Think I made a big mistake!!

[Don Coatney]

While on my two week road trip the my garage was empty so my wife took advantage of the situation and started parking her car where my car belongs. I have heard nothing but complaining sense arriving home of how she must now park her car outside again same as it has been parked for the past 7 years. So I guess I have a few options.

Could possibly re-arrange my garage and make room for two cars at a terrible inconvenience to me as I like to be able to walk around my car and have my tool boxes handy to my work bench. Could buy a car cover and park my car outside (not really an option in my book). I could spend mega bucks and build a new garage but it would have to be tall enough to install the car lift that I have wanted for years but that increases the mega buck total. Could buy a car port and park my car under it (once again not my favorite option). What to do?? What to do??

[Guest Nile Limbaugh]

I don't know your space situation but the last 2 houses I've owned I bit the bullet and put a 'playroom' on the back of the lot. The one I have now is a steel structure, 20 x 25, with an industrial roll-up door that doesn't block the lights if I work after dark. Slab, electricity and all cost, I think, about 7K, about as cheap as you can get. But to me it's worth it to be able to close the door and leave the mess (as my wife calls my projects) where it is until next time.

[Don Coatney]

Don..as winter is appraoaching and Lisa wants to keep the car in the garage..let her...and to show her just how much of a bad idea this really is..be sure to spray the door everynight with water and let it freeze shut..shortly she will see the benefits of parking on the drive. Even though this is written here...are you sure this is me typing? I know nothing about any of this..

Tim;

Remember where I live. It rarely gets cold enough to freeze anything solid here.

[Chester Brzostowski]

Don,

Sounds like the Garage space is OK...., Maybe need a new wife...

I have this understanding with my wife that any space that has a dirt or cement floor is mine. All the wood floors are hers. It seems to work since my new toy is sitting in the porch next to the hot tub. Melissa said that she has come to the conclusion that we will never be able to actual use it as a porch.

See Don it has a cement floor so it's mine by default even if it isn't a garage. Of course if you want to sleep soundly at night I would make space for her car in the garage.

Chet…

[MacTexas]

Build the garage you have always wanted. You deserve it. Beware, stuff expands to fit the space available, so make it a big one.

[PatS....]

Around here, if it aint freezing and 10 feet of snow, the garage is for toys. However, you have to keep the Mrs. happy or you may end up SLEEPING in the garage...alone.

Good luck

[Dennis Hemingway]

Don, you can build a new Garage. Here is one I'm building. It's a 30' X' 50' X 14" steel building with a 20' X 50' cement apron in front of the 2 12' roll-up doors. They poured the cement for the main building on Wednesday.

Dennis:D

[thedahmer]

Just build it!!! spend it so your kids cant fight over it-- the way I see it I came into this world Naked and Broke-- that is the way I plan on going out--A very wise man told me that--

[Merle Coggins]

Don,

Here's another parking option for you. Be sure to read the letter that goes with the pic

A LETTER FROM MY WIFE........

?

To my darling husband

Before you return from your golf trip I just want to let you know about the small accident I had with the pick up truck when I turned into the driveway. Fortunately not to bad and I really didn't get hurt, so please don't worry too much about me.

I was coming home from Wal-Mart, and when I turned into the driveway I accidentally pushed down on the accelerator instead of the brake. The garage door is slightly bent but the pick up fortunately came to a halt when it bumped into your car.

I am really sorry but I know with your kind hearted personality you will forgive me. You know how much I love you and care for you my sweet heart.

I cannot wait to hold you in my arms again.

Your loving wife.

[BobT-47P15]

Well, as they say in Italian, or something, I only getta the left halfa da garage. The wifey's PT Cruiser gets the other half. Since she is a kinda short person, she likes smaller cars. Thatsa good thing. Leaves me just a leeetle more room. Sometimes when the weather is good, she will let me use her half to string out my junque in order to work on the old car. But eventually it has to get cleaned up. And I got all sortsa stuff on shelves, stacked and hanging on my side. Too much actually, but I kind of like having some of it around. Uh, Don, is that frost on the Plym in the outside picture.

I even have sneaked a few things over onto her side.

[BobT-47P15]

Norm, there is a house somewhat like that not far from the office. Just your basic ranch style home. On the south end is a normal two car garage. On the north end is another either 2 or 3 car garage, part with high roof for the big motor home. So you have house between garages.

[James_Douglas]

Don,

When you visit SF next year and see the garage space I have you will see why I have no sympathy for you on this one Don. Space to walk around your car! Hell, I have to move the car into the street just to open my tool box drawer all the way!

In my case though the wife thing is not a problem. Sondra was born in NYC and rides the bus 10 minutes to work. So she does not get a car!

Best, James

PS. Though when she wants me to take her someplace I do have to put up with her saying “HOME JAMES”

[Guest pizzafrank]

Don, My wife used to tell me , when we bought our first house , She knew I wanted a 3 car garage and a one bedroom house.

[Olddaddy]

You're lucky Don, the last time I travelled I came home to find the dog had taken over my half of the bed! I solved the car problem by building a barn where my car gets first choice of location.

[Rodney Bullock]

Don, give her the garage, then build the greatest garage for your Plymouth. The lift, sand blaster and a compressor.nice sound system and cable. before you know it she will be out there and then you can make your move back in your old space....oh no that plan kind of backfires doesen't it never mind!

[greg g]

KISS!!! Send her on a road trip and reclaim your space while she is gone.

[Guest Nile Limbaugh]

My ideal living space would be a 3 room apartment above a 10 car garage 20 miles out in the country on 50 acres of unzoned property. Then all I would need is a place in town where my wife could live . . . .

[Don Coatney]

Pictured below is the garage I built several years ago when I lived in Ohio. I took this picture a couple years ago while on a road trip so the vehicles pictured belong to the current owner. This garage is 62 feet long. It is 17 feet wide at the front and 24 feet wide at the rear. It wraps around the back of the house. I wired it with 100 amp 220 volt service so I could run my air compressor on 220. I plumed the air all around the walls and had an air drop every 10 feet. I also had 110 volt electrical receptacles every 6 feet and every other one was on a different 20 amp circuit. I installed a sink with hot and cold running water and also installed a urinal. When I poured the floor I installed floor drains. This house had a cistern that collected rain water from the roof. I plumbed in a pump and hose drops so I could use this rain water to wash cars inside in the winter. I built and installed a double barrel wood and coal burning stove for heat in the winter. When it was below zero outside I could work in this garage in short sleeves. I also wired in telephone service and had several 8 foot florescent lights. Also installed sky lights in the roof for better illumination. Built an overhead storage area with a pull down ladder in the area where the garage connected to the house. It was a dream garage at the time I built it. Today I would have built it taller to accommodate a lift. I was talking to my old neighbor a couple of years after I sold this house and he told me that the new owner called him one night because the water plumbing in the garage had froze and broke. When I did the plumbing I made provisions to easily drain the water if it was going to freeze and there was no fire in the furnace. I fully instructed the new owner on how to do this but apparently he did not listen.

This is what the old garage looked like. It was a one car garage. I had my Messerschmidt disassembled and leaning against the outside wall.

This is the inside of the old garage with my 1969 BSA Rocket Three. This is the motorcycle I raced at Bonneville.

The white glass door cabinet in the above picture was one of the original kitchen cabinets in this house. I still have this cabinet hanging in my garage here in Tennessee. It has been installed in seven different garages in the past 40 years all the way from New York to California. To the left of the cabinet is a pie safe that now sits in my dining room.

[Guest jtw3749c]

Well I solved the problem a long time ago. I first built a 30X40 with all the fix'ins and just flat out grew that one, sooo a 40X60with 10 foot walls and a gable ceiling (for the hoist) and I want to tell you here and now. All the stuff you got, grows during the night. Really!

JT

[Guest rockabillybassman]

Trade the wife for another Plymouth.........

[SonomaJim]

BUILD IT!!! Don, from your photo it looks like you have the space. If I had space on my little lot, I'd build just what you described in a heartbeat. In wine country small lots and high housing costs are the price we pay for zoning to protect open spaces in an attempt to rein in urban sprawl. A two car garage is just not big enough. I feel the same way you do about access to tools, workbench and walk-around space. My wife expects to park her car in one side from Labor Day to Memorial Day. Some nerve. To go to work she doesn't think she should have to get into a cold car, squeege rain or dew off the windows, or scrape the frost off on the few days we have it. My half is filled with a workbench and a multitude of tools for woodworking and cars. Her half is now filled by a '73 Challenger project belonging to my son who doesn't have room for it in his garage in San Francisco. He used to live just a few miles away. Before he moved his garage had a 12' ceiling and I was lobbying him to put in a lift. My '46 Dodge coupe body is on a trailer on half of the driveway, just having been soda blasted two weeks ago. I'm praying for a delay in the NorCal rainy season. It's chassis is next to it on the other half (almost stripped for powder coating), in process of welding in transmission and motor mounts for a 360 and A518 transmission. Our drivable cars are parked on the street. As you might guess, she is losing patience as Labor Day is long past.