapping up the loose ends now since the little ones are more able to amuse themselves.

The workbench looks great.

Cheers Grumblebum.

Thanks Grumblebum! I haven't seen Grand Designs, but it sounds like the theme of projects growing increasingly complicated, over time, and over budget is familiar to most of us.

The garage has a long way to go before it really starts to come together, but that will all happen as time and other projects allow. Speaking of other projects, here was this past weekend's interruption. My son's new room (moving to a "big boy" room to give the nursery to his future baby brother) has a large window in a sort of alcove that we wanted to build a seat with some storage into. I originally sort of contemplated a simple built-in box with a hinged lid, and that slowly changed to a full standalone unit with two large drawers instead.

The concept:


My parents came to visit this weekend, so I took advantage of having dad around to tackle this project. I didn't take any early pics, but over the two days we managed to get it almost finished, even with lots of toddler breaks.







Drawers went in late Sunday night, and this pic is pretty washed out by the LED spotlight we had to use. Overall I think it was a success, and I only have the drawer faces left to trim out and attach. Oh, and some tape to iron on the exposed edges before I paint everything white.



Our only real mistake was that somewhere along the way when we changed the dimensions we managed to not extend the top overhang to allow for the trim on the drawer faces, so now if I use the 3/4" pine we have they'll stick out a bit. I may look for something thinner, I may leave them flat (and flush), or I may just put it together as planned and live with the slight protrusion from the alcove.

Looks like I haven't updated in a while, so here are a few quick ones. The project above is all done, and in place in the little guy's room. The one final setback was that we moved the bed and now it sticks out about an inch too far for me to get one of the drawers in.



Another awful low light pic, I really need to get a new phone. That drawer situation will be fixed when we trade beds with another room.

Next I wanted to get started on the light in the garage, which was pitiful at best. I had worked through too many projects squinting and using spotlights. The tile was hard, and painting that bench seat and the drawers was even worse. The bulb in the garage door opener and the 60w incandescent that is largely blocked by the opener just aren't going to cut it anymore.

Here's a bad pic that is somewhat representative of what I had to work with before.



I picked up four 4' T8 fixtures a while ago when Lowes had them on for $20 each. The plan was for 2 at the front and 2 at the back of the garage, ideally on separate switches for front/back. I have a friend who's an electrician and figured the next time he was out we could do this over a couple beers, but with both of us having busy families it just hasn't happened and so I decided to take it on myself.

First I took down the cheapo single bulb fixture and connected the new fixture temporarily in its place, just to see a) if it worked; and b) how much light it put out. Reaction was "OK, wow, this is bright! I can see!" which was encouraging. Next I had to plan how to pull power from that source over to the 2 locations I needed it. Once I figured that out, all I had to do was fish the wire. Easy, right?

Well, it was not. I ended up cutting an extra hole and finding some cross bracing between the joists that was hanging me up for a day or two, but I did eventually get wires pulled and get 2 of the fixtures up.



This makes a huge difference, and I think has let me to slightly revise my plan for the other 2 fixtures. I'll probably put one up horizontally at the front of the garage (which will be covered by the door when up anyway) and save one for above my workbench for direct task light.

I decided to keep the positioning a little "narrow" to centre because I don't want to have issues with access to the shelves/cabinets that will be on the walls eventually. I know I'd get a little better dispersion if they were spread apart a bit more, but this is good enough.



Still have to clean up the original junction box (including the drywall I crushed when prying it loose) and cap it, and then clean up that mess of garage door opener wires. I'll do that after I paint, since I'll probably reroute them.

My biggest fear is the dreaded ballast FM interference, but I haven't tried a radio out there yet. I'll probably mostly be streaming music from my phone when I'm working, but it would be nice to have radio too sometimes. I'll test that out later this week.

Nice work. Honestly once you start adding light, you realize there is no end. You will always want it brighter lol...

Lol, yeah dubber, you're not wrong. It's so nice having good, bright, white light out there, I understand why some go for that "operating room" level of light.

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OJ Bartley said:

Lol, yeah dubber, you're not wrong. It's so nice having good, bright, white light out there, I understand why some go for that "operating room" level of light.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

I when I did my setup I made it do when flipped switch only one main light could come on and rest with flip of other switch. I just put a switch after the main light to turn off others down the run. So that gives you ability to have a little or a lot of light. Bottom line is can never have enough light.

Hi OJ

Here is how I did my spare tire rack, And it's been fine for the past 3 years.

Cool 1 car. What I love about small garages, is that they require resourcefulness. I get ideas from them all the time on how to maximize space in my own garage.

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That is a lot of nice work and a nice space.

When I first read the title, I thought of the pic below.

Yes, I am a bad person. Please don't hurt me.

taumac said:

I when I did my setup I made it do when flipped switch only one main light could come on and rest with flip of other switch. I just put a switch after the main light to turn off others down the run. So that gives you ability to have a little or a lot of light. Bottom line is can never have enough light.

Click to expand...

That was the idea pretty much, taumac. We'll see if I get inspired enough to put in the 2nd line to the switch when I do the other light(s). I think it will be a bit of a pain trying to fish everything since the drywall is up, but it might be worth it in the long run.

CodeRedZ said:

Hi OJ
Here is how I did my spare tire rack, And it's been fine for the past 3 years.

Click to expand...

Thanks CodeRedZ, that looks really good. I considered something like that out in the open part of the garage, but when I discovered that I could juuuuuust barely squeeze them in flat above the doors I figured that would save the most space.

rodsnratfinks said:

Cool 1 car. What I love about small garages, is that they require resourcefulness. I get ideas from them all the time on how to maximize space in my own garage.

Click to expand...

Thanks rodsnratfinks. There are so many great ideas here, I've probably bookmarked and forgotten more than I've remembered to try in my own!

404 said:

That is a lot of nice work and a nice space.

When I first read the title, I thought of the pic below.

Yes, I am a bad person. Please don't hurt me.

Click to expand...

Lol, that's OK 404... when I read your last name I thought of this:

OJ Bartley said:

Thanks CodeRedZ, that looks really good. I considered something like that out in the open part of the garage, but when I discovered that I could juuuuuust barely squeeze them in flat above the doors I figured that would save the most space.

Click to expand...

Yeah since I have multiple cars I wanted the option for multiple tires, even though currently I only use half for the tires seen, and the other half I put some ply wood on and use it for some extra storage lol.

Actually that's a great idea to make it multi-use. I have very little clearance, so I had to firmly believe I won't need anything much bigger than a 225 or maybe 235 tire in the future. The winter 205's slide in no problem.

Perfect, thank you.

Just a little mini update with a side project that will stall any more garage progress. I've had 3 huge shed boxes sitting in there for months, and really need to get this thing built. It about 7 x 4, so not that big a structure, but it will let us get some stuff out of the garage and basement. First priority is garden tools and patio furniture cushions, then we'll see if there's any room left.

I wanted to pour a concrete foundation, but even with a friend who does concrete for a living it was still pretty expensive, and probably overkill. I decided to just go with gravel, screening material, and 2x2 pavers. It was significantly cheaper, and easy to do myself (with some help from my 2 year old, as usual).

We actually started digging the hole back in October. First I had to relocate one of the cedar trees from the right side where the hole was going to be, over to the left next to the fence where I had removed one that was dying. I forgot how much I hate digging, and then even moreso dealing with what has been dug up. Most of the soil I was able to redistribute around the back of the yard since it was low and a bit lumpy anyway. I shook and knocked off everything I could from the chunks of sod to make them lighter, and then slowly disposed of them a few at a time in yard waste bags.





Then slowly, a few buckets at a time I filled the hole with large crushed rocks. I actually took them from the alley between our house and the neighbour's because I made a path of patio stones from the front to back to make it safe for bare feet. Convenient way to dispose of the extra removed material in this case. My helper and I checked the level, and then I dumped a few bags of screening on top and got that nice and level as well.

(*at this point I got a new phone, so no more pinky-purple low light shots from now on*)



Once I had a good bed I lugged the 8 pavers around and put them in place, and miraculously they all went down well. I might have 1 or 2 to adjust slightly, but I'm basically ready to assemble now I think. I just need to find 5 hours +/- to give it a go.

I also picked up this Kobalt wall track organizer kit when it was on sale a little while ago to use in the shed. If it works even half decently it was a great price.



It should give me a lot more flexibility with things like large and small garden tools, some kids toys, hose, hedge trimmer, etc. All the random stuff that I wouldn't want to just toss on the floor in a pile.

I wanted some "advanced storage" in there and was contemplating the Gladiator Track or others, but when this went up for like 50% off or so I couldn't turn it down. Hopefully I can keep the shed nice and neat so it doesn't become a disaster.

E: Not sure why pic is disappearing, but I attached one.

Nice work. Honestly having a shed will help tremendously no matter the size. Looks like it was also a fun project to take advantage of the last bit of moderate weather.