25x15 multipurpose garage

[Great white]

Hello all. I'm military and we move a lot. I started off with a full shop capable of holding g 4 cars and workspace, to a 2.5 car garage, to a 2 car garage and now I'm going to be crammed into a 25x15 garage which is more like 21x15 because of the door entrance stairwell at the back.

Regardless of how small it is, it will have to serve many purposes: woodworking, metal fabrication, automotive works and motorcycle work.

I currently have a 1962 tbird, a 300M Special, an 83 mustang and a 85 Honda Interceptor. Add to that my truck and the wife's car (let's not even talk about my boat and the 35 foot travel trailer).

Lot of stuff to cram into a single car garage.

So, drastic measures are required. It doesn't really bug me too much, I've been thinking about downsizing as we come closer to retirement anyways.

The clean out will involve selling stuff (300M), part will be tossing stuff (mustang) and part will be moving stuff (build a shed for storage of stuff, Interceptor, snowblower, lawnmower,etc).

Heres a pic of what it looks like right after the moving company dumped it all in there:

Believe it or not, that's after a bit of a clean up. It was packed to the rafters. I've also got one of the two tire rack I bought today up in that pic.

Here's the rest of the garage stuff:

That's two spare rooms in the basement that's nearly all garage "stuff".

Plan is to have the lathe, table saw, welding table and bench/cabinets on the right against the house wall. The left will be cabinets up high and nothing on the floor except maybe the mig or other large items on wheels.. The TBird will live down the middle (its a project car with lots of rust repair required) and be rolled out when I need space.

Its currently unheated except for my small kerosene heater. Plan is to get an electrician to come in and wire a couple fan force heaters, a 220 plug for my welder and probablyna few more outlets. We need him to do some work in the house anyways so I'll just tack on to the job.

The benches and cabinets I'll build myself, the floor will get epoxy this spring.

Stay tuned for more as it happens!

 

[millwight.mike]

Omg good luck with that project. Multifunction storage will be a must.

 

[Great white]

Still looks more like a garage cleanup than a Genesis, but I can see the progress and thats good enough for me:

Big thing is stuff is moving where its going to stay and where fixtures will be built (ie cabinets, benches,etc). Its the beginning of the layout process.

Exciting stuff!

At least for me it is....

 

[Great white]

I can finally walk around in the space without dodging ****:

I discovered that up in the garage "attic" is almost a loft area. PO has a "floor" up there and the peak is high enough for me to stand up straight and walk around. The trusses are wide open down the middle. It has become a second storage area for lots of stuff from the garage. Like a bonus shed area, easily 10x15. Tomorrow, we're going to look for a fold down attic ladder type door to put in the ceiling.

Now that the garage floor somewhat organized, I can start building benches and cabinets.

Now the fun starts and it can start looking like the multipurpose space I need!

 

[Great white]

Well my truck stalled on the highway and we had to have it flatbedded back to the house. It was a problem with the lift pump and I fixed it in the garage.

So, at least I know I can get an ECLB 3/4 ton 4x4 in the space.

Had precious little room to work on it, but it fit.

Lol!

 

[Great white]

Had the electrician in yesterday for and estimate on a fan force heater, a 220 plug and a couple 115 plugs.

800 bucks.

 

[Ainsley]

Put in lots of plugs, on multiple circuits. I did my 120V outlets at 2' spacing with 240V at 4'. Overkill but I'm glad I did so many.
I also did dedicated outlets in certain locations for shop vac, compressor, dust collector, etc.

 

[Great white]

So I had the space cleaned up, but destroyed it again in the process of making it better.

I had a couple hundred feet of baseboard, crown molding, casement and Boston header trim delivered for the house and the only place to put 16 foot lengths was in the garage. Had to move that before anything could be done. I just stored it temporarily on some brackets I secured to the walls.

Then I swung the old table saw unit away from the wall and started ripping plywood and 2x4 into something I could use. Finally got at least the cabinet boxesbuilt and up on the wall:

Starting to look like a workspace now (I also mounted the 32" TV on the back wall!). That took all day so I called it a night and will hit it again next weekend.

 

[Lewisthepilgrim]

Thats why I got OUT of the Army. I need a BIGGER garage

 

[Great white]

Got my lathe cart done.

from this:

to this:

 

[Great white]

Slowly starting to look like something:

(IPhone covered in dust = fuzzy pics)

Heat is in, 220 plug for welder is in, 20a circuits are run, the table saw bench has been reduced from 8 feet to a more manageable length, I've got the pegboard backing up and have the benches started.

I'm getting pretty tired of shuffling 5 things around so I can work on one. But, I'm startimg to see light at the end of the tunnel. Once spring hits and our 6 feet of snow melts I'll build the shed in the back yard and the garage will be all tools and Thunderbird.

 

[Kevin54]

That last pic makes a world of difference. Great job and looking forward to seeing the project pics coming forward.

 

[Great white]

a bit of work done this weekend. Started trimming out the cabinets in prep for installing the doors:

I only got that far because I ran out of 2x4 to rip to dimension and make the supporting structure behind the facings. All the lumber yards are closed on Sunday, so it has to wait for next weekend. The stuff under the bench is just there temporarily until I sort the rest of the space out. Shoving it under there made it easier to move around and getting it a bit more organized quieted the screaming voice in my head every time I looked a the gawd awful mess I was calling my workspace.

Built the chop saw station, incorporated the compressor under the out-feed table:

The compressor will get it's own cabinet to keep it clean and the doors/sides will get some sound proofing to make it more bearable to be in the garage when it fires up.

Also, started on the "mancave" part:

That's the start of the wall unit that holds the TV, the sound system and it will also hold some brik-a-brak like signs/die cast cars/etc. I'll install some cabinet lighting as well. basically, it's just stuff to make it a more pleasant place to work/spend time.

Still coming together slowly, but it is beginning to look like something....

 

[wendlwacker]

It's looking good! I also downsized. I went from a 30X30 to a single car. Then to a morton building where I got a corner but it was to cold to do anything and it was always dusty. Now I have half of a one car and a morton building a few miles away for general storage. Its painful.. I want the 30X30 back!

 

[HSpencer]

Looks good. Your shop is coming together. The benches are done nicely and your gaining storage. Good idea on the miter saw and compressor bench. It just takes some time and planning.

Best Regards
Herb Spencer

 

[Ainsley]

Really looks to be coming together nicely.

 

[Terranova]

Great! Always good to see it start to gel.

 

[Great white]

Thanks gents.

It very difficult coming from my oversized 2 car garage to this. Making space is an excerise in restraint and creativity.

Its not all bad though, its forcing me to get rid of some junk I've been dragging around for years. Its a little "liberating" to get rid of the dead weight...

 

[Great white]

Finished facing the cabinets:

Little bit of work done around the mitre saw station:

Finally, repurposed a cabinet that was in the garage when we bought the house:

I originally just ripped it out and chucked it in a snowbank out back. It was very poorly built so I was just going to haul it away. The shelves were all different lengths, nothing was square and it was just a mess all around, looking like a 10 year old built it.

I took it apart, ripped it all to dimension and rebuilt it. I'll face it off like the cabinets and put some doors on it to clean it up. Color doesn't matter, its all going to get a fresh coat of yet to be determined color.

I can't wait to get all the house construction done and I can get all the extra materials out of the garage.

Once that happens, the 62 Tbird comes home and work will start on that....


(Please pardon the finger in the pics, had to block out the overhead lights for the camera to work half decently)