When I bought this house (circa March 2019) I picked it because it had a garage. Next to “two” bathrooms, a garage was a must. This little garage is 12′ Wide x18′ Deep (and ~7′ tall). Initially I thought it would be “enough” garage to get by until I moved up and got my forever house. Turns out, this may be my “until retirement” house instead.
After I bought this house, I added a few things to the garage hoping I could organize around the dimensional inadequacies. I did a little peg board hanging, some small studs coming down from each rafter, and started using my garage.
First thing I did in there was to swap the automatic transmission for a manual transmission in my 2005 Crown Victoria. That car has 0 space on the rear (and my bumper has the scratch marks to prove it), and about 5″ in the front you can “just” squeeze your shins through. When I worked on that project, if I needed to work on the other side of the car, I had to go out the front of the garage, outside to the back of the garage. None of my other vehicles have this issue (well, my truck is too wide and too tall to fit though the garage door, so it has never been in there).
Most recently me and Indy procrastinated for about a year on getting his Ford Escort Wagon back on the road. We did his cylinder head a few months before, then his clutch exploded, and after we replaced his clutch, the engine didn’t turn over anymore. That killed our spirit. A few months ago, I installed an overhead crane and some rigging to keep it all square. Then, one night, I got a hair up my ass, and went out to pull the transmission out again, and see “What in the hell is locking this engine up?”. The overhead crane made it an absolute breeze! A few days later we had the car up and running, drive around to test it without the hood, and there it is, all done and the garage was empty again. The engine was locked up because the new pressure plate was a tinny bit thicker than the original, so it was catching on the bellhousing.
Shortly after I met Jamie, we built the benches. Shortly after that, I had to stash everything in every place to get my Comet out of the weather before a car show and that is about how it stayed for just over three years. I was overwhelmed by the chaos, clutter, and disaster that was “my garage”. Until a couple weeks ago, when I got a surge of “Superfocus”, and went with it. I have never been diagnosed with ADHD or anything, but I seem to follow the same path as they do.
As you can see here, it had become a mess with layers of “shit” stacked on piles of “shit”. There is still some dog shit in the bottom of the big garage door from when Diesel was in there, but that’s a different kind of “shit” from what I’m talking about here. Maybe a new garage door is in order sooner than later too, I guess.
Between some smaller projects in the little garage, I bought a $400 mini-split (AC in the summer, heater in the winter) and have absolutely become sold on the value of a cheap mini-split (mine is 115V wall outlet power, install it yourself, and pre-charged with refrigerant). I’ve since installed one in Indy’s bedroom and have plans to put at least one more in the basement to help even out the temperatures in the house. They do suck a little more power, but I had my roof covered with as many solar panels as it would hold, so it balances out.
That mini-split also provided a little bit of heat for Dayton’s dog (Diesel) for one winter when Diesel lived in the garage. This is where a mini-split fails. If it is too cold outside, ice will build up on the external unit and cause the blade to stop. If you want to heat your space on a low teens or single digit night, a mini-split isn’t going to cut it for too long. Wow what a deviation.
After watching a LOT of YouTube, scrolling Pinterest for HOURS, and sketching page after page with pen to paper I finally realized making this tinny space more than just a wood shop, auto mechanics shop, metal shop, home repair shop, or tinker castle was going to take a truck load of compromise. When a car is in there, that is the only thing you can realistically work on. If you want to use the table saw or work on something across sawhorses, then that is your only project until it is finished. I am going to try and paint my dad’s “63 Fairlane sometime this year, that will really test my ability to cover and clean up after the cyclone of paint spray the garage is going to experience.
I decided to use the small 2×2 “studs” I had installed earlier as the guides for my shelving (I chose 2×2 because using 2×4 studs would have taken 7″ off the width of my garage making it 11’5″ wide). I used some scrap chip board that my neighbor was throwing out for the braces, and lag bolted the 2X2 studs to the cinderblock. The most expensive part of this was the 1X10 boards that are the shelves (and the screws of course). We used Indy’s Escort Wagon to haul it all home (That is an awesome car. I drove it to and from work the other day and it was too fun).
I also notched the 1X10 so it could flush up against the cinderblock. A few were warped so they don’t seem to sit level. Once I loaded them up, they worked their way down to “almost” flat. I also used a laser level on the 2X2s and the braces, so they are level. It also does a wonderful job of showing how bad the cinderblocks have settled over around 80+ years (My house was built in 1909, and the garage feels a little newer than that – it is very small, so maybe from when cars were smaller?). They used a 2×4 down the center of the garage, so it could be as new as the 1980s, but I doubt it.
I measured the stuff I knew I would put on the shelves, so could figure out spacing. Once I thought they were secure, I started to clean up the middle of the garage and load up the shelving. I did double up some of the braces down by the big garage door because it just seems like a spot someone will eventually try to climb up the shelving to get stuff off the top shelf (that is tucked behind the garage rail).
While I was letting my mind do whatever my mind does when it is overwhelmed, I ordered a pile of LED shop lights to hang between the rafters (I ordered 6, then last week I ordered 6 more that are yet to be hung). This garage almost has enough light now. I had an extra one that I wasn’t sure where to hang so I put it above the bench (right one – by the toolbox).
Taking pity on me, Jamie came and guided me through the mayhem that was the middle of my garage. I still have a little more work on the benches because they’re still cluttered, but I have been able to work on my dad’s Falcon and spend some time enjoying the tidiness of my garage.
Now that the organization is going well, I’m a little worried my power consumption is going to overpower the power availability. I think my next big job is going to be digging a trench from my house to the garage, adding a circuit breaker to the box on my house, and getting some real wiring out to the garage. I did wire the garage with a sub panel, 14/3 wire, switches, and a bunch of outlets. So interior electrical is “okay” and safe, but the extension cord method out to the garage is suspect. It is plugged into a 15-amp outlet on the side of the house, so it isn’t totally “janky” but still. When the air compressor fires up and the mini-split is running, the 15-amp in the garage always pops (like it is supposed to).
There it is. That is where my garage is so far. Packed as tight as a tuna can, still a little scattered, but much easier to keep things in their place without too much fuss. I have only worked on my dad’s car in there so far, but it felt nice to be able to walk around without knocking things over every few feet.
If anyone knows where to get about 100′ of 6-gauge house wire (or 75′ of 6 gauge, and 25′ of 10 gauge), let me know. I’ll dig the trench after I find the wire. C’mon karma, I’ve been relatively good.
~ me
