New Guy's 20'x20' Build

[Gingermedia]

Long time lurker, first time poster. I've gotten invaluable help and inspiration from reading other's threads on this board, and figured it was time to add my own.

I'm (hopefully) about a month away from finalizing the latest version of my 20'x20' attached suburban garage. While I wait for the concrete to cure, I'll share a little bit about how I got here, and the decisions I made that worked and didn't.

I've tried to keep to some guiding principles through the build...

1. This is supposed to be fun. It's a hobby and I'm supposed to enjoy it. If I'm not having fun, I'll take a day or two off and come back to it. I've spent too much time making myself miserable by "powering through" or trying to get something perfect.

2. I'm cheap. Scavenge first, salvage next, and Craigslist last. Buying new fixtures and fittings just isn't an option for me.

2b. Except when it can kill you. Things that support heavy items above you are the only exception to this rule. I'll pay full price for something that might kill me.

3. Perfect is the enemy of good. No, 20'x20' isn't ideal, and lots of the other choices I've made are inferior to other things lots of you guys have. But it's what I could find, what I could afford, and what I could make work.

 

[Gingermedia]

Starting at the beginning... I spent most of my adult life as a motorcycle junkie. That's changed in the last five years, but pre-2014 I did almost everything on a bike. When my wife and I married in 2011, we moved into a 1,000 sq ft condo with lot parking. I was able to find a 10'x20' storage unit with electricity on the other side of town for an affordable price, and we used the back half to store some furniture and the front as a makeshift shop.

I had a couple of roller cabinets from CL and a compressor, along with an old kitchen table and a jack and some shelves built from pallets. It worked great for bikes, because I could get the door closed with a motorcycle in there. For auto projects, I had to finish before I could leave- no way to walk away from a half-done project in a 10'x10' space.

But it worked well for what I needed at the time, and was a good space for several bike projects, a few larger auto projects and some furniture building. I enjoyed having a space of my own with my tools, and this was the first place my son helped me with a project.

 

[Gingermedia]

Pretty quickly we got tired of carrying baby and stroller and groceries and ... up to our third floor condo. With our price constraints and the areas we wanted to live, our options for buying a home were somewhat limited, but we did find a new construction home with a third car garage- meaning that my wife would get the third car and I'd get the entire two car attached garage to myself!

In retrospect, I wish I had been able to find something bigger than 20'x20'. It seemed like a bowling alley compared to the 10'x10' space I'd been working in for the last year, and besides I wouldn't have to drive across town to reach it. But I still absolutely love having the space that I have.

 

[Gingermedia]

We moved into the new house in 2013, and I basically just shifted over everything from the old storage space to the new shop.

One new addition was a Harbor Freight lift table. Man, I loved that thing - one of the best purchases I've ever made.

Also, for the astute observers among you - yes, that's the second valve job on that Duc in 12 months.

 

[spudley]

Looks good.
There's an old saying..."the more space you have, the more junk you keep".
Looks like you'll be just fine.

 

[robert mitchell]

NC here Bigger is not always good Nice looking house. Good luck

 

[Gingermedia]

In keeping with the original intent of a motorcycle shop where I can store a car, I built out a workbench down one wall and a set of shelves. Living in a community with a lot of new construction, I've been blown away at the amount of imperfect lumber framing crews throw out. A couple of scavenging runs got me enough 2x4 lumber to build about 30' of shelving, a makeshift tire shelf and a 10' long workbench.

The end result was just enough space to have a good work area around the lift table, space to park my daily rider behind at an angle and to keep a compact car out of the rain for those unusual days I couldn't ride.

 

[Gingermedia]

...aaand then I lowsided my Aprilia.

By the way, a titanium exhaust makes beautiful sparks as it slides down the asphalt. Ask me how I know.

The damage doesn't look too bad on the back of the tow truck, but it put me on my back for over a month. No one to blame but myself- shakedown ride on a cool evening with cold tires after a brake rebuild. Pushed hard on cold tires trying to get home before dinner, and ate it in a tight corner near the house.

At some point during the month that followed, I had enough of watching my wife care for both me and our 2-year-old son, and committed to fixing and selling the bikes off and moving onto four wheels.

 

[Gingermedia]

Looks good.
There's an old saying..."the more space you have, the more junk you keep".
Looks like you'll be just fine.

Thank you! Really appreciate it!

 

[Gingermedia]

NC here Bigger is not always good Nice looking house. Good luck

Thanks! Where in NC?

 

[robert mitchell]

waxhaw

 

[Falcon67]

3. Perfect is the enemy of good. No, 20'x20' isn't ideal, and lots of the other choices I've made are inferior to other things lots of you guys have. But it's what I could find, what I could afford, and what I could make work.

20x20 is better than any 0x0, so don't sweat it.

 

[rburke65]

We got tired of running up and down 2 floors!

 

[Adk Mike]

My shop is 20 by 25. Just a matter of managing the space and not using it for storage. I really enjoy mine.

 

[Gingermedia]

waxhaw

I've got folks down that way, over toward Mint Hill.

20x20 is better than any 0x0, so don't sweat it.

I hear you - I'm grateful to have my own space to work, and work with my son.

We got tired of running up and down 2 floors!

It's nice to be able to walk in and out of your own place...

My shop is 20 by 25. Just a matter of managing the space and not using it for storage. I really enjoy mine.

That's been the hardest part, especially with a 6 year old. The number of wheeled toys that seem to multiply...

 

[Gingermedia]

After the "Aprilia incident" -as it's now known in our house- we decided to shift over to four wheeled pursuits. First came an NA Miata, which fit pretty well in motorcycle slot.

Obligatory shot of my helper:

Post suspension build:

All was well, if tight, until I replaced the Miata. Stuff grew and grew in the garage until one morning I walked out into this, and knew it was time for something to change:

 

[Gingermedia]

That brings us to the current garage iteration. I had a few priorities, and a few more things popped up along the way.

1. Resolve electrical issues. No pictures here, but the builder put in the bare minimum of wiring- one GFCI outlet and two overhead fixtures. It's been a point of frustration for five years to have such limited lighting and only a single outlet, so that was one of the first things I tackled. In a previous life, I was an electrician's mate, so I'm comfortable with this kind of a project.

Used 1/2" EMT and THHN to put in a half dozen more outlets and eight more light fixtures. It wasn't worth the effort to pull Romex behind the sheetrock and put in old work boxes, so I simply went with surface mount boxes. Over the years, we've replaced most of the builder grade fixtures in our home and I held onto them. Not as much light as 48" fluorescents or LEDs, but they were free.

2. Put in a fridge. OK, I didn't exactly need this, but it sure sounded nice. $50 for an old Kenmore off CL. Amazing how much colder an old fridge gets your beer...

3. Cabinets! The scrap lumber shelves were functional, but left a lot to be desired. Even if they were well organized, open shelves just look disorganized. If I'm going to do this, I wanted to do it well. Rather than build my own, I just kept an eye on CL and let some friends know that I was looking. Within about three weeks, I had more cabinets than I could use. I ended up with mismatched cabinets from four different sets. For three of the sets, I had to pull them out myself.

Also got some tire shelving off Amazon - they fit above the cabinets with a little tweaking.

 

[Gingermedia]

4. Work Surfaces: I couldn't decide which way to go for work surfaces. After sitting on Craigslist for a while, I found a guy about 45 minutes away from me who had a bunch of store fixtures from a local department store that closed in the 1980's.

He sold me a 4'x6' haberdashery cabinet with 24 drawers on each side, and 2 2'x4' display cabinets with 4 deep drawers on one side. I know it's commonplace to say "they don't make things like they used to," but in this dang it's true. Each cabinet's sides, top and back were made from 3/4" hardwood plywood, and on the big piece the bottom was doubled.

Amazon Warehouse had some 4" and 5" casters for less than $3 apiece, so I went ahead and put everything on wheels. Also used MDF and a thin sheet of plywood to put work tops on the cabinets, so I could easily replace them once they're damaged (which they certainly will be at some point).

And as always, a shot of the helper:

 

[Adk Mike]

I've got folks down that way, over toward Mint Hill.







I hear you - I'm grateful to have my own space to work, and work with my son.







It's nice to be able to walk in and out of your own place...







That's been the hardest part, especially with a 6 year old. The number of wheeled toys that seem to multiply...

I also have a garage for the cars. I feel very fortunate. But it is a challenge to manage the space. It would be easy to fill it.


Sent from my iPad using Garage Journal

 

[Gingermedia]

Man, congrats on having that kind of space. That’s awesome.