jimbob_racing
Member
I'm Jim and about two years ago I bought a new house in Beaver Falls PA. I was getting married for the second time and we wanted to sell our old houses and buy something fresh with no old memories. I had just wrapped up a nine year top to bottom renovation on a house in suburban Pittsburgh but when you find the right woman, you have to make some sacrifices.
We looked for a long time until we found a nearly 2000 sqft 50's era custom ranch house in a terrific neighborhood. It has some significant updates (newer roof, HVAC, 200 amp service, basement waterproofing, refinished hardwoods) but never had many major renovations (one original bath, the original kitchen and one hacked up bath, original windows and doors, late 60's or early 70's era wallpaper and trim). I wasn't too interested in another fixer upper both the price was amazing and it had lots of potential.
I won't bore you with all of the house details since this is Garage Journal, so let's jump right in. My old house had a 20x24 attached garage that adjoined a 20x12 basement storage space. I also had a 10x10 storage shed. The new house has a 19x21 attached garage that leads to the kitchen of the house and I have no shed. I do have a nearly 2000 sqft basement for long term storage but it has no outside access.
Since I've lost some garage space and the shed, I can only park one car in the garage right now. It's a 1975 Datsun 280Z that I've owned for years and I consider it a long term project. Our daily drivers sit outside in our large driveway and my new wife doesn't mind that at all. On to the pictures.
Here's the garage viewed from the driveway:
This is the right bay, with the Datsun:
Here's the left bay with all kinds of clutter:
This is my workbench and door to the kitchen:
Looking out from the kitchen into the garage:
More of my primary work area:
A shot of my Datsun with the hood off:
This is just some of the clutter that I have to deal with for now:
The garage is seriously underwired. I have just two overhead light fixtures so I bought these reflectors and photography bulbs from Amazon. Man! Do they throw a lot of balanced light!
The last owners had washer and dryer hook ups installed in the garage so I have a 220V outlet for my compressor and stick welder and hot and cold water with a drain pipe. Eventually I will slightly move the plumbing towards the door to the house and install a stainless steel sink.
There's a ton to do in the garage to get it up to my standards (rewiring, plaster repairs, paint, etc) but I'm sidelined for a while. I had a shoulder surgery in November of 2014 to fix a partially torn tendon from a car accident (somebody ran a red light and t-boned me). In early January of 2015 I was almost recovered and literally driving to the doctor for clearance to return to work when somebody else did something dumb and totaled my car. The surgical repair held, but it popped a screw used in the repair loose. I had to have a second operation in February 2015 to remove it. Then I started rehab all over again. I'm close to being back to work after more than six months at home but both the physical therapist and my doctor say that it'll be at least 10 months before I can lift over 10 pounds with my right arm. That basically means that this whole summer will be a bust for doing anything around the house or in the garage. I'm bummed about it but I try to remember that things could have been much worse for me.
Thanks for reading and sorry for being so long winded.
We looked for a long time until we found a nearly 2000 sqft 50's era custom ranch house in a terrific neighborhood. It has some significant updates (newer roof, HVAC, 200 amp service, basement waterproofing, refinished hardwoods) but never had many major renovations (one original bath, the original kitchen and one hacked up bath, original windows and doors, late 60's or early 70's era wallpaper and trim). I wasn't too interested in another fixer upper both the price was amazing and it had lots of potential.
I won't bore you with all of the house details since this is Garage Journal, so let's jump right in. My old house had a 20x24 attached garage that adjoined a 20x12 basement storage space. I also had a 10x10 storage shed. The new house has a 19x21 attached garage that leads to the kitchen of the house and I have no shed. I do have a nearly 2000 sqft basement for long term storage but it has no outside access.
Since I've lost some garage space and the shed, I can only park one car in the garage right now. It's a 1975 Datsun 280Z that I've owned for years and I consider it a long term project. Our daily drivers sit outside in our large driveway and my new wife doesn't mind that at all. On to the pictures.
Here's the garage viewed from the driveway:
This is the right bay, with the Datsun:
Here's the left bay with all kinds of clutter:
This is my workbench and door to the kitchen:
Looking out from the kitchen into the garage:
More of my primary work area:
A shot of my Datsun with the hood off:
This is just some of the clutter that I have to deal with for now:
The garage is seriously underwired. I have just two overhead light fixtures so I bought these reflectors and photography bulbs from Amazon. Man! Do they throw a lot of balanced light!
The last owners had washer and dryer hook ups installed in the garage so I have a 220V outlet for my compressor and stick welder and hot and cold water with a drain pipe. Eventually I will slightly move the plumbing towards the door to the house and install a stainless steel sink.
There's a ton to do in the garage to get it up to my standards (rewiring, plaster repairs, paint, etc) but I'm sidelined for a while. I had a shoulder surgery in November of 2014 to fix a partially torn tendon from a car accident (somebody ran a red light and t-boned me). In early January of 2015 I was almost recovered and literally driving to the doctor for clearance to return to work when somebody else did something dumb and totaled my car. The surgical repair held, but it popped a screw used in the repair loose. I had to have a second operation in February 2015 to remove it. Then I started rehab all over again. I'm close to being back to work after more than six months at home but both the physical therapist and my doctor say that it'll be at least 10 months before I can lift over 10 pounds with my right arm. That basically means that this whole summer will be a bust for doing anything around the house or in the garage. I'm bummed about it but I try to remember that things could have been much worse for me.
Thanks for reading and sorry for being so long winded.
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