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Joel's Tiny 2 Car Garage

Jo3l

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 25, 2018
Messages
187
Location
Phoenix
UPDATE: Most Recent Garage Photo
10.jpg


And my Shed, which starts on page 10, post 189
10.jpg


Hello,
I've been checking out The Garage Journal for a while now and like so many others figured it was time to share some of the progress on my garage. I live in Phoenix within an HOA controlled track neighborhood (all bad words I know). This basically means expansion is out of the question, & the garage is sized more in the spirit of a one car + one motorcycle than two actual cars.

I'm fortunate to live close to my father who has a massive shop and have been able to do most of my projects there - mooching off of his equipment and car storage space as any good son would.

But eventually I guess everyone grows up. Both my new marriage and a slight depression every time I pulled into the tiny garage helped me decide it was time to make some changes.

These photos are from a bit ago while I try to get my posts current.

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Pics of cars in the tiny garage because I didn't have the forethought to take pictures of the garage empty.

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Every possible inch is filled with bikes, building materials, spay paint collections, yard equipment, etc.

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I'm also blessed to share the already shallow garage with the water heater.

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The work bench was used strictly as a place to stack junk. Very little actual work took place here.

I wasn't sure where to start, but decided a good first goal would be the ability to actually open our car doors. This meant I needed to get all non-garage stuff out of the tiny garage. I was in need of a CHEAP shed that I could easily modify to sit below the fence line (HOA). I found a suitably cheap ($249) solution at the local Home Depot. However, due to a glitch at the register the shed rang up for $.01. I brought it to the cashiers attention, who called the manager. I was pretty sure I wasn't getting a shed that day. But when the manager showed up he said since it rang up for $.01, they have to give it to me for $.01! I have not so cleverly dubbed it the "Penny Shed".

09.png

So after some modifications to the height and depth - it sits nicely below the fence line & most of the non-essentials have been relocated to it.

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Took the opportunity to do some much needed cleaning. The scorpions and ground squirrels will not be thrilled.

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Still need to find new homes for some of my "most bachelor of possessions" which had already been relocated once to the garage.

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13.png

And just like that we can actually open all the car doors!
 
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Jo3l

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Jul 25, 2018
Messages
187
Location
Phoenix
Nice work, always a challenge with small space. I like the cars. Can we see more of the red cobra?

Thanks! I like to celebrate the small victories.

Per your request, here was a larger victory:
Before
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After
02.png
 

tigeraid

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Nov 1, 2011
Messages
93
Location
Muskoka
Welcome. That's not so bad a work space, you just gotta maximize your storage! I would think cabinets along that far wall up above head height would work wonders for you.

Killer Cobra.
 
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Jo3l

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Messages
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Phoenix
Welcome. That's not so bad a work space, you just gotta maximize your storage! I would think cabinets along that far wall up above head height would work wonders for you.

Killer Cobra.

Thanks! I had the same idea for some wall cabinets and set ups based on ideas I've gotten from here. Basically the only place I can have anything will be in front of the left car. Maybe in the back corners behind the doors as well.
 

captain14

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Joined
Dec 19, 2012
Messages
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Location
Near College Park Maryland 20740
1. Let me the first to say you **** for the penny shed.
2. Going back to your dads garage is just to trick you into letting them see you more.
3. Nice start to the garage. What are your plans for the floor, walls and storage options?
 

minidriver

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Mar 29, 2015
Messages
21
Location
brisbane.au
quite like my little 2 car attached.. Can't even fit my wifes car in with the way I've arranged the benches.. it's too long (Kia Sedona). gives me more space though! we squeeze both cars on the driveway and the garage is solely my domain. win!

look forward to seeing what you do with your space!
 

GrantT

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Jan 11, 2013
Messages
44
Location
Northumberland, UK
Great job! What size is your garage? 20x20?

I was just going to ask that!

Due to terrible planning restrictions in the UK, I'm going to be limited to 18x18 unless I jump through a lot of (currently unaffordable) hoops, interested to see what this one measures in comparison
 
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Jo3l

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Messages
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Phoenix
1. Let me the first to say you **** for the penny shed.
2. Going back to your dads garage is just to trick you into letting them see you more.
3. Nice start to the garage. What are your plans for the floor, walls and storage options?

Haha, yes looking back I should have bought more than one shed. Although shortening it was a bigger pain than I though so karma got a little even. And we have a baby so my parents get to see us plenty via the free babysitting. I'm definitely planning on going the wall storage route. I love the RaceDdeck floors but I think price is going to eliminate that. Of course the wall are flat white so that's probably next on the list of things to address.
 
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Jo3l

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Phoenix
quite like my little 2 car attached.. Can't even fit my wifes car in with the way I've arranged the benches.. it's too long (Kia Sedona). gives me more space though! we squeeze both cars on the driveway and the garage is solely my domain. win!

look forward to seeing what you do with your space!

Yes, the upside to a small space is it keeps things manageable and lets you come up with creative ways to solve problems. Maybe when it's time for a new car my wife will pick something giant. As it stands the Rav4 fits fine, so it would be a tough argument :)
 
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Jo3l

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Phoenix
I was just going to ask that!

Due to terrible planning restrictions in the UK, I'm going to be limited to 18x18 unless I jump through a lot of (currently unaffordable) hoops, interested to see what this one measures in comparison

Wow, 18 x 18 would definitely be a challenge if you add cars to the mix. Best of luck, I'll look forward to see yours as well.
 
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Jo3l

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Phoenix
It's too hot to do actual work in the garage right now so I've dedicated myself to drawing some over detailed plans of the garage from my air conditioned office. I included all the major measurements, door locations and whopping 3 outlets. This was a big help in figuring out what would fit. I used Illustrator if anyone is curious.

Blueprint
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Colorized
02.jpg


Giant F100 that sometimes sleeps here
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And finally my concept plan
04.jpg
 
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Jo3l

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Phoenix
Jo3l nice work.:thumbup:


Its certainly a challenge working in a small space, mine is not much bigger but I have found mobility is the key.

Thank You! And thanks for the advice, I think anything that can have wheels will be on wheels.
 
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Jo3l

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Phoenix
I've been further over planning my garage in an effort to both procrastinate and stay inside because it's slightly hot here right now. Here's a photo of the the garage thermometer at 9:00 PM tonight.

01.jpg


In prowling through the Garage Journal I've found several ideas that I'd like to incorporate. One was Rick and his "RAD" Garage at https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=147886&highlight=rick which has a workbench/cabinet layout that would be perfect for the limited space I have in front of my cars. I don't need a ton of wall cabinets since I do have the penny shed. And I really like the tool chests ability to become extra work bench space if necessary. So as I said I'm basically "borrowing" his plan exactly. Thanks Rick!

He's a rendering I've been working on this week of what I'm planning. I'm sure things will change as it progresses but it was still fun to do.

02.jpg


And with that finished I suppose the actual work pictures will be next...
 
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1/2 Cup

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Apr 28, 2012
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Location
Shepparton. Victoria. Australia
I've been further over planning my garage in an effort to both procrastinate and stay inside because it's slightly hot here right now. Here's a photo of the the garage thermometer at 9:00 PM tonight.

01.jpg


In prowling through the Garage Journal I've found several ideas that I'd like to incorporate. One was Rick and his "RAD" Garage at https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=147886&highlight=rick which has a workbench/cabinet layout that would be perfect for the limited space I have in front of my cars. I don't need a ton of wall cabinets since I do have the penny shed. And I really like the tool chests ability to become extra work bench space if necessary. So as I said I'm basically "borrowing" his plan exactly. Thanks Rick!

He's a rendering I've been working on this week of what I'm planning. I'm sure things will change as it progresses but it was still fun to do.

02.jpg


And with that finished I suppose the actual work pictures will be next...

Jo3l that's hot.

Great layout.:thumbup:
 
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Jo3l

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Messages
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Phoenix
I don't post on here much but its great to see another person from Phoenix who is also into fox bodies!

Haha yeah, yours looks very clean! I've had a few over the years. Always tough to keep them running through the Phoenix summers. Here was my first one circa 2002. Please forgive the paint & spoiler, it was a different time.

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Also not an automatic despite the magazine headline.
 
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Jo3l

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Messages
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Phoenix
jo3l & suicidekings, sweet rides and I am not a Ford guy. Couple thoughts as I am helping my daughter with her tight garage. Replace the water heater with and on demand and free up some small space there, also a fold-up work bench like this. We are also thinking of a loft as there may be enough height.
https://www.benchsolution.com/blog/garage-workbench-holidays/
good luck....

Good ideas, I would love nothing more than to get rid of the water heater. I think I have enough room in front of the cars to not need a fold away bench, but if it turns out I'm always needing more work space I could see adding it to one side. I know Jacks 12-Gauge Garage https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55006&highlight=gauge has something similar.

And I don't know if I'm a "Ford guy" either, my first car was a Nissan :)
 
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Jo3l

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I decided the next step would be to paint the flat white walls (why do they always use flat paint?). But before I did that I wanted to get the placement of the front wall cabinets down in case it took a few tries to get the height right...
And in order to get the height right I would need the pegboards...
And in order to hang the pegboards I would need the workbench...

So painting the garage turned into a perfectly logical reason to get a bunch of new stuff.

The cabinets I went with were 2 Craftsman 28" wall cabinets.

The pegboard was 2 Wall Control on it's side, which turned out to be a mistake.

The workbench is a Craftsman 6' Workbench with 5 drawer module.


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I just threw some random tools on the pegboard for now. I'm sure this will change when I figure out what I use most. This is also where I figured out by flipping the board on it's side I nullified it's ability to take the "wall control" brackets. Oh well...

Sorry I didn't get the best photos because I did this right before I started painting. Pictures coming soon.
 

55cadillacking

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Calgary
So as I said I'm basically "borrowing" his plan exactly. Thanks Rick!

As I was scrolling through your thread, I was planning on giving you some advice, based on my current layout, and then low and behold you referenced my garage! I love it. Looks like you are well on your way to realizing the plan already.

I am very impressed with your Illustrator abilities. I wonder what it would take to enlist your expertise for a rendering of the "RAD"? LOL

R
 
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Jo3l

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Phoenix
As I was scrolling through your thread, I was planning on giving you some advice, based on my current layout, and then low and behold you referenced my garage! I love it. Looks like you are well on your way to realizing the plan already.

I am very impressed with your Illustrator abilities. I wonder what it would take to enlist your expertise for a rendering of the "RAD"? LOL

R

Haha thanks 55cadillacking! And thanks for figuring out the perfect layout in your garage for my garage.

I think you are well past the rendering stage on yours... but I will trade you straight up for one of your many many Audis
 
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Jo3l

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After moving everything away from the walls, I needed to prime out my red racing stripe with Kilz as I decided it's time had past

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02.jpg

I also repaired some heavy damage on this wall from a roof leak. Actually I'm not sure it's considered a leak if the house builder just leaves a 2" gap in the roof.

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At this point I was pretty nervous as the Kilz didn't seem to work as well as I had hoped

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But I decided to press on and hope for the best

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And after a few hours it had evened out

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Painting makes a mess

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All back together, I was very happy with the way everything turned out

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New set up complete with trash can that I found behind a Target in high school (or "ashtray" as my mom called it)
 

driftpin

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Dec 22, 2016
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Location
Miami-Dade/Broward Co. Florida
The Mustang Cobra is a 1993? One of my co-workers bought one new, he still has it, though he's had Corvettes since then. I had three Fox-body cars, two GT's and an LX, all hatchbacks. To me they look as-good as the 1964-1/2 Mustangs, and then the 1965 Mustang fastback. I well-recall the excitement when they were released. I also had a '70 convertible. Yes, I like the Mustangs.

You could raise the H20 heater where it is, probably high-enough to be able to pull a car in under it if you had to. Just use unions where the water pipes are coming out of the wall, and that would make it easy to change-out in the future, when it needs replacement. I have a Rinnai, and I like it, but it appears you don't have natural gas there.

I'm also facing the 2-car garage challenge, better than not having one at all, I'm not planning to ever use it for car storage unless a hurricane is due.

If you're leaving the workbench there, you might want to fasten it to the wall with some flat steel brackets and lag bolts into studs, through the sheetmetal of the upper and lower workbench supports. Yo probably would need to rip a stud to take-up the space between the workbench frame and the wall. If you do that, you will be much-happier with the solid feel you get. I know, I have an 8 ft Craftsman workbench like yours. but I used the undercounter space for three Craftsman wheeled cabinets, two are drawers, one is doors. They fit perfectly. I bought the workbench frame but not the top, for that I ripped a 4 x8 ft sheet of 3/4" CDX and glued & screwed it together, topped it with a 24" X 96" sheet of 3/16" steel and countersunk/through-bolted the steel/plywood top to the workbench frame using 1/4" flat-head machine screws. When the system is bolted to the CBS wall behind it, the feel you get from working on it is very solid. If I need to wail on something, I put 2 X 12's between the piece and the steel top, to avoid dents. I lucked-into the cabinets and workbench at Sears. It was during Christmas, and for some reason they had these cabinets on-sale for < 1/4 of their normal price, as close-outs which is right-around $400 apiece (I think the drawer ones are $440, and the door ones are $400). I got the workbench and four Craftsman welded-steel roller cabinets for $500. Full-price they would have been nearly $2,000 out-the-door. When I was paying for a couple of the roller cabinets, when he told me the price they were going-for, I asked, "how-many of these close-outs do you have in-stock?" I took them all. A good day.

Get some of those Costco LED 4 ft lights, you should be able to get good illumination spacing them at 4 ft. Take a look at how I did lights below my two single-car garage doors, I'm never going to have a lift, the space is too-small. The pics I have are at different times during the construction of the various parts, the wiring for the ceiling lamps is properly- secured with wire brackets, I have now four lamps under the garage doors and one in-between across the width of the two-car garage. The returns outside of the OH doors are barely 24" to the opening on either side, so not much space there, I used Gladiator 77" wide steel shelving, 2,000 lb/shelf rating, but I cut down the depth to fit in the size I have, now, they're probably 14" deep, but that allows me to exit a vehicle if I have to pull-into the one bay that will fit a mid-size truck, if a hurricane is coming. All my tools are on casters or dollies to allow me to move things in the event of a hurricane, to make room for one car. The insulated OH doors are rated 180 mph, HVHZ (High-velocity hurricane zone). It's probably the strongest room in the house which is all CBS.

Picture #1 you see the 4 ft LED Costco lights, pic #6 you see the in-between the OH doors a regular (free-$) shop two-bulb lamp luminaire. There's no pic of all five luminaires across the garage width, and still allowing full operation of the OH doors in this post.
 

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Jo3l

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Phoenix
The Mustang Cobra is a 1993? One of my co-workers bought one new, he still has it, though he's had Corvettes since then. I had three Fox-body cars, two GT's and an LX, all hatchbacks. To me they look as-good as the 1964-1/2 Mustangs, and then the 1965 Mustang fastback. I well-recall the excitement when they were released. I also had a '70 convertible. Yes, I like the Mustangs.

Yes they only made the fox body cobras 1 year so I figured it would be a good investment.

Thanks for all the advise. I do have natural gas but it kind of scam because it's so hot we never make it above the minimum monthly charge. Our cars can still fit in behind the water heater so while i'm not crazy about how it looks I'm willing to forfeit that whole side to it & car parking.
I'd say we live in a "nice"neighborhood", but it's still pretty much a guarantee that if you park outside and leave anything valuable in your car it will be gone in the morning. So I'm also sold on parking everything inside.

The workbench seems to be solid enough for now, my guess is you probably have a lot heaver-duty projects going than me. Thanks for the tip on the lights, I definitely need an upgrade from the single $.99 fluorescent it currently has.
 
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Jo3l

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Phoenix
Through a very long series of events I managed to come back into possession of my childhood bike several years back and have since restored it to the condition it was when I first got it on Christmas day, 1990. However since then I've always struggled with what to do with it, and it's managed to jump around every storage space in our house. I decided my newly refreshed garage would be the perfect place to display it. I don't ride it, so it can be mounted up high where I can enjoy it every time I pull the car in.

Thanks to the local fire code there is plywood behind this entire wall, which meant I could safely hang it wherever I like, I just needed to measure correclty...
01.jpg


Which apparently I didn't (the back tire wasn't supposed to touch the wall)

02.jpg


But the 2nd time I got it perfect

03.jpg


If this post disappears in the future you can assume I awoke one morning to a bicycle laying on the hood of my car
 

fowldarr

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Oct 23, 2009
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1,067
Location
Coastal Oregon
Really starting to come together. How do you feel about the gray walls? I like the look, but I'm worried about it making my shop too dark (I'm a long ways away from paint, but I think about it anyway)
 
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Jo3l

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Phoenix
Really starting to come together. How do you feel about the gray walls? I like the look, but I'm worried about it making my shop too dark (I'm a long ways away from paint, but I think about it anyway)

Thanks fowldarr, yeah once the gray was on the walls it did come out a little darker than what I had planned. I also wonder if it has any effect on the temperature. All in all I am happy with it, just would have gone a shade lighter.
 

fowldarr

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Oct 23, 2009
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Location
Coastal Oregon
I would second the costco LED lights. That's what I did in my shop (which was really dark, with a single bulb), and it made a world of difference. You can see the difference in page 1 or 2 (maybe 3) of my shop build (link in sig)
 

testwerke

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Sep 9, 2017
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68
Location
USA
I like the cabinet, toolbox, and workbench setup! Perfect amount of storage. Nice job. Hope to see lighting progress!
 
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