Does you significant other understand your manly needs?

[Taildragger]

"She does understand I can fix/build stuff in the garage/house/barn/property. She is not sure why I need 4 tool boxes though..."

Yes, mine understood the need for a tool box, but when the second and third showed up she was shaking her head.. Hey! Tools are what separate us from the animals!

 

[madison069]

I understand this. My detached garage is connected to our house by a breezeway and good size patio area. We turn on some tunes, have a beer, she sits on the patio with the dogs and I work on things in the shop. It's definitely relaxing to us.

Interesting that you have a garage attached to the house with a breezeway. Got some pictures of it? Something i was planning on doing for my garage build.

 

[steky]

The first & only set of heads that I dissembled on the breakfast room table pretty much determined her need for me to have a garage.

LOL, Love your cougar, rebuilt a 67 years ago, wish I still had it.

 

[Jtcrep]

Mine has been the driving force to making my shop dreams come true! Two years ago she picked a new house with a 28x48 4 car heated garage and this year she convinced me I was being too cheap and nudged me to up my offer on the 42x60x16 pole building in the industrial park that backs up to our neighborhood. We closed on it just after Christmas. She's fine with me buying tools too, but she raises hell when she becomes a project widow.

 

[vision8]

After a few months of me knocking my head against the wall ( trying to get a building permit ) she jumped in with both feet and made her presence known at the building department on a weekly basis until she walked out with my permit. Of course the permit would then allow her to park her vehicle in the garage , would be a first in 40 years. So the work shed is near to inhabitance, my 18 motorcycles and MGB's will be ready for the road after a 45 year hibernation this year. Then the retirement projects can be addresssed, and not too soon.

 

[Catadj78]

I currently building my shop. 40x40. The wife insisted on having her some space in the shop but I thought I needed to put a stop to it before it even starts good......


Now while in the middle of my build the wife brought over EVERYTHING that she had stored at her dads so our kitchen is crammed with this stuff so now I have to build her shed before mine even gets finished. I think we have decided on 12x16 for her

 

[gregtwojeeps]

Yep, she sure does. Sometimes I think she wants me to start living in the garage. I would love too, as it is heated and cooled with porcelain tile floors, bright lighting, all my tools organized in it but ....there is no ivory throne in it. Any man considering building a garage or shop they will spend most of their spare time in, is really messing up by not plumbing them in . JMO

 

[n8n]

No, not those manly needs you mucky minded lot.

The need to have a garage/shop/man cave/fortress of solitude (call it what you will) that you can escape to for some peace and quiet and a place to work in the dry and warm.

My missus can't get her head around the idea why having a garage is so important to me even after me struggling working outside dodging rain showers for years.

Mine still damn near cries when she sees a Miata and I made sure she was sitting down when I told her one of my friends/coworkers actually offered to let me drive is at a couple autocrosses last year (and I'll probably take him up on it this year.) One of my presents this year was a SK 1/2" drive socket set. Other needs appear to be understood as well.

I probably ought to go upstairs and just remind her that she's awesome, even though she ought to already know it. I'm under no delusions that I'm undeservedly lucky. I only wish I'd met her years ago. Just not too many, because if I'd f**ked it up by being an immature a-hole I wouldn't forgive myself today.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Luckily, mine understands and she knows that being in the garage, keeps me out of her hair. She also figured out that is where I work on projects for the house too.

 

[Bighead38]

My wife is amazing. Three years ago, I quit my job and headed up to SC to build our house and barn. She works and pays the bills while I build stuff! It was HER idea to build the barn first! I then lived in the barn while building the house, and we currently have all of our stuff stored in the barn until the house is done. She gets a bonus, though. The house has an attached garage that is all hers, just for her beloved Olds to live in.

My wife's attitude has always been that if I'm in the shop, at least she knows where I am! Remember, if women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.

What kind of Oldsmobile?

 

[XxToolAholicxX]

Yes mine does. I gave her the whole house and she gave me half the garage. And She bought me a bigger top and bottom Craftsman stainless steel box for fathers day.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am a ToolAholic,Sometimes I regret it,Especially when the Toolman wont give me no credit.

 

[rdn2blazer]

That would be a BIG FAT NO. And thats part of the reason I'm recently single after 15+ years together. Thank God! Free at last...FREE AT LASSST!!!

 

[VictorBravo]

My wife has been with me through 4 house remodels, helped reroof and refloor, watched me fix suspension problems on her Audi while crawling around on gravel, helped me with hot coffee and snacks while pulling an engine in the driveway in the rain, etc.

So, when we moved to our latest and last place, she bought me a pole-barn. I finally have a shop and both of us are quite pleased with it.

 

[911mike]

My wife is the best We bought our house 15 years ago after looking around for several months. I said find me a large ranch with a walkout basement, a 4 car garage and at least 5 acres and that's all I care about. She found it and it had a 35' x 50' barn too. The barn was rough and I did some clean up and paint but 5 years ago I tore it down and build a beautiful 44 x 82x15 building. My wife said "do want you want" so I did!!!

She has a sewing studio in the basement that is 22' x 30' with over 20K of machines so we both have our zones. Last fall she wanted to buy another sewing machine so I said "do want ya want" and 14k later she did. She felt guilty but I just laughed as she must think my shop doesn't have expensive stuff too. If she only knew...........

 

[MushCreek]

What kind of Oldsmobile?

Nothing fancy. It's a '99 Olds 88, but is in nice shape. We bought it from a neighbor with only 6K miles on it. Now it has about 100K. It's a very smooth, quiet car- the opposite of what I like! My baby is a '72 F-250.

 

[ovilla]

I'm very lucky in that my wife is very understanding and supportive. She simply wants to make sure that whatever I need/buy will be used to fix something, which she knows will save us money in the long run. Having said that, I did have to walk her through my recent $600 tire changer. Luckily we have two cars that need new tires. Plus my nephew has a few cars that he's restoring too. I even have some neighbors wanting me to do some tire swaps now too.

 

[Joe69]

No. Before I met her, I used to keep up with my projects. After, I am always way behind. When I get home from work, she pesters me to the point that I'm about out of the mood by the time I get out to the shop.

Joe

 

[gearhead1]

Yes. Her Dad fixed everything growing up and I fix everything so she sees the value in having a shop. I never complain when anything needs repaired and she is good with money and understands it saves a lot in the long run when you can do most things yourself. I am very fortunate. We bought land and we'll build a house and shop on it. She called around looking for metal buildings, told me when I got home from work what they cost, I asked how big, she said 40 x 60. On the other hand, she gets what she wants when it comes to the kitchen, she doesn't want anything fancy, but the size and how she wants it laid out. She actually uses it, as in makes most of our meals, so I'm all for it. She knows I fix all our stuff so she is all for the shop. We're both engineers so it's a little different than women who have no clue about anything mechanical. She knows more about cars and internal operation/components than most guys. I'm content fixing, building, tinkering in the shop - she knows exactly where I am!

 

[zmotorsports]

Ya, my wife gets it. She knew when we were dating that was my overall goal and she made sure I got it. We had a slight set back after purchasing our home in 1991 and was not able to construct the detached shop until 1995. She sacrificed right alongside me to save up for it.

She has also been very understanding about the tools and equipment we have outfitted it with. She knows it is not only how I make a living but also the reason we are able to have what we do. Because of the extra money that comes in from the shop as well as the ability to have all the tools and equipment to maintain our home, vehicles and fabricate about anything I need to for them.

She is awesome!!

Mike.

 

[galute]

After 20 or so years of my wife watching/helping me work on stuff in the cold, rain, mud, grass we finally got to the point I could afford a shop. So we had a 30x50x12 built. It's not completed on the inside yet but is fully useable. One day she comes down to our place and I'm out in about 40 degree light rain weather working on my tractor in the grass. She ask me what I'm doing which I reply working on my tractor. She says, you know, you can put that in the shop. DDOOOOAAAAAHHHH!!! So yeah, she gets it. Me, I'm not so sure about.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

I doubt she will ever understand, if she still doesn't after nearly 40 years, yet I am supposed to understand why I can clothe a poor continent with all her **** she hasn't seen in decades. And I have to ask, "What the hell is this?" whenever a box comes to our house, or I have to sign for something. I just bought a new ATV because I "couldn't until we sold our last house" and we sold our house in October, and yet I still have to justify it's existence whenever she says, "Remind me again why we need this?" I'm starting to think the best way is to sarcastically tell her, "I just want to start wasting money like you always have, and I'm still only a tenth of the way there." My ATV will be used for plowing my driveway, as soon as it's properly equipped, along with cleaning off the property, which is inundated with dead wood. Guess she still thinks I'm superman and can drag this heavy **** around by hand. Yes, we've been married a long time, and this is probably the worst we've gotten along.

 

[Nermal43]

Yes, she does. My birthday present in December was a plasma cutter. She rocks!

 

[discochris]

To some extent, yes. When we decided to move from the house we built in 1999 (kind of a McMansion) to shorten our commute and move to a nicer area, my one requirement, was that I continue to have a three-car garage. This was kind of tough, since we were looking at houses from the 70's and 80's when that was less common.

The place I wanted to buy was a Garage Journal dream. It had an attached oversized three-car with a loft. It had a detached heated two car garage/shop, and another smallish heated outbuilding where the guy had a dog kennel for his hunting dogs. It was basically a farmstead in a suburb, a few minutes from work.

The issue was that we were pregnant with our son, and the house was a really weird layout, having been added onto multiple times, so there was a great master bedroom on a whole upper level, and the other bedrooms were off the garage, far away from the master. It was also a suspect short sale property with multiple mortgages and a divorce decree. Needless to say, I lost that battle. I still pine for all that garage/shop space.

In hindsight, it may have been for the best. The property was on a creek that flooded big time last spring. I drive close to it on the way to work every day, and most of the houses in the neighborhood had flooded basements (lots of furniture and carpet in the front yards). The main road a block away was under 8-12 inches of water for over a month. I don't know that the house I wanted had water issues, but if it did, it would have been a disaster.

I'm currently doing a remodel to some extent of my current garage, and she hasn't said squat about the cost. She was even cool with me building a shed, but that has to wait as we have some other house repair things to deal with this year. I'll post some pics when done, but she's generally cool with me doing whatever in the garage, as long as she gets to do whatever with the house itself.

 

[autonaut]

Do like me.. Find yourself a girl who has a horse..
They're expensive and time consuming.
Just like my hobby