Garage and shop improvement, help!!

[ehgrayIII]

Hello, my wife and I purchased our first house a little over a year ago. It was a major fixer upper, which is kinda what we wanted because i'm crazy enough to attempt almost anything. It is close to the beach and has an attached 2 car garage and a detached 2 car garage in the back. Both of which were completely full of **** when we moved in. Up until recently all my energy has gone into remodeling the interior of my home. I'll show you guys one before and after just to get a idea of what I've done so far.
Then

Now

We did it all ourselves with some help from family and friends.

Onto the current situation. This is my shop(detached 2 car). Its 24 feet wide and 21 feet deep with a 4X6 foot closet in the back left corner that has the plumbing and pump system for yard sprinklers.

Here is the inside yesterday morning.

Is is alot cleaner than that right now. Here is a rendering of the floor plan.

My garage is 20.5 ft wide and 21.5 ft deep, and was in similar shape up to a few months ago.

I got tired of it so i cleared out enough stuff to be comfortable. I'm also lucky enough to have a large storage room off to the side of my garage. Monday I purchased a large steel shelving unit from the Depot and organized most of the things that were cluttering up the attached garage. Heres a picture of the garage this morning.

So my problem is the detached is not convenient to get a vehicle in. The drive way is dirt and very steep. I have to drive through the front yard to get either of my cars in it, the jeep can manage it. So i'm thinking about keeping enough tools in the attached to do basic stuff like oil changes, tires, etc. but any major auto work or wood working etc. would be done in the shop. What I need help on is how to set up the shop: where to put a work table, how big a table, where to store mower, pressure washer, and wood. Also what to keep in the garage and where to keep my 2 kayaks.

Any help, ideas, comments are very appreciated.

 

[M. Blue 240]

I would start by putting a film over the windows to keep out curious eyes. You should be able to find it at Home Depot. It will still let in light, you just won't let anyone walking by see your nice toys.

I would think kayaks could be rigged up on the ceiling. Some members on here have bought the pulley system to lift their bikes up, I bet it would work for small rafts too. Everything else depends on convenience and how often you need to get to it. Find the outlets and decide what needs to always be by them.

If you're split between auto and wood work then split the shop. Have one side dedicated to all your woodworking projects and leave the other side open for the Jeep. Check out the 12-gauge garage, he did a great job of splitting up work zones.

 

[ehgrayIII]

Thanks for your reply. I have already fogged the windows with spray stuff, it worked pretty good, its done on both garages. Putting the yaks on the ceiling in a good idea that i hadn't thought of.

 

[Toolman12]

If you are worried about space for benches then you could build folding tables that are attached to the wall and fold down. you don't mention where you are in the world but you did say the beach so i am thinking warm climate for some extra protection around windows plant a bunch of cactus plants under windows works great for me.
And welcome to GJ

 

[Rich H.]

"So my problem is the detached is not convenient to get a vehicle in"

If I were in that position, I would want to try addressing that?

Any pics of the approach?
Alot can be done with a bobcat, some fill, and a few yards of 21AA.

I almost set myself up to where the detached would be a hard to get to, for asthetic reasons. Once I realized..."yeah, it would look cool but what an enormous pain to use"....did the same as above (paid a guy to come out and do it) created a separate straight driveway for it...it made it a whole lot more useful.

 

[RCH99]

What's that color called on the Carrera? It's awesome.

 

[ehgrayIII]

Hey guys again thanks for the comments. The 911 is arena red. As far as the entrance to the shop goes I will take care of that eventually but my whole front yard needs a lot of work. I have a lot of brush and trees to remove before i get someone in to grade it out and that's when I will handle that. We're one a tight budget right now as I am going back to school currently so I'm pretty much only able to do DIY projects right now.

 

[kippieland]

You can build some really cool stuff with construction materials..2x4's, osb sheeting, and hardboard, for little cost. There a lot of cool plans on google if you search "free garage bench plans" or something along those lines. I find it more fun to build with construction stuff that is strong and looks really good, then building with high dollar plywood....I wish I would have built my shop cabinets with those materials. Just have to make sure you find materials that are straight as possible.

Here is an example of someone doing to cool stuff with cheap stuff. I am going to build a tall storage cabinets in a similar way. http://lumberjocks.com/projects/43891

 

[ehgrayIII]

Thanks for the link that is some awsome work. Not sure I should try that. If i succeed all my time will be spend building furniture when my wife finds out.

 

[kippieland]

I think that the guy in the link is a little over the top with how its built, but what do you expect from a woodworking site! I am not going to do all the joinery stuff, but I have seen a lot of examples where they build there storage from constr. materials and then cover them in thin sheets MDF or Hardboard and then paint them for more of a finished look. I like that link, because its a good example of cool stuff built from cheap materials, plus its very creative!