teamacacia
Member
Hi everyone,
I debated on where to place this thread, general discussion or gallery, and settled on gallery as I hope to keep some chronology on the work I do to the garage. In short, when my wife and I purchased our most recent home we had to down grade from a 3-car to a 2-car garage and subsequently lost a bunch of storage and functional space. The garage does have a double door closet that I put 2/3 of my previous shelving in but the loss of the 3rd stall really hurts my ability to work in the garage. Since space is a premium (and our vehicles are always garaged), I am looking for ideas on how I can get better usage of my space. I have a few ideas a will discuss them below.
Since I am planning on building a new home in the next 1-2 years so I am not looking to go full-tilt on this garage, just improve its functionality while not going overboard.
As we get started, dimensions are roughly 22'x22' with ceiling at about 10'8". I drive a big 'ol pickup and that fills the bay to the left (north wall) while the wife's 2 door Altima is parked in front of the work bench. Her car is usually pulled far enough forward that we can access the storm shelter, and I can push it back enough to work at the bench with the garage door closed.
Toolbox is an old roll front SnapOn my grandfather found at a garage sale. A family member owns a sandblasting and powdercoating business and I am considering sending this to him for restoration.
The workbench was originally salvaged from a local bank. The top was replaced with a counter top salvaged from my old high school. The vice is a hand me down from my grandfather.
Outdoor supplies such as planters, fertilizer, etc are kept on the old bookshelf while charcoal/wood for smoking in the BGE are next to the shelf. Looking at the pic now, I might reverse their positions and save a little space. It is sometimes a tight squeeze between the truck and the shelf.
The next three pics show the area(s) around the garage door. My first plan, so far, is to build some soffit cabinets up here so that I can relocate some rarely used items and free up space in the garage and in the garage closet. My first intention was to build them from the garage door wall all the way to the supports. There would be 3-4 sliding doors and the end of the cabinet would have a swing open door so that I could access the end of the cabinet even if the garage door was open. The problem I see is that I don't think I can extend the cabinet all the way to the garage door wall because of the pipe (I don't know what else to call it) the spring attaches to sticks out on both sides. How much space do I need to give from the garage door wall when building the cabinets? Also, you can see that the track supports are in a "v" shape. I was hoping to extend the cabinets very close to the tracks but this also may not be possible to do AND keep the hinged door on the side. Any thoughts?
Last part and then I'm done for now, I promise! I have considered soffit cabinets above the workbench end of the garage but I am hesitant for two reasons at the present. First, the left side of the pic has an elevated outlet which is intended to run a whole-home vacuum system. I do intend on doing this one day and don't want to put up cabinets and then have to tear them down to install the vacuum system. Second, I am in the planning stages of doing a kit car (maybe a cobra or something a bit more modern) and I would have to install a 4 post lift to store it above the truck. From my measurements, it is a tight squeeze but I can fit the intended car above my truck with a few inches to spare. I would also plan on pushing the lift as far as possible into the garage in effort to avoid any possible interference with the garage door.
Thanks everyone and I look forward to your ideas and hope to post updates as things change!
I debated on where to place this thread, general discussion or gallery, and settled on gallery as I hope to keep some chronology on the work I do to the garage. In short, when my wife and I purchased our most recent home we had to down grade from a 3-car to a 2-car garage and subsequently lost a bunch of storage and functional space. The garage does have a double door closet that I put 2/3 of my previous shelving in but the loss of the 3rd stall really hurts my ability to work in the garage. Since space is a premium (and our vehicles are always garaged), I am looking for ideas on how I can get better usage of my space. I have a few ideas a will discuss them below.
Since I am planning on building a new home in the next 1-2 years so I am not looking to go full-tilt on this garage, just improve its functionality while not going overboard.
As we get started, dimensions are roughly 22'x22' with ceiling at about 10'8". I drive a big 'ol pickup and that fills the bay to the left (north wall) while the wife's 2 door Altima is parked in front of the work bench. Her car is usually pulled far enough forward that we can access the storm shelter, and I can push it back enough to work at the bench with the garage door closed.
Toolbox is an old roll front SnapOn my grandfather found at a garage sale. A family member owns a sandblasting and powdercoating business and I am considering sending this to him for restoration.
The workbench was originally salvaged from a local bank. The top was replaced with a counter top salvaged from my old high school. The vice is a hand me down from my grandfather.
Outdoor supplies such as planters, fertilizer, etc are kept on the old bookshelf while charcoal/wood for smoking in the BGE are next to the shelf. Looking at the pic now, I might reverse their positions and save a little space. It is sometimes a tight squeeze between the truck and the shelf.
The next three pics show the area(s) around the garage door. My first plan, so far, is to build some soffit cabinets up here so that I can relocate some rarely used items and free up space in the garage and in the garage closet. My first intention was to build them from the garage door wall all the way to the supports. There would be 3-4 sliding doors and the end of the cabinet would have a swing open door so that I could access the end of the cabinet even if the garage door was open. The problem I see is that I don't think I can extend the cabinet all the way to the garage door wall because of the pipe (I don't know what else to call it) the spring attaches to sticks out on both sides. How much space do I need to give from the garage door wall when building the cabinets? Also, you can see that the track supports are in a "v" shape. I was hoping to extend the cabinets very close to the tracks but this also may not be possible to do AND keep the hinged door on the side. Any thoughts?
Last part and then I'm done for now, I promise! I have considered soffit cabinets above the workbench end of the garage but I am hesitant for two reasons at the present. First, the left side of the pic has an elevated outlet which is intended to run a whole-home vacuum system. I do intend on doing this one day and don't want to put up cabinets and then have to tear them down to install the vacuum system. Second, I am in the planning stages of doing a kit car (maybe a cobra or something a bit more modern) and I would have to install a 4 post lift to store it above the truck. From my measurements, it is a tight squeeze but I can fit the intended car above my truck with a few inches to spare. I would also plan on pushing the lift as far as possible into the garage in effort to avoid any possible interference with the garage door.
Thanks everyone and I look forward to your ideas and hope to post updates as things change!
