diggler306
Well-known member
Hey everyone!
After 3 years of lurking, I’m finally deciding to take the plunge and start my own “garage journal”. What I’m hoping from doing so is, aside from sharing my experiences with you, that this will help motivate me to actually progress further (and quicker!) than what’s currently happening in there.
I will start from the beginning and share with you how I’ve gotten to this point.
I’m dubbing this the “Blue Jays” garage because I love my Toronto Blue Jays and eventually, it'll be sort of a theme integrated into the design.
About me: my name is Josh and I work in the IT industry in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
My fiancee (now wife) and I bought our first home in Fall of 2011. It’s a 2-story detached. I was 28 years old at the time and had been living in an apartment basically since I moved away from home in my early 20’s. I was VERY excited to finally have the opportunity to own my first home, BUT admittedly, I was very, very green.
Courtesy Google.
Our property did not have a garage at the time of purchase, but a 24’x24’ slab had already been poured in the back off the alley. Since we were buying directly from the builder, we were able to negotiate a garage package into the purchase price and have them build it before we moved in. We basically told them what we wanted it to look like and they came up with the design plans. Remember, I was very green at the time, and I didn’t even know what I didn’t know in terms of designing a functioning garage! More on this as we go.
They ended up using a 3rd party to build the structure, which was basically 1 young kid sent to build it by himself. Both amazing and humbling, since this guy was clearly younger than I was and I didn’t know the first thing about building anything. We did run into a few problems due to bad communication but long story short, it took maybe a couple weeks and the structure and exterior were completely finished.
Anyway, here is the only photo I have of it in it’s build state. I have to apologize for the camera photos, I was still running a Blackberry back then:
Junky pic of the yard facing wall (My apologies, I had not yet discovered Garage Journal):
Nov 2011, everything they had committed to doing was complete. This is what it looked like when we moved in. It's 24'x24'x9' with cottage-style hip roof to match the house. Two single 9'x8' insulated doors, and one 8'x7' insulated door facing the yard.
Since I didn't actually build this garage, this “garage journal” is mostly about me, your typical n00b suburban homeowner who started off knowing NOTHING; learning how to finish the inside space of a garage. Before becoming a homeowner, I didn’t know the first thing about building, insulation, electrical, you name it. Nothing. But I’m inspired by my father, who at the age of 30 built his own garage, and now in retirement, is a full time handyman who can do literally anything.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you!
After 3 years of lurking, I’m finally deciding to take the plunge and start my own “garage journal”. What I’m hoping from doing so is, aside from sharing my experiences with you, that this will help motivate me to actually progress further (and quicker!) than what’s currently happening in there.
I will start from the beginning and share with you how I’ve gotten to this point.I’m dubbing this the “Blue Jays” garage because I love my Toronto Blue Jays and eventually, it'll be sort of a theme integrated into the design.
About me: my name is Josh and I work in the IT industry in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
My fiancee (now wife) and I bought our first home in Fall of 2011. It’s a 2-story detached. I was 28 years old at the time and had been living in an apartment basically since I moved away from home in my early 20’s. I was VERY excited to finally have the opportunity to own my first home, BUT admittedly, I was very, very green. Courtesy Google.
Our property did not have a garage at the time of purchase, but a 24’x24’ slab had already been poured in the back off the alley. Since we were buying directly from the builder, we were able to negotiate a garage package into the purchase price and have them build it before we moved in. We basically told them what we wanted it to look like and they came up with the design plans. Remember, I was very green at the time, and I didn’t even know what I didn’t know in terms of designing a functioning garage! More on this as we go.
They ended up using a 3rd party to build the structure, which was basically 1 young kid sent to build it by himself. Both amazing and humbling, since this guy was clearly younger than I was and I didn’t know the first thing about building anything. We did run into a few problems due to bad communication but long story short, it took maybe a couple weeks and the structure and exterior were completely finished.
Anyway, here is the only photo I have of it in it’s build state. I have to apologize for the camera photos, I was still running a Blackberry back then:
Junky pic of the yard facing wall (My apologies, I had not yet discovered Garage Journal):
Nov 2011, everything they had committed to doing was complete. This is what it looked like when we moved in. It's 24'x24'x9' with cottage-style hip roof to match the house. Two single 9'x8' insulated doors, and one 8'x7' insulated door facing the yard.
Since I didn't actually build this garage, this “garage journal” is mostly about me, your typical n00b suburban homeowner who started off knowing NOTHING; learning how to finish the inside space of a garage. Before becoming a homeowner, I didn’t know the first thing about building, insulation, electrical, you name it. Nothing. But I’m inspired by my father, who at the age of 30 built his own garage, and now in retirement, is a full time handyman who can do literally anything.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you!
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I just acted like I knew exactly what I was doing and played it real cool. It worked out fine, and I think I MAY, JUST MAY HAVE ACTUALLY gained a bit of respect at that moment! *fist bump*
This type of work is so far from my day job, that it became fun an interesting for me to learn. I think once that happens, your ability to soak in knowledge increases immensely! Plus, I'm somewhat "frugal", and being able to do things myself really became appealing once I realized how much money it could save me in life!
