Tiny Terracotta Garage

[Picklerick]

I've just moved from a townhouse to a single family home a few miles outside of DC. With the new home came a detached garage, which is pretty rare this close to the city in this price range. The only catch is that the garage needs work and that we were left with lots of stuff in the garage from the previous owners.

Before getting a desk job I was a bicycle mechanic, so I understand the value of a well spec'd shop. In this garage, I'll maintain our fleet of (9) bicycles, do some wood working, house projects, and tinker on my scooter and motorcycle. I'll try to keep this up to date as I start to turn this 17x19 terracotta block garage into the workshop I've been dreaming of.

 

[Picklerick]

Move in status:

When we moved into the new place this weekend I was left to deal with the previous owners stuff they had left in the garage. I would say junk, but I've found quite a bit of usable stuff hidden in there. Here are some photos from before we moved in showing the state of the space and how much was left in the garage.

Check out the extra long gutter!

 

[Picklerick]

Post Move In:

After the home was finally ours, I had to fill the garage even more with my junk. By the time we had moved our stuff in and had a chance to take stock of what we had in the garage, I had 10 shovels between what I had and what was left in the garage, 3 fridges, like 15 paint rollers, and a bucket full of sockets.

Well, the garage is full, so now what!?

 

[captain14]

Welcome from College Park

Post plenty of pictures. We love pictures of your work on the garage and projects and activities you are working on



Are you in MD or VA ?

 

[Picklerick]

Starting to organize:

In order to be able to use the garage and start organizing my stuff and the previous owners leftovers I started organizing and trying to get to every wall to dust, vacuum, sweep and clean. I pulled almost everything out so that I could get to the walls and see what kind of shape the place was in. I basically filled the driveway with everything I pulled out of the place. That didn't include the freezer, fridge, and mini-fridge.

As a reward for a job well done I went and picked up the 44" US General toolbox so that i could unpack my toolboxes and start to get things organized. Then, it was time to create some type of temporary bench to get me started. I had an old Ikea table top from a friend and had found some metal saw horses in the garage. A couple screws later and I've got somewhere to start working. I put in the US General tool chest and my dutch tool chest and now have a place to work!

As you can see there is still a lot to get rid of and a lot of organizing to do, but I had a warm place, close to my tools, to build my first project -- a gate for the driveway.

 

[Picklerick]

Welcome from College Park

Post plenty of pictures. We love pictures of your work on the garage and projects and activities you are working on



Are you in MD or VA ?

Thanks for the welcome! I'm over in Arlington VA.

I'll definitely keep posting photos of the garage and my projects. Hopefully I'll have time to work on things besides the garage itself!

 

[bandlaw]

Looks like a great project! Congratulations on the new place and looking forward to seeing your progress!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[captain14]

What's the age of your garage? ( if not known the house)

My house is a terracotta block and brick construction. The house was built in 1939 and it was Sometime Shortly after that they transitioned to concrete masonary block (CMU)

 

[sean Buick 76]

Fantastic! If it were me I would build a 6x12 shed to store stuff in white you re-do the garage....

 

[Picklerick]

What's the age of your garage? ( if not known the house)

My house is a terracotta block and brick construction. The house was built in 1939 and it was Sometime Shortly after that they transitioned to concrete masonary block (CMU)

I believe the garage was built with the house, which was 1938. I'm pretty sure the house isn't terracotta though. I'd never seen the terracotta block before. I'll have to learn how to do stucco to repair some spots on the outside.

 

[Picklerick]

Fantastic! If it were me I would build a 6x12 shed to store stuff in white you re-do the garage....

That's actually not far off from my plan. I'm getting rid of the fridges and some of the big stuff this weekend and then am going to build a small potting shed for the yard tools, pots, and other "outdoor" items. It should free up a lot of space.

 

[teejaywhy]

I'll take the golf clubs!!

 

[speedfreek1210]

Welcome from central Maryland!

Will be following along. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the space.


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[captain14]

That's actually not far off from my plan. I'm getting rid of the fridges and some of the big stuff this weekend and then am going to build a small potting shed for the yard tools, pots, and other "outdoor" items. It should free up a lot of space.

And now there’s another thread you have to follow about show your shed!

It’s never ending other members showing you what to build and helping spend your money and time on

 

[airsanford]

The people's republic of Arlington. A completely Bolshevik government of the first order.

 

[Picklerick]

It's been a couple weeks and I've made a fair amount of progress on the garage. I've been able to clean out almost everything from the previous owners and starting bringing the rest of my stuff in and filling it with tools. Still lots of golf clubs and hazardous materials to dispose of.

I took out the old florescent lights and put in a couple of these led light bars. I got another one I've yet to install so that I can have one over my work "desk". these were really cheap, put out a great deal of light, and were really easy to install.

In true chicken or egg style I wanted to build a work bench so that I could do other projects around the garage. I found some examples of Nicholson knock-down workbenches that seemed like they would work well for me. I primarily do hand-tool woodworking, so being able to have a bench that could use holdfasts and would be versatile for everything else I like to do. The bench is around 7 feel in length and between 250 and 300 pounds. The gap in the center of the bench is to put clamps through so that you can clamp right to the face of the bench.

 

[Picklerick]

I pulled found a couple of filing cabinets in the scrap container and was able to use them to replace the saw horses underneath my work "desk". I built 2x4 platforms underneath of the filing cabinets to bring them up a couple of inches to make the desk height a little more appropriate. They are super heavy and seem like they will last a very long time.

The previous owners left behind a lot of tools. There was a plastic bin with literally hundreds of sockets in it. I don't even want to admit how much time I spend sorting out the craftsman sockets out of this bin and then organizing them and putting them onto these socket bars. But, for 6 sets of sockets, I think it was worth it.

I've never had a table saw before and as new projects arise around the house, I figured now was the time. I built a cart to hold my new table saw that puts the saw at the same height as my new workbench with casters on the bottom. This way I can make longer or wider cuts than the saw can support on its own.

 

[Riley]

Awfully nice molding for a garage. I'd bet it was a "room" at some time.

Great project you've got going. Looking forward to seeing it develop.

 

[Picklerick]

Awfully nice molding for a garage. I'd bet it was a "room" at some time.

Great project you've got going. Looking forward to seeing it develop.

Yea, I think you're right. I found some carpet strips in one of the corners. You should see the house. There's more feet of molding in one of the bathrooms than there was in my last house. I'm going to keep as much of it as I can in the garage, someone spent an awful lot of time putting it up.