Newbie's first garage

[rossinbagger83]

So I've been a frequent visitor to GJ and the forum for about 6 months now and finally got the stones to jump in on the action. I'm 27 and my wife and I bought our first house last December. It's a 1960s ranch on one acre in Nashville, TN with an attached two car garage. It was (still is) a fixer upper: we had to paint every surface (walls, doors, ceilings, trim, windows inside and out), refinish all the floors (buried under hideous **** carpet), remodel one bathroom and renovate the other...and did it all ourselves.

We bought the house from the son of the original owner who passed away in 2008. Since the son lives out of state the house was pretty much untouched for 2 years, with all the owner's stuff inside. From what I see and hear from the neighbors, RC was a pretty handy guy but he kept EVERY thing, even bent nails. When we bought the house we got all the "stuff" that was in it and it has taken me the better part of a year to get the garage cleaned out and find homes for the stuff I didn't want (hardly threw a thing away). I've only recently begun rebuilding the garage to fit our needs.

I'm a cyclist (the kind with pedals...) and have an addiction to owning and fixing bicycles. My father is an excellent wood worker and all-around handy guy so I learned my way around tools from him. I'm slowly but surely building my skills in carpentry.

To me, the coolest part of all this: nearly all the work I've done on this garage was with reclaimed materials that were already buried in a pile somewhere. So my cost has been minimal. I look forward to getting some great advice from all the seasoned pro's out there as I make this space my own. Without further rambling...a few "before" pics:

The garage on the backside of the house:

The workbench as I found it:

Cleaning it out:

The garage also has to double as the laundry room. A door (you can see the handle in the far right of this image) goes between the kitchen and garage. The washer is to the right of that door. I tore out an old cabinet and installed a new wall cabinet and built a fold up laundry table and coat/boot storage compartment.

I also got a sweet storage shed in the back yard:

I've got better pics at home of how things look NOW so I'll update tonight.

 

[DARK AGE 53]

look forward to seeing your updated pics.

 

[JC23]

Awesome package, rossinbagger. And welcome aboard@

You got a house, garage, shed, tools, bench and all the history. It's cool that you are using so much of what you got left. It also looks like you can also build a seperate building behind the house if you want. Way to do your intel on house buying!


Have fun and keep us up on your progress. It'll be cool to see a 'bike' garage.

 

[lowendrider]

looks like a nice setup and....WarEagle!

 

[Josh B]

Congrats on the house buddy!

I think you are on the right track with reusing the old stuff. Sometimes junk is junk, but most of the time it can be quite useful. Before you throw anything out, think hard about what you can use it for...

For Example, the prior owner of my home left an old grill out on my deck. The grilling area of the thing was shot, but I saw that the stand was in good shape. I scratched my head and said, hmmm, wonder if that will work as a miter saw stand. I can put my scrap wood underneath, it has wheels, and it is the perfect height!

 

[rossinbagger83]

As you will see in the photos below, I've cleared out the piles of stuff over the course of the year and have recently started making the space mine.

Got the bench top cleared off. It's a great work space.

Still have a pile of scrap to find a home for. I also "converted" an old kitchen island into a movable shop table:

Laundry section stays clean and relatively free of clutter:

We've got this interesting "washer nook" that needs some clean-up and the sliding doors hide the stairs that take you to the attic (pretty nice feature):

And another shot of the bench/side storage. I got that thin base cabinet from Habitat ReStore for $8, slapped some casters on it and put the drill press (under the sheet) on top.

So there's a LOT to work with. Besides the low ceilings of the garage (due to the FLOORED attic above!) it is a really good space. It is badly in need of a fresh coat of paint and I am thinking of a light beige for the laundry corner with a horizontal blue stripe. Then the rest of the garage walls will be blue with a beige stripe - just to create a little visual distinction between man-space and laundry-space.

Any of you pro's have any other great ideas?

 

[rossinbagger83]

You got a house, garage, shed, tools, bench and all the history. It's cool that you are using so much of what you got left. It also looks like you can also build a seperate building behind the house if you want. Way to do your intel on house buying!

JC23: Yeah we have tons of space to build a nice detached garage/shop and convert the existing garage into living space. Given all the other work this house needs, that project is in our 10-15 year plan, so who knows if we will stay there that long...

looks like a nice setup and....WarEagle!

Yeah man! War Eagle! What a game on Friday, huh?

Congrats on the house buddy!

I think you are on the right track with reusing the old stuff. Sometimes junk is junk, but most of the time it can be quite useful. Before you throw anything out, think hard about what you can use it for...

For Example, the prior owner of my home left an old grill out on my deck. The grilling area of the thing was shot, but I saw that the stand was in good shape. I scratched my head and said, hmmm, wonder if that will work as a miter saw stand. I can put my scrap wood underneath, it has wheels, and it is the perfect height!

Josh: Yeah it's amazing what you can repurpose - and it beats the heck out of tearing stuff apart to fit into the garbage can! That's one of the things I plan to use this repurposed kitchen island for: miter saw stand.

 

[D1LLon]

I am interested in knowing some of the cool things/tools you found in that place. I love digging through "junk".

 

[JC23]

One thing that jumps out - you can use one of those sliding doors by the steps to hang something like tools, commonly used house stuff or anything else for that matter. Also, I didn't see many lights. Got enuf?

There's not much more we can tell you. All the cool tricks and methods are on these pages. You obviously have the photo thing down so keep us informed and if you're gonna do any mutli-stage project, we dig how-to stories.

Go for it and make us proud!

 

[drmoonshine]

It will definitely take some time til you find what your really want out of you space but looking at other builds will definitely help you.

 

[rossinbagger83]

I am interested in knowing some of the cool things/tools you found in that place. I love digging through "junk".

Oh, there was plenty of "junk" alright - but it was a blast to dig through it all. I wouldn't even know where to begin. A bunch of 1970s Craftsman power tools: scroll saw, drill press, circular saw, router, etc. Most of it still works and I hung on to a few of the tools I didn't already have. There were about 5 old metal tool boxes (and one ammo can ) that were FULL to the brim of bent nails, rusted screws. I dug through them all and when I didn't find anything of value, I took the hardware to a metal scrap yard. Some other old tool boxes full of hand tools - lots of Made in USA craftsman wrenches, electrical tools, etc. I sold those to an old guy who collects old tools. Let's see...a bunch of mouse turds...

I also found a box of letters/cards/family movies which I didn't touch and finally mailed it all to the son of the owner. Other random stuff: 5 or so old grease guns for heavy farm equipment, a 3rd edition Boy Scouts Manual, an empty moonshine jug, a two-man cross cut saw, a 14.5 hp wood chipper (!!! still works !!!), rusty horse shoes, railroad spikes...so yeah, it was a blast to dig through.

One thing that jumps out - you can use one of those sliding doors by the steps to hang something like tools, commonly used house stuff or anything else for that matter. Also, I didn't see many lights. Got enuf?

I like the idea of using the sliding doors for additional storage. At this point I don't think I'll need it for that since I've found homes for most of what I have (but maybe it'd be good for hanging clamps!). As my tool supply grows it could be perfect though. Thanks for the idea. Until I need it for storage I was thinking of slapping a map of Middle Tennessee on there so I can plan out my bike rides right there from the shop. It'd be a lot better than using Google Maps!

I definitely need more lights. All I have is a single 100W bulb slapped in the middle of the ceiling, and that two bulb halogen hanging light over the bench. During the day I get great natural light through those windows, but I definitely need some lighting. Thankfully, the panel is right behind the sliding doors so running new wiring would be a snap - I just haven't touched anything electrical (aside from a ceiling fan) since I fried the wiring harness in my '87 BMW 325 when I, as a stupid 16 year old, tried to install a new Japanese stereo in an old German car.