A Single to Double over the Years

[gbjeppm]

Hello All,

I have lurked on here a lot over the last couple of years, and I have been inspired by many many threads, a few of may favourites, Sakurama, BB767, Dubber and Grizz.

I am hoping to bring this thread up to date over the next few weeks, but the journey started back in 2003, when we moved into a wreck of a house in Surrey, UK. It was the worst house in a nice street, and a major project. The house was built in 1964, and to be honest had not really been touched since.

Also apologies, if I had known about GJ back in 2004, I would have taken a lot more photos

It only had an integral single garage, but there was lots of potential.

Here is the blank canvas.


As you can see, the cupboard on the front of the house was an interesting and useless feature, but I had plans.


Building starts



The plan was to take enough of the cupboard and interior to widen the garage, and also put a bay window into the front to make a TV room.







Matt

 

[gbjeppm]

So after about 7 months of building, the the main structural work was done, and the contractors had finished what they were hired to do.

The garage, was only part of a much bigger reconstruction. I know from many other threads, that people are also interested in any type of build, so here are a couple of pics of what else was going on, but fundamentally the build was a large extension, signifcant remodelling, new windows, plumbing, electrics, and complete decoration.

The major structural work and plumbing i contracted out, the rest was done by myself and my long suffering wife. (Electrics was done mainly by myself, but signed off by the professionals)

Main extension:






Oh and of course money was tight, so we had to live in it while it was being done, this was the interior at its worst,


And nearly complete




So that is the basic structure, that was complete by the autumn of 2004.

I will move on to the garage interior and what I get up to in it over the next few weeks.

Thanks for looking and I hope it is of interest.

Matt

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

Everything looks great, Matt!

Pardon me but what is the term, "cupboard" you're using? Here that's the word for a kitchen (generally) cabinet. What is your meaning?

 

[gbjeppm]

Dan, thanks for looking.

I was using the word cupboard to refer to a small walk in storage facility / Small room to store tools, that had the access door on the front of the house.

It is the white door with a window next to it in the first picture of the thread.



This is very unusual in the UK, and with space at a premium here, was a waste of liveable space.

 

[gbjeppm]

So please bear in mind that I am in the UK on the outskirts of London, and space is at a premium.

I am extremely lucky to have a double garage, as a lot of people don't even have off road parking. Also a lot of people who have garages either use them for storage, or convert them to further liveable space.

My intent therefore was to keep the garage for the cars, as I have always liked them, but to be honest was a bit afraid to get stuck in.

So for the first few years, I just parked the cars there.

I had some old kitchen cupboards that i repurposed for storage, and it was functional. Kids were young and I had plenty of other things to do.

Again I don't have many pictures, but hopefully these will give you the idea.




As you can see in the next pic, the floor paint did not last, the kitchen cupboards were not exactly attractive, the walls were a dull grey, the lighting was poor.



Number one son, was also by 2013 starting to get into cars, and we were doing more and more things together, learning as we went, so we needed a better organised space to work, as well as organise tools, the number of which were growing rapidly



We also needed somewhere to escape the harsh british winters



For those non brits, of which I guess that is most of you, we don't often get snow like in the above picture, in fact it does not often drop below freezing on the outskirts of London, but when it does everything grinds to a halt.

More to come soon, hope this is of interest.

Matt

 

[gbjeppm]

I wanted to start again in the garage, bring it back to a blank canvas, and level the floor and sort it out with something a little more clean and easy to work on.

Then I discovered GJ, wow inspiration, so many cool garages, great use of space, great ideas and great people. So i lurked and read a lot, thanks to all of you.

So I went from this:



To this:







Not much I could do about the boiler, megaflo and pipework, but the rest of it was all opportunity.



Matt

 

[HMEN]

looking good! I have not see that much snow since I was in Germany.

 

[gbjeppm]

So walls painted after 10 years (what can I say )

I had decided that I wanted something like racedeck on the floor. I ended up going with something similar from a company called MotoTile here in the UK.



I thought long and hard about painting the brick wall on the left hand side. Brick is notoriously poor to paint direct, and in the end I decided to leave it. I can always do something to it later.



I also treated myself to a nice shiny new toolbox. In the UK we have Halfords (it is somewhat similar to Harbour Freight), some of their cheap stuff is awful, but their professional range is perfectly fine. Its not snap on or mac, but neither is the price

Matt

 

[gbjeppm]

Space is tight, i want to be able to park two cars. Which means that the one on the left hand side must be parked forwards, and the one on the right must be reversed in, so that you can get out of the car in the centre (Right hand drive don't forget).

There is only workbench space at the end on the back wall, and the internal door to the house is at the back on the right so needs some space for access.

Trying it out for size.



Its tight (maybe I need a smaller car )



I decided to go with some cabinets from Machine Mart, Lista they are not, but again were functional and in my price bracket. They also got the go ahead from my long suffering wife (those of you who are married will know what I mean)


Thanks for looking, more to come soon.

Matt

 

[andyaus]

Excellent recovery Matt

 

[1/2 Cup]

I really like what you have done Matt, your garage is coming up well.

You guys can have the snow, ice and cold I just get the shivers looking at it as we are facing a 40 C + day here.

Regards

 

[gbjeppm]

Excellent recovery Matt

Thanks Andy, more to come.

 

[gbjeppm]

I really like what you have done Matt, your garage is coming up well.

You guys can have the snow, ice and cold I just get the shivers looking at it as we are facing a 40 C + day here.

Regards

1/2 Cup I am honoured you have checked me out. Just to put it in perspective, that was the worst snow I can remember, it was a few years ago.

This winter it is yet to go below 10c. Plenty of wet though.

My brother in laws family are in Melbourne, so I know its scorching at the moment. Lovely part of the world by the way.

 

[PugetDude]

Nice job, Matt. You've carved out a great garage space in an area where your neighbor are parking on the street. Well done.
The back of the house looks super, too.
Subscribed for updates.

 

[1/2 Cup]

1/2 Cup I am honoured you have checked me out. Just to put it in perspective, that was the worst snow I can remember, it was a few years ago.

This winter it is yet to go below 10c. Plenty of wet though.

My brother in laws family are in Melbourne, so I know its scorching at the moment. Lovely part of the world by the way.

Thank you Matt, even though its a tad warm we love it here too. Stay warm.

 

[gbjeppm]

Nice job, Matt. You've carved out a great garage space in an area where your neighbor are parking on the street. Well done.
The back of the house looks super, too.
Subscribed for updates.

Thanks PugetDude.

I have to admit not knowing where the Olympic Peninsula is.

Now I know you are in Washington State, after a quick internet search.

And I am not a stranger to the US, in fact I am heading over there in a couple of weeks time. Bit further south though

 

[gbjeppm]

Some of you may have already spotted that I am a big fan of the three pointed star from Stuttgart.

Part of the plan was to get the garage usable to not just work on the daily drivers, but also get a project.

I was able to pick this up for very little money. It had an MOT (UK annual test certificate), to be honest I have no idea how it passed, as the brakes were shot.

Anyway here she is on the day I brought her home. I have wanted one of these since I was in my teens.

It is a 126 series, 1988 560 SEC, 5.6 Litre V8 with the M117 injected engine. Only 130 or so left on the road in the UK according to Howmanyleft (UK website with statistics from the licensing authority)


At that point we had too many cars, even my son had two. All from Stuttgart. I think the neighbours hated me at that point, we are down to a smaller number again now.

Actually my wife was not happy either with two parked on the front garden.

Pano shot, apologies quite difficult to size correctly.

 

[PugetDude]

Thanks PugetDude.

I have to admit not knowing where the Olympic Peninsula is.

Now I know you are in Washington State, after a quick internet search.

And I am not a stranger to the US, in fact I am heading over there in a couple of weeks time. Bit further south though

I've spent quite a bit of time in the UK, mostly in Cheltenham, Wantage, Dudley, Botcherby, Luton, Braunstone, and West Bromwich in England; Glasgow in Scotland; Wrexham and Swansea in South Wales.
Always enjoy my trips across the pond. Some day I want to drive from John O'Groats to Land's End..
Cheers

 

[gbjeppm]

I've spent quite a bit of time in the UK, mostly in Cheltenham, Wantage, Dudley, Botcherby, Luton, Braunstone, and West Bromwich in England; Glasgow in Scotland; Wrexham and Swansea in South Wales.
Always enjoy my trips across the pond. Some day I want to drive from John O'Groats to Land's End..
Cheers

Wow thats quite a list, quite a few I have never been to.

My parents live 15 miles from Cheltenham though.

Its strange you want to drive from Lands End to JOG. I want to drive from Canada to Mexico

So far I have only managed drives from Boston to New York, San Francisco to Lake Tahoe, and the suburbs of Chicago and Houston

 

[ajohno]

You have done a great job on the garage.

 

[enginewizard1969]

looks great. I wish I had the room. Hope to get out in mine tomorrow to fit some of my units. whereabouts in Surrey are you

 

[gbjeppm]

looks great. I wish I had the room. Hope to get out in mine tomorrow to fit some of my units. whereabouts in Surrey are you

Thanks for dropping by enginewizard, i am near Epsom, Jct 9 M25.

 

[enginewizard1969]

that's only about 40 minutes away. I've been to Epsom a lot last year when my son was playing Hockey for Surrey. How's your build going??

 

[gbjeppm]

Hi All,

Its been a while since my last update, but have made a bit more progress.

First of all I needed more storage, so I managed to score some cheap narrow kitchen cabinet carcases, that were the perfect size when installed on their side.



I have installed them all of the way across, but i dont seem to have a final pic, but i think you get the idea, lots of storage now.


I also managed to get my compressor off the floor, a quick and dirty shelf, but it does the job.



Perhaps one for the garage at night thread.



Finally i also managed to score myself in their sale, another Halfords middle toolbox for around 40 UK pounds, these are not bad quality at all, so happy about that.



This last photo makes me realise that I need to do something about shoe storage soon, my intention is to custom build something to deal with it replacing the wire shoe rack.

Hope this is of interest.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Matt, thank you so much for the update..

Top idea on the storage solution, I think there ate few here, including myself that can take this on board..

Regards

 

[gbjeppm]

It has been a while since my last update, but lots of things have been going on.

I decided that I needed more work space in the garage, and more storage, and I was wiling to sacrifice some of the space used for parking one of the cars. I wanted to still be able to park one car and one bike.

My idea was to build a worktop with rollable storage underneath, which would also give me additional work top space when needed.

So i built this.


And then



It is deliberately tall, as I will be fitting a wheeled storage under it.

more to come

 

[gbjeppm]

I had ordered one of these



They had pretty good reviews on Amazon, and the price was right, the only downside on the feedback was the amount of time to put them together.

Well it took about 3 hours to assemble, but i am very happy with the quality, and the price.


Please excuse the plastic wrapping on top of the unit.

As its on wheels i can easily pull it out, and have an L shaped work area.

 

[gbjeppm]

I also moved the toolbox and sorted out some decent shoe storage.



More to come, tools and a desire for a dedicated woodshop space.

 

[rixtrix1]

Great transformation of your home spaces. Garage is looking good!

 

[HunterSmitty]

This reminds me I need to make shelves for shoes/boots in my attached garage haha. Nicely done

 

[gbjeppm]

Great transformation of your home spaces. Garage is looking good!

Thanks Ric, i have enjoyed what you have been up to also.

 

[gbjeppm]

This reminds me I need to make shelves for shoes/boots in my attached garage haha. Nicely done

I have to admit to cheating a little.

I bought cheap pre made kitchen wall cabinets from the big box store.

To be honest it was cheaper to do that than make them myself out of ply or MDF.

 

[gbjeppm]

It has been a while again, but i have continued to move forward.

Today i finally managed to pick up my first decent MIG welder, and its a Miller, I am ecstatic, it is probably far too good for my basic level of skill, but hopefully I can grow with it, and for the UK it was an absolute steal.

As it arrived



And after a brief test and clean up.



I need to source a gas regulator and gas bottle to commision it into use.

I also want to repaint it in Miller Blue, apart from the surface rust, it is in very good condition inside, so a quick freshen up will make it look like new.

 

[gbjeppm]

Last year, i also managed to build my woodshop.

I managed to negotiate with the wife the use of 50% of a new shed that we would build for my woodworking shenanigans

Here is the shed, well i should say a prefabricated log cabin



The front half is wood shop, and the rear half is storage, mower etc.

I also managed to pick up an old Myford ML8 lathe

 

[Farmall450]

Wow, great job on the house. Do you have pics of building the shed?
You'll like that Millermatic. Also, $52 was a good price on the middle chest.

 

[gbjeppm]

Wow, great job on the house. Do you have pics of building the shed?
You'll like that Millermatic. Also, $52 was a good price on the middle chest.

Yes I do, here are a few more pics, thanks for looking.




Installing the additional door



And then adding the part dividing wall, to divide storage from wood shop

 

[Farmall450]

Only 2 of the pics work for me, but nice!

 

[gbjeppm]

Only 2 of the pics work for me, but nice!

That is odd, let me check what is going on, I host on google photos, so should not be an issue

 

[Farmall450]

All of them except the second and third and minus signs to me.

 

[gbjeppm]

All of them except the second and third and minus signs to me.

I think i have fixed the recent ones, i may have broken some of the earlier pics, which I will get round to soon.

Matt