New here, need some advice

[yamaha427]

Hey guys, Ive been lurking this forum for a while now and finally decided to sign up. Id been wanting to upgrade my tools from the old craftsman usa to stuff like snap on, sk etc but it was always out of my price range until I read on here to check ebay and craigslist and since then ive made alot of awesome purchases here on used and new sets snap on, sk, proto and some other tools for dirt cheap.

In highschool I worked for a guy who pretty much taught me everything I know, he owned a dealership that sold pretty much only corvettes 53-72, then eventually got into everything, camaros, chevelles, mustangs, basically anything he could make money on. Pretty much the best job a young guy could ask for. The only job i actoually got out of bed and was excited to go to and had no problem working from 9am till somtimes 11pm and then doing it again the next day 6-7 days a week during the summers and after school on during the school year. After a few years of that he said hey, how bout Ill be like an angel investor, ill buy you some cheap cars 600-1200 dollars that I can sell for 2000-3000 etc, and ofcourse I was excited. So luckily my parents have a big 3 car garage, I had my own bay, setup a beautiful shop in there with everything I needed to get the job done. i did this over a few summers during college and winters. Then about 4 years ago I moved down south to finish my masters and was pretty much out of the car scene since. I had a fully built wrx I sold since it was the kinda car that needed to be tuned and worked on all the time and that was impossible living out of an apartment, so I bought a "normal person car lol" a honda accord and finished school last may.

Since then me and my fiance bought our first house back about 3 months ago. Got a really good deal, these days im trying the house flipping business, so i have connections to forclouses before the public gets to see them so i picked this house up at probably 1/3rd of its market value. Only problem is it doesnt have a garage ugh. And i really wanna build a new shop and buy a project car and start turning wrenches again. That and I used to race motocross so I wanna basically completely redo my 06 yz250f, new top end, wheels sprockets levels tires case covers plasics graphics etc. So i need a spot to work on everything. Building a 1 car garage is just not possible right now. what we do have though is if you drive straight off our driveway down the sie of our house maybe 2 car lengths is a door to the basement, its underneath the deck so i sealed all the cracks between the deck boards to keep the water out thats about maybe 10x10ish, and then if you go through there theres a door to another area thats been dug out and a subfloor has been put down thats maybe 12-14ft wide by only maybe 6ft wide, I could dig it out more to make it something like 8-10ft wide and then wall it in to have another little area. So I was thinking about building my work benches in there and putting my toolchests in there since theres no chance of them getting wet, and then maybe building one more bench in the area under the deck and then keeping the rest of it open to work on the bikes and stuff. But that doesnt help me with cars. I could just park right in front of the door, but I can use a creeper on grass, and its not all that level, plus so jackstands and a jack would probably sink in quite a bit. But thats one idea.

The next would be to go down to the end of my property line and build a 12x14 shed. Then I can build my work benches in there, put my compressor, my tool chests, all my shelving etc and build a shop in there. Obviously still cant pull a car in but I could put on of those 4 legged popups right in front of the door and pull the cars up so i have easy access to all my tools, air lines etc. They make heat pumps now that are window/wall units so I could install one of those to either heat it or cool it since the summers are brutal down here. This is more where im leaning towards. I was looking at the arrow steel sheds, the 12x14 is only like 500-600 bucks, but being steel the insulation would be terrible in the winters, or I could build one from scratch, not sure exactly how much that would cost me. Or last option would be to call around to the shed builders around my area and get some prices.


The housing business is pretty slow after the intial remodel, then its just a waiting game for someone to buy it, or if i rent them I really dont have to do much at all. So I have alot of free time on my hands. Perfect time to get back into the car scene. I finished my last house about 2 months ago and If i had a dealers liscense i could have easily flipped 10 cars by now. Obviously this isnt something I can do out of my house, but ive been pondering the idea of renting a little shop and setting up a used car lot again. I love the car business because I can get one in and 3 days later its sold and I make a quick 1000-2000 bucks, compared to waiting a few months for a house to sell and making 12-25k depending.

What would you guys do if you were in my position? Im so eager to get back into working on cars and bikes and being able to use my tools again since im not living in a little apartment anymore. Thanks for any advice in advance, this is a great forum with tons of awesome information.

 

[bowhuntr311]

If you dont think you'll be in the house for very long I wouldnt do anything that wont net 100% ROI.

If your gonna stay in the same area maybe a shed that could be moved from one place to another (even if it involves paying someone with a roll back flat deck truck) But you'd need to build it accordingly with plans to have it moved. I doubt you'd be able to build something like that big enough to pull a car into....but maybe a good sized shed for the tools and things and then a carport steel or tarp/pvc so you can be out of the sun/rain to wrench on a vehical. Winter poses a little bit of a problem but maybe with a decent carport with sides you could run a nipco style heater to stay warm enough to work on stuff.

 

[bczygan]

Welcome to GJ.

Please put your location in your profile.

How about setting up one of those temporary fabric garages in front of the room you descriped. Throw down some gravel for drainage aand some treated 3/4" t&G plywood on that for a floor so your stuff will roll.

Use that room for tools and a bench.

Hang some lights in both places and good to go.

Bill

 

[yamaha427]

If you dont think you'll be in the house for very long I wouldnt do anything that wont net 100% ROI.

If your gonna stay in the same area maybe a shed that could be moved from one place to another (even if it involves paying someone with a roll back flat deck truck) But you'd need to build it accordingly with plans to have it moved. I doubt you'd be able to build something like that big enough to pull a car into....but maybe a good sized shed for the tools and things and then a carport steel or tarp/pvc so you can be out of the sun/rain to wrench on a vehical. Winter poses a little bit of a problem but maybe with a decent carport with sides you could run a nipco style heater to stay warm enough to work on stuff.

Our plan is to keep the house for about 5 years or so and at which point hopefully will be better off financially and be able to buy the house we desire and want to live in for idk about the rest of our lives but for a long long time. So we bought this with the intent to slowly completely remodel it. This one I got as a forclosure from hud for 55g, 4 bed 2.5 bath 1800sq ft built in 1992 so its pretty new in housing standards, it was appraised at 108 when we bought it and we immideatly painted the exterior, alot of the interior, new furnace, ac unit, i remolded the downstairs bathroom, other plans are to tile and remodel the kitchen, new floors in the living room, remodel the upstairs bathrooms. All in all we want it to be worth about 140 in 5 years so we make out with 60-80k profit and can take that and put a nice down payment on something closer to 3000sq ft, and 5+ acres so I can build a nice detached garage or barn, maybe build a motocross track, well thats the dream. Just a great starter home with the potential to make a nice profit when we have enough money to move into the type of house/area we really want.

But ya I think the shed is a good idea, something like 12x14 should be big enough for a nice size work bench, my tool chest, compressor, possibly parts washer and sandblast cabinet. The only thing ill most likely store in there is my 250, the lawnmower and all that kinda stuff can go under the deck. One of these days ill go up to homedepot and find something thats close to 12x14 to see exactly how much room It would give me. Then the carport outside it would be a great idea. one with the sides tarped off so I can put a heater in there for the winter. The good thing about NC is it stays fairly warm until around december, coldest is febuary but will randomly have weeks in the winter where its 75 degrees. But the summers get brutally hot. I just got a new ratchet today and went downstairs to put it in my box and decided to spend about 5 minutes organizing my screwdriver drawer and I sweated through a shirt. Its consistnely 90+ degrees but then the humidity is insane, just wet heat its terrible. So working outside in the summer is bad. I usually wait until around 830-9pm to mow my lawn cause it finally cools down a bit, or ill do stuff really early like 7am-9am, by then its already 90. Id love to have a garage again, one day

 

[yamaha427]

Welcome to GJ.

Please put your location in your profile.

How about setting up one of those temporary fabric garages in front of the room you descriped. Throw down some gravel for drainage aand some treated 3/4" t&G plywood on that for a floor so your stuff will roll.

Use that room for tools and a bench.

Hang some lights in both places and good to go.

Bill

ya its between that and the shed. This would be the easier route, i already have the building to put the benches and tools and stuff in, all i would need is a carport or something like youre describing to put down in front of the door, I can make a decent amount of indooor work space if i frame in that extra area under the house past the storage i have under the deck. could have like a 10x10 room and then a door directly into a 8ft deep by 12-14ft wide room, Its basically a room, with a door into my crawlspace/basement but its high enough to stand and the last owners dug it out so there already a 6x12 ish area thats been dug out and somewhat leveled. Id just dig a little farther so its like 8-10x12 and frame it all in and put down a nicer floor.