Garage space

How many of you have enough space in your garage?  You don’t either?  Oh wait, there is someone out there who does?  Do you have enough to share with the rest of us?  You don’t, then I guess the rest of us will need to figure it out.

Since we are bound by the laws of physics and our garages can’t be larger on the inside than the outside like the TARDIS, those of us who need to use their garages for storage, and a shop and who knows what else, need to be creative on having enough space.  By the way, if you don’t know what the TARDIS is, go watch Dr Who.

Most of the people I have seen with enough garage space, are the people who don’t have anything in their garage.  I am sure you have all seen those people, the ones what when their garage door opens to drive the car out, they have their car in there, plus a lawn mower, and maybe a rake.  And that is it.  No wonder they have enough space.

Then there are the people that convert their garage to a living room.  We looked at buying a house that the garage was used to store a motorcycle, and be living space.  I guess as a car guy, not have a car in the garage, preferably a project car, or a finished (or close enough to finished to be drivable) project, just seems strange.

At that point, why bother having a garage?  Or better yet, rent it out to some car guy who doesn’t have enough space.

Then again, I have seen people with large garages (pole barns to be more exact) that don’t have enough space.  That is the thing, if you have more room, you have more of a tendency to fill it up.

Our garage is about as small as it can be and still qualify as a two car garage.  When we first moved in to our house, we hadn’t moved all our stuff yet, it was still in storage.  Even with nothing else in the garage, it was a tight fit to park both our vehicles in it.

With the Impala in the garage, there isn’t a lot of left over room.  When I still had my Ford Focus, I had to back in and park as far over on the passengers side as I could so there was room to open the drivers door.  It was a tight fit even with that small car.  Sure, the Impala is big, but it is also pushed up against the wall on rollers.  You wouldn’t be able to park a car that far over regularly.

I have already put shelves up around the upper part of the walls.  The previous owners sheet rocked the inside of the garage, but there is no insulation in the ceiling, so I am going to take down part of the sheet rock so I can store things in the rafters.  That way the stuff piled on the floor won’t be there anymore and I will be able to work in my garage.

The plan is for now to just make a swing down door out of plywood.  The long term plan is to put a drop down ladder there, but it is late enough in the year that I am not sure if we will have time to get that done before it gets too cold in the garage to want to bother with it.  And since the stuff that will be going in the rafters won’t be needed until spring, it isn’t a big deal.

I would like to insulate the garage, and add a heater, but again, that won’t happen this year.  I do have a propane heater that I use, and it keeps it ok in there, so I can work in the garage over the winter if I need to.

I am hoping to start inventorying the Impala to see what we still need to get it on the road next year as a winter project.  I would also like to get the engine pulled before it snows so I can see what it has in it as well as put new gaskets in since it has been sitting so long after being rebuilt.

How about you, do you have any projects going in your garage for over the winter?

 


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