So tell us about the Beetle, man!
It's a '65 that I built in the summer of 2003, and then finished up during the fall semester. I did some minor welding and various small repairs, put in an adjustable front beam, all new interior and painted it at my parents house. It came with the numbers matching 1200cc engine, and a 1600cc dp long block that I put some dual kadrons and a single quiet pack muffler onto and ran for a while. After a year or two several things made me change and get a new transmission with a taller 4th gear and a new 1776cc long block. Due to an issue with the 1776 engine in August 2008, I'm back to the 1600 and am running a stock 34pict3 carb and pea shooter muffler. That was supposed to be just for the fall, but buying a house and building the garage, and I'm actually liking how it drives with the wimpy 60hp 1600 engine. It's a nice driver level of a car - I take it to shows but never win, and I drive it to work a couple times a week during the warmer months. I hate when I find new rust, scratches or paint chips, but in the end it's still looks pretty good and is fun to cruise in.
Looking good. Let me know if you want a hand when you get around to hanging drywall.
It may be a while, but it will happen some day. Whenever you're visiting your future in-law's, stop on by - we're on the next street over.
Out of curiosity (and this is sort of an open question to everyone), but why put the garage/shop so far from the house? The obvious answer is to keep garage activities and noise away from the house. But if I have nice toys and equipment out there, I want to be within earshot if someone decides to take a look. Also, I don't want to have to trek out to the shop for a five minute fix on a toaster. Thoughts?
I can't speak for the OP but for me I'd stick it out back so that it couldn't clog up my yard and make my property feel pinched or crowded. I'd like having the open ground between the house and garage. I am doing a similar siting for the shed I'm building right now. However, I'm also on a much smaller lot than the OP.
I located the garage where I did for several reasons, but every property is unique. Due to how the property and the existing trees are laid out, it wasn't possible to attach the garage to the house or put it very close to it without blocking vehicle access to the back yard and/ or taking out about five mature trees that provide great shade in the back yard.
If you were to stand in the middle of the back yard, there's a big open stretch running along about six or seven back yards, and I didn't want to break up that view.
If I did put the garage closer to the house, I know I wouldn't go behind the garage very often, and it would have become wasted property. Rather, I put it about as far back as I could so I would use the back of the property for the garage and a small garden. I can also use the middle of the back yard for cooking out, the picnic table, horseshoes, playing football, etc. I do still have enough room behind the garage to put a small garden shed, but that's about it.
To some 1/3 of an acre is a large yard, but I find it just large enough to have some space, but not spend all of Saturday mowing the yard. Yes, the walk out to the garage isn't ideal, but now I have a good excuse to leave part of the basement unfinished and have another set of tools and workbench down there.
