Joel's Tiny 2 Car Garage

[Unruh]

And add one of my own

That is funny! I would steal that, but my hot water heater is hidden away. I may anyhow.

That fireplace looks great. My wife really wanted a fireplace when we were looking for our last home, but sadly it didn’t happen. I’m kinda scared to show her yours, because she’ll have me building one.

 

[cweidert03]

Also into Foxbodys. It’s an 89 Gt that I purchased the first day of school my senior year of HS 2002 and turned into a money pit! But I built it how I wanted! Love your cobra


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[Jo3l]

That is funny! I would steal that, but my hot water heater is hidden away. I may anyhow.



That fireplace looks great. My wife really wanted a fireplace when we were looking for our last home, but sadly it didn’t happen. I’m kinda scared to show her yours, because she’ll have me building one.

Haha, well sadly the water heater doesn't run off banana peels.

Building the surround aside, the electric fireplace is a great alternative. Ours has the option to run without the heater on, which is like having a free fireplace. We have it on almost all the time. Best of luck of you decide to tackle it in the future.

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[Jo3l]

Also into Foxbodys. It’s an 89 Gt that I purchased the first day of school my senior year of HS 2002 and turned into a money pit! But I built it how I wanted! Love your cobra


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Wow that looks really nice! I guess at this point you're stuck with it forever

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[Bighead38]

Also into Foxbodys. It’s an 89 Gt that I purchased the first day of school my senior year of HS 2002 and turned into a money pit! But I built it how I wanted! Love your cobra


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Love foxbodys. What color is that? Looks really good.

 

[nicholam77]

Great to find your thread. The garage is looking great and awesome job on that fireplace!

I really, really like the style of your illustrations / "renderings"

Having a small garage is definitely frustrating at times especially when you use it for parking the cars, but they are my favorite builds. Please keep sharing your projects and I'll be following along.

 

[Jo3l]

Great to find your thread. The garage is looking great and awesome job on that fireplace!

I really, really like the style of your illustrations / "renderings"

Having a small garage is definitely frustrating at times especially when you use it for parking the cars, but they are my favorite builds. Please keep sharing your projects and I'll be following along.

Thanks so much! I've found quite a few garages on the forum that are way smaller than mine, so I'm just thankful for what I have.
And the same goes for your posts. I love smart homes stuff too, and you've given me lots of new ideas

 

[Jo3l]

A question from a member here reminded me I hadn't yet shared some modifications I made to our couch, and now that Santa and all his decorations have gone back to the North Pole I can finally get some clean pictures

The couch is an IKEA Landskrona, which has turned out to be a great couch for someone with a dog and a 2 year old

However, ours has been made "greater" by mounting 4 power strips underneath it, both switched and constant. This allows the table lamps to be switched on at the wall, while things like the Subwoofer etc. stay powered. And all the wiring is tucked up under the couch so that the dust bunnies and most importantly prying toddler hands don't get tangled up in them

Anyways, this is one of those silly little things that ended up improving our lives greatly so I wanted to share the idea.

 

[LX-Markham]

Great thread! Nice use of the 'small' space. I feel your pain, mine is 18x20.
Really like the little touches, like the garbage can sticker, clock, and Mr.Fusion.
And super jealous of that drafting stool! I need that for my drafting table!

 

[nicholam77]

Wow, sweet setup! Fireplace looks great!

I like your furniture. That lounge chair is a beauty.

 

[bj383ss]

That undermount switched and constant power strips is genius. Consider that idea stolen!

Bret

 

[Gareth]

Brilliant thread, thank you for sharing.

I’m looking for inspiration to get cracking again on my own two car garage. Life has forced me to put it on hold for a while.

Looking forward to the next updates.

 

[Jo3l]

Great thread! Nice use of the 'small' space. I feel your pain, mine is 18x20.
Really like the little touches, like the garbage can sticker, clock, and Mr.Fusion.
And super jealous of that drafting stool! I need that for my drafting table!

Haha, well at least you have more "head room" Thanks for your kind words, the little details are some of my favorites too.Best of luck with yours!

 

[Jo3l]

Wow, sweet setup! Fireplace looks great!

I like your furniture. That lounge chair is a beauty.

Thanks Nick. I wish it were a real Eames Lounge, I could retire

That undermount switched and constant power strips is genius. Consider that idea stolen!

Bret

Bret, glad I could help, I've certainly borrowed many ideas from this forum

 

[Jo3l]

Brilliant thread, thank you for sharing.

I’m looking for inspiration to get cracking again on my own two car garage. Life has forced me to put it on hold for a while.

Looking forward to the next updates.

Thanks Gareth! I think we can all certainly relate to life putting things on hold. As much as I love my garage, it's nowhere near my top priority. Best of luck with yours!

 

[BassProCamaro97]

I really like your setup. I LOVE the clock and trash can decal. I love that type of stuff as it sounds like you do.

Was the trash can sticker vinyl or paper with an adhesive back?

Great thread!

~Jim~

 

[Jo3l]

I really like your setup. I LOVE the clock and trash can decal. I love that type of stuff as it sounds like you do.

Was the trash can sticker vinyl or paper with an adhesive back?

Great thread!

~Jim~

Jim, thanks so much! The trash can sticker was printed on vinyl at a local shop, I haven't found any 11x17 sheets of glossy decal paper yet

 

[Jo3l]

Almost forgot to include my Heywood-Wakefield end tables. This one I ended up shortening when I restored it to better suit our space

I also added a power/USB outlet to the side for phone charging, baby monitors, etc.

This one still needs to be refinised, but it's on "the list"

 

[plain2car]

Joel,
very nice thread! you have done some very cool "life hacks" as well. the fireplace addition is neat, and though it does sound funny to have a fireplace being that we are in the desert, it is still a nice feature when it gets "Cold" here! i too understand the HOA limits related to sheds as well, even being on the "east side"... the HOA police make their routes thru the nehborhood so i had to do the same thing to my shed as well..

thanks for sharing!

 

[PatrickM]

NEW SHOP STOOL!!!!

Prepare for some chair related nerdery.
When I first did my rendering I included a modern stool similar to the Plycraft Cherner Chair originally designed by Martin Cherner. I did this because I have a slight obsession with these chairs, as witnessed by every open corner of my house.

However, as much as I love these chairs they have a deep, dark secret. They are not comfortable to sit in. At all.
One that IS surprisingly comfortable is this Toledo draftsman stool that I came across a while back.

I considered moving it to the garage and having it become my shop stool, but there were a few problems. First off it has become the home base for my wife's purse (and daughters Crocs) Second, I've kind of fallen in love with having a backless stool at the workbench since using the bar stool I currently have there. Luckily, Toledeo made a backless version of the drafting stool as well. They can be a little pricey, but I was able to find a reasonable one on Ebay with the 15% off coupon.

In the auction pictures it looked black, however upon arrival it's obviously green. And it's probably a little too crunchy for my taste, so I may do a minimal refresh on it just to get it to blend with my garage a little more. But I love it and most importantly, its comfortable!

These are the real deal drafting stools. My dad did some drafting back in the late 1960's and he has this exact stool in his woodshop. I grew up sitting on it at his work bench. It's art and quality function at the same time. Great garage you have there. Mine is similar in size at about 17x 17 inside dimensions.

 

[Jo3l]

Joel,
very nice thread! you have done some very cool "life hacks" as well. the fireplace addition is neat, and though it does sound funny to have a fireplace being that we are in the desert, it is still a nice feature when it gets "Cold" here! i too understand the HOA limits related to sheds as well, even being on the "east side"... the HOA police make their routes thru the nehborhood so i had to do the same thing to my shed as well..
:

Thanks! And yes the biggest bummer about the HOA was there is no chance I could build a shop in the side yard, but it encouraged me to make use of the garage I have.

These are the real deal drafting stools. My dad did some drafting back in the late 1960's and he has this exact stool in his woodshop. I grew up sitting on it at his work bench. It's art and quality function at the same time. Great garage you have there. Mine is similar in size at about 17x 17 inside dimensions.

Thank you Patrick, yes the stool is toward the top of my project list. I'm very happy to have found a decent one. Best of luck with your garage!

 

[Jo3l]

Drawer organization was another project that I had started around the holidays, foolishly assuming I would have endless free time to complete it. Most of my drawers looked something like this on the inside:

I had seen people use shadow foam type products and really liked the results. However when I looked into it I found it is pretty expensive, and nobody had sheets of it big enough to fit my top drawer. So instead I decided to just buy a big roll of foam and try it myself. I found this 3' x 6' roll of polyethylene foam on Amazon for $30.

I used this 2mm craft foam for the bottom lining.

I decided to tackle the socket drawer first as it was in need of the most help. I looked at what some others had done and found a layout that worked for my needs, and could house a bunch of my Christmas presents.

I then traced the design with a sharpie, and cut out the shapes with an xacto knife. For the most part I free handed it, as you can probably tell

But once the tools were seated, in my opinion the results turned out fantastic.

So anyways, 1 drawer down, 20 more to go

 

[quadrcr87]

Looks good. Something to consider is adding finger cutouts next to the tools. That is if any of them are hard to pick up. I could see the extensions and ratchets being hard to grab.

 

[nicholam77]

That is a thing of beauty.

Are you sure you have enough screw drivers?

 

[joey1320]

Incredible work on the garage.
I really like the attention to details with the decals.

I'm currently designing decals for my restored '91 Performer, which I'm building for my 5yo. I'm also working on an '87 General Hustler Pro, which I hope to finish before the midwest bmx show at the end of the month. I got back into 80/90's freestyle bikes about 6 years ago and it escalated quickly to the tune of 21 bikes. Sold them all but one to use the funds for other stuff and now I wish I had kept a few.

Loving the mcm furniture too!

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

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

Joel,
I don’t know how I missed this thread before now but I just went through it all and I am very impressed. You’ve got nice taste and a good sense of humor. Plus, you (and your dad) are perfectionists - something I aspire to but can never make.

One thing I noticed immediately is the location of your water heater. It is 15-18” away from the gas & water bibs which makes for the waste of a lot of space that can be recovered. If you would extend the platform the WH sits on toward the gas and water bibs, then move the heater toward them, you’d gain that same amount of space in the corner that you could enclose as a narrow closet OR if there’s nothing under that platform, cut it creating a narrow space to stand your ladder, or or or. Just a thought. Everything looks great so far!

PS: My 80 year old “two car” (riiight!) garage is only 18x18 so I can totally relate to working in small spaces.

 

[55cadillacking]

That drawer is magnificent. I want to do that at some point.

 

[Unruh]

Joel, that drawer looks fantastic. I actually just went through about half of mine in my new box and now wish I would have seen that foam you used! I’m using some thicker yoga mats. I’ll post the results when I’m done, but yours look great. Looking forward to seeing the rest!

 

[Bdgjr215]

I took a couple pics of my bike! I grew up in a small town, under 500 people, and one day a guy came through driving a semi. This would have been around 1980. He parked at the High School and started selling these bikes out of the back of his trailer for $50 a piece. He demo’d them and was there for 3 days. This was close to my birthday so my Dad bought me one. It’s called a Swing Bike and I loved it. I kept in the garage and even remember waxing it. When I went away to college, my Mom gave it to the kid down the street. When I came home for Christmas break and saw it was gone, I was pretty upset. That was in 1992. Five years ago I got a friend request from the kid down the street. We started talking and I asked him about the bike. He still had it and from the pics it was still in great shape!! He was living in North Dakota and I ‘m in Washington. With the help of friends and family, it made its way to me trip by trip.

It has a locking mechanism under the seat that allows it to pivot. The spring pulls it straight.

That's awesome it made it back to you ,I wish a few of my childhood treasures(bikes ,minibikes ) were around to reclaim, good for you.

 

[Jo3l]

Looks good. Something to consider is adding finger cutouts next to the tools. That is if any of them are hard to pick up. I could see the extensions and ratchets being hard to grab.

Thanks! I did consider the finger cutouts, but this foam is only 1/2" thick . I figured I could always add them in later and they might be more necessary on narrower tools like wrenches.

That is a thing of beauty.

Are you sure you have enough screw drivers?

Haha, I haven't even added the ones I got for Christmas! One thing this project is doing is forcing me to sort through everything and get rid of the un-necessary ones.

And by get rid of, I mean put in another tool box.

Incredible work on the garage.
I really like the attention to details with the decals.

I'm currently designing decals for my restored '91 Performer, which I'm building for my 5yo. I'm also working on an '87 General Hustler Pro, which I hope to finish before the midwest bmx show at the end of the month. I got back into 80/90's freestyle bikes about 6 years ago and it escalated quickly to the tune of 21 bikes. Sold them all but one to use the funds for other stuff and now I wish I had kept a few.

Loving the mcm furniture too!

Thanks! Awesome, hope the bike turns out great- he will definitely have a nicer bike than most of us at 5 I've had several that I've gotten rid of over the past 10 years too, but I like to think they are out their helping someone else re-live their childhood the way mine does. Best of luck with your Hustler Pro!

 

[Jo3l]

Joel,
I don’t know how I missed this thread before now but I just went through it all and I am very impressed. You’ve got nice taste and a good sense of humor. Plus, you (and your dad) are perfectionists - something I aspire to but can never make.

One thing I noticed immediately is the location of your water heater. It is 15-18” away from the gas & water bibs which makes for the waste of a lot of space that can be recovered. If you would extend the platform the WH sits on toward the gas and water bibs, then move the heater toward them, you’d gain that same amount of space in the corner that you could enclose as a narrow closet OR if there’s nothing under that platform, cut it creating a narrow space to stand your ladder, or or or. Just a thought. Everything looks great so far!

PS: My 80 year old “two car” (riiight!) garage is only 18x18 so I can totally relate to workign in small spaces.

Thanks for the idea Dan! I had considered putting a cabinet around the water heater, but I had never thought to put a storage shelf between it and the wall. If nothing else it would be a great place to hid e the brooms.

That drawer is magnificent. I want to do that at some point.

Thank you Rick, if you do my one piece of advice is don't start with the largest drawer like I did. If I started with a more manageable one with fewer tools it wouldn't have been so intimidating.

Joel, that drawer looks fantastic. I actually just went through about half of mine in my new box and now wish I would have seen that foam you used! I’m using some thicker yoga mats. I’ll post the results when I’m done, but yours look great. Looking forward to seeing the rest!

Awesome, I look forward to seeing them! I wish I was half way through mine In case anyone is interested here are the links for exactly what I ordered:

Gray polyethylene foam https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DGHFKGZ/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Red foam liner https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002JPX6D2/?tag=atomicindus08-20

That's awesome it made it back to you ,I wish a few of my childhood treasures(bikes ,minibikes ) were around to reclaim, good for you.

Thanks! Yes I'm very fortunate, it's about the only childhood possession I still have. You should probably stay off eBay though

 

[nicholam77]

Did you glue the two pieces of foam together? Or is one just sitting on top of the other?

 

[Jo3l]

Did you glue the two pieces of foam together? Or is one just sitting on top of the other?

They are just sitting on top of each other, but are both cut to the size of the drawer

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[Jo3l]

Had some time to start organizing another drawer in my toolbox. The screwdriver drawer was probably in the worst shape due to the number of mismatched sets, super cheap additions and their tendency to fling to the front of the drawer when closed

Lots of new toys from Christmas, so most of the old ones will go to the reserves

Due to the depth of my foam (still using the same stash from before) I elected to just cut out the handles, not the shank

I gave it the slam test, and none of them moved

Using the same red foam as well

This one took way longer, as I didn't figure out I wasn't going to cut the shanks until after I had traced them all. Oh well... Luckily lacquer thinner took the ink off the foam without any problem.

In other news, my daughter now shares in the joy of new Amazon boxes

And one member of our house has really been enjoying the new fireplace

 

[Unruh]

This one took way longer, as I didn't figure out I wasn't going to cut the shanks until after I had traced them all. Oh well... Luckily lacquer thinner took the ink off the foam without any problem.

This made me laugh! I did it the same way and had to clean it with Goof Off! Looks great!

 

[Jo3l]

This made me laugh! I did it the same way and had to clean it with Goof Off! Looks great!

Haha, yes goof off would have been a far less toxic option, thanks for the tip!

 

[nicholam77]

Looks great.

I really want to do this. I think something that's been hanging me up is future tool expansion. I don't necessarily have complete sets of everything, so I stress about trying to organize a drawer that might get stuff added to it later.

How do you like those Wera drivers? I already have a smaller set of Craftsman screwdrivers that work perfectly fine... but those ones are Green and Black, and look cool.



Great work on the drawers, I'm envious.

 

[55cadillacking]

Looks great.

I really want to do this. I think something that's been hanging me up is future tool expansion. I don't necessarily have complete sets of everything, so I stress about trying to organize a drawer that might get stuff added to it later.

How do you like those Wera drivers? I already have a smaller set of Craftsman screwdrivers that work perfectly fine... but those ones are Green and Black, and look cool.



Great work on the drawers, I'm envious.

I have been inspired as well. I will be doing something like this in the near future. I think my tool collection is 99% complete so I'm moving forward on a foam project. Thanks for the inspiration.

 

[Jo3l]

Looks great.

I really want to do this. I think something that's been hanging me up is future tool expansion. I don't necessarily have complete sets of everything, so I stress about trying to organize a drawer that might get stuff added to it later.

How do you like those Wera drivers? I already have a smaller set of Craftsman screwdrivers that work perfectly fine... but those ones are Green and Black, and look cool.



Great work on the drawers, I'm envious.

Haha, I know what you mean! I had a little hesitation but did it based on a few factors:
1. The supplies I used were super cheap, so it's not big loss if/when I ever re-do them (Well, no big loss other than time)

2. I figured out that for less than $100 I could get the few remaining tools I think I needed to complete my current needs. Especially since I was only doing a few drawers.

I kind of went whole hog on the Wera drivers based on the positive reviews on the Garage Journal. That was all I had on my Amazon wish list this Christmas. That being said, I love them, the grips really do feel great. I'm sure I will shed a small tear when the first one gets gouged. Looking at my old ones made me realize I need to take better care of my stuff

I have been inspired as well. I will be doing something like this in the near future. I think my tool collection is 99% complete so I'm moving forward on a foam project. Thanks for the inspiration.

Thank you Rick! It's no secret that your garage was an inspiration for me so that means a lot . Best of luck... and don't forget knives are sharp

 

[Jo3l]

Been a little while since I had something worthy of posting. 10 years of the alarm and cable/ISP company putting Bandaids on top of Bandaids had taken a toll on this network cabinet located in our master closet. The most recent visit from the cable guy made it so the door couldn't even be closed. But hey, when you have a monopoly you can pretty much do what you want and tell customers to pound sand...

However I share equal blame as all this mess located right above the cabinet is my doing. The joys of having a smart home

The combination of a new alarm system and router upgrade finally inspired me to clean up this wiring rat nest

There was a ton of wires and equipment that ended up being redundant

Once I cleared out all the noise I realized I could actually fit all the components (except the router obviously) in the cabinet

And gave me the chance to do a little cable management

And most important as far as my wife in concerned, the door can actually close

And from now on the cable technician will be required to have a chaperone when working on our house