Gib's Garage (It doesn't have a cool name....sorry.)

[Rocketman69]

Well, folks....I figured I should start my own gallery thread if only for the simple purpose of holding myself accountable for keeping progress photos.

It's just getting started, so there's not much to look at, but I'll try to keep it updated as I go along.

Basic info: Attached "2-car" but it's basically a 3 bay with only 2 bays accessible from the front due to how it attaches to the house. Overall, it's around 24'x41' with 10' ceilings. It's overbuilt, as the original owner didn't know if he'd need to be concerned with vibration from nearby railroad tracks, so there are 2 steel I-beams spanning the short width between bays, and I'm told it has 6" thick reinforced concrete in the floors. The back side of the garage is partially built into a hill, so there is a 48" tall poured wall that spans the back (west) wall, and close to 9' of the south wall, and about 20" of the north wall. The front (east side) has two 10' wide by 8' tall overhead doors, and a 36" entry door. In the North corner of the East wall, there's another 36" entry door that goes into the house. The north wall also has a 9' wide by 7' tall overhead door that is basically for getting the mower in and out of the garage. There are also 2 48" tall by 56" wide windows at the West end of the North wall, and East end of the South wall.

I had the garage floor epoxied before we moved in. The epoxy guys informed me that my garage floor was very uneven, and that they'd try to grind down the worst spots, but to be aware that there were low areas they wouldn't be able to fix, and that there might be areas that puddle and don't slope to the floor drains properly. I acknowledged the issue, and told them to go ahead with the work, regardless. Knowing what I know now; I wonder if I should have waited until I could afford to re-pour the entire garage floor prior to coating, but.....hindsight.

Anyway.....

Here are a few "before"-ish shots. I either forgot to take any pictures before I had the floor done, or I misplaced them. So these were taken pretty much the day after the floor was finished. I apologize for my poor photography skills.

 

[Rocketman69]

Here was the disaster the garage had become over the last couple of years. It's been better, and probably worse, but it was getting to the point that it was just unmanageable. Combine that with me needing to find space for two trailer loads of stuff that I moved down from Michigan after selling my other house, and it spells disaster.

Let's take a look around, shall we?

Now, bear in mind; this was after cleaning up for a couple of hours to make room for more **** as I'd run out of room in the shop........more on that at another time. So, it did look worse than these pictures show, but I didn't think to take any true "Before" pictures.

 

[Rocketman69]

I'd been trying to find a decent storage solution that wouldn't break the bank. I'm a severely disorganized person, but the idea of having everything in its place, and hidden from site has always been a garage fantasy. I'd been looking for a set of decent kitchen cabinets that someone had torn out while renovating, but thanks to HGTV, everyone seems to either take a sledge hammer to them during "demo", or they think their 1970s vintage particle board cabinets are somehow worth a ton of money. Craigslist & FB Marketplace turned up no viable results.

I had looked into several of the specialty garage storage companies that may folks here have used (New Age, Gladiator, etc), but didn't really have the dough to throw down on something like that at the moment.....especially considering all of the other projects I'm currently dealing with. RTA cabinets weren't any better in regard to price, and the Big Box Store in-stock stuff doesn't seem like it would survive for long in a garage that sees regular moisture from rain/snow/etc dripping off of the cars.

A friend of mine suggested I check out one of the Habitat for Humanity ReStore shops in town. For those who aren't familiar: They basically take donations of various building materials from individuals and businesses, and sell them at a reasonable price to fund their home building projects around the city. Sometimes, there are brand new items that were just left over from a huge apartment complex build. Sometimes it's just stuff pulled out of people's houses while renovating. Either way, the inventory changes constantly, and you never know what you'll find.

I went in looking for some decent solid wood kitchen cabinets. I found some that were perfect.....but someone else had already bought and paid for them. They were just waiting for pick-up. But, then I saw something else......

Apparently, the Crown Plaza Hotel had recently renovated several rooms, and donated all of their furniture to Habitat for Humanity. Really nice love seats were going for $40, and matching chairs for $20-$30. But, what caught my attention were the TV stands. They had two sizes. One size was 48" wide, 22" deep, around 36" tall. Two deep drawers with ball bearing slides and an open space to the left side with one shelf. The other ones were not as tall, but quite a bit longer. Probably 60" wide with a space for a mini-fridge built into the RH side of each. Actually made of wood, not MDF or particle board. Tops are THICK, and they sit on a metal base frame with adjustable feet on the legs. Perfect to keep the wood away from any water. They're not perfect, by any means, but they're built like a tank, and I'm just going to paint them white anyway. Best part about it? $15 each! I bought all four of the taller ones that they had on the floor came back a few days later with the trailer to pick them up.

Here they are after I was finally able to find a friend willing to come by and help me unload the heavy bastards from the trailer in the freezing cold.

To top it off; I found these commercial grade counter tops when I went to pick up the cabinets. They're nearly 2" thick, white Formica on both faces and wood trim around the edges. One is around 8' long, and the other is a little over 7' long....both 36" wide. And only $10 each. Here they are laying against the side garage door.

I had to buy some of the screw-in leveling feet, as a few were missing, but Lowe's had them sitting on the shelf. A perfect match for the ones that were already installed. After shuffling some more things around the garage, I was able to clear enough room for a test fit.

All in all....not bad for $85. Once the warm weather shows up, I'll get them painted and rip the counter tops down to fit on top. I still haven't found a viable option for the upper cabinets. And considering I have so much height to work with, I'm probably just going to buy some cabinet grade plywood and build them myself.

I Need to fix the insulation in several spots, and get the drywall installed and finished before I worry about the upper cabinets anyway.

I don't use air tools in the garage much, if at all. But I do need to air up car/bike/tractor tires every so often, and occasionally use a blower nozzle to clean the dust out of something that I'm working on. So I'm probably going to see if I can find a cheap compressor that will fit in the space between the two cabinets that are in the corner by the window. If I can find something short enough to fit below the counter top, the cabinets should deaden the sound substantially. Then I can just plumb some pipe to a few strategic locations around the garage for airing up tires and such. This will allow me to utilize the otherwise wasted space in that corner, and keep everything looking nice and clean.

Has anyone ever used something like PEX for their garage air lines? Pros? Cons?

 

[Rocketman69]

Reserving yet another slot for future updates.

 

[Rocketman69]

Reserving....again....for future updates.

 

[Toomanytools?]

I'm reserving this one ! )
Oh your picture didn't work.

 

[Rocketman69]

I'm reserving this one ! )
Oh your picture didn't work.

Ha! Nice. I fixed it......I think.

 

[dwysywd]

Reserving....again....for future updates.

So you don’t have to reserve spots for future updates. No one will close your thread. Not sure if you knew that. Most guys just post along in their build thread. That way you have a nice timeline when it’s all done. Just my 2 cents.

And I think Gib’s garage is a pretty cool name. That’s sign worthy.


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[captain14]

if you add the photos to your reserved posts, just date them so you can tell the progress when reviewing the thread.

 

[Rocketman69]

So you don’t have to reserve spots for future updates. No one will close your thread. Not sure if you knew that. Most guys just post along in their build thread. That way you have a nice timeline when it’s all done. Just my 2 cents.

And I think Gib’s garage is a pretty cool name. That’s sign worthy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah...I know it's not really necessary. But, I've been going through the gallery threads for a while now, and eventually some of them get so full of posts (which, of course, is great), it makes it difficult to find the actual progress posts amongst 25 pages of comments.

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[dwysywd]

Yeah...I know it's not really necessary. But, I've been going through the gallery threads for a while now, and eventually some of them get so full of posts (which, of course, is great), it makes it difficult to find the actual progress posts amongst 25 pages of comments.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

LoL. I know. But hey that’s half the fun.


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[Rocketman69]

Posted a few updates above. Sorry I didn't get on it sooner. Been a pretty hectic few weeks. Recently discovered what I though was a grounding issue in the shop.....turns out it is a broken Neutral line on underground feed to the meter. Power company has since ran a temporary line down the hill from the ped at the street. It's probably a 250-300 foot run, and they had to piece it together from three sets of cable they had on the truck....so needless to say, I'm not exactly happy with the current setup. But hey....at least the shop shouldn't burn down in the mean time.

Anyway....feel free to take a look at the new pics posted above and let me know what you think.