I want a garage damn it

Good on you, that's awesome. It's very hard to go back to school. Even harder to assess where you are, where you want to be and make a large sacrifice to get there.

 

Most engineers I know, mech and civil, are in project or contact management related roles, only one has really flown but he'd have killed anything. I really admire the medical schools here in Australia fordriving an entrepreneurial/go get them attitude in the students. Travel and work, here or overseas, no problem, your own speciality practice, you can do it! While engineering and business schools have kids lined up and beating each other up to be better workers for big corporate.

I wish my 2 car shed was more garage, but the original build was so poor it would be more economical to rip it down and start again. That pisses me off enough to live with it instead.

 

This is what I did, as I didn't really have another option that I could afford. I bought a 1300 sq foot house with a mostly unfinished basement. I have a big open area where I've stored up to 8 motorcycles, a bike lift, and a good sized workbench. I have a couple french doors so I can get the bikes out and just ride through my back yard to get to the road.

There definitely are some cons to this setup though. I've had bikes that sat for a long time, with carbs. One time, I went for a quick test ride, then put the bike back in the basement. Around 2am, my wife and I woke up to the intense smell of gasoline. It was like 40 degrees outside, but we didn't have any other option than to open the whole house up to get rid of that smell. Even if I'm just spraying a bunch of degreaser, you can smell it upstairs, so I do have to limit the "stinky" work I do. Another annoyance is having/needing tools in two different locations between the upstairs garage where I work on cars, and the basement where I work on bikes. It feels like I'm constantly running up and down stairs, carting things back and forth.

 

The fumes alone would be enough for me to pass on this but not having my tools in the garage to wrench in cars would really be the deal breaker. Don’t need a lot of tools for bikes in comparison but still a hassle. Also I don’t think I’ve ever seen a walkout basement around here.

Side note a place popped up near by that’s got it all but is down the street from a big high school that has a rough reputation. I think they shuttle kids there from the inter city or something. Anyways 2.5 car, insulated with 220V, and has HVAC ducts ran. Fingers crossed I can find the time to get there. School started today so between that and work I have no time to see these places other than the weekend or late nights.

 

If you are doing something like this you may want to check with your home insurance company first. I know my insurance company does not allow gasoline or gasoline powered equipment to be stored in the house. It must be stored in the garage or outdoors. I was thinking about doing the same thing and read my policy.

 

I just kinda figured after all that time in the Cold-cold North you'd be used to it...
OBTW; In my home, she lets me pretend to be the boss every now and again...

 

Thanks!
PS: Make me an offer!

 

But, but, butt the shinny golden bits are the perfect accent pieces for that snow covered look...

 

Agreed. I started college in 1965. Graduated in 1985. (No, not full time!)
I may be slow but I'm stubborn!

 

Exact same things have happened to me, sucks but I love my basement garage/shower/home-theater.

 

Me too
2 story house, first floor is 740sqf garage with 1000sqf that is suppose to be living room and bathroom and now is garage.
Run out of the room so another 1800sqf coming up, building attached.
End plan is 3500 garage and wife can have 2nd floor in house

 

How much tranny oil did that junker Astro van puke on your driveway?

 

Pest control

 

I know me. I remember as a mech engr straight out of school the senior mech engr PE had his personal finances spreadsheet accidentally saved on the server. When I saw his 60k salary for a guy about to retire I said, yep, gotta move to the business or ops side of my company. Moved on and more than doubled the salary capacity I would been at if I stuck to engineering.

 

Exactly proved my point. Add engineering to business skills with a 6 figure floor.

Sure you can find exceptions, like small town doctors in the middle of nowhere making $80k. My point is, if you are going to school engineering is 1 of the top choices for income potential.

 

I thought Parish was visiting him Mid Paintjob!

 

Mostly mechanical and civil. One guy I went to high school with and like myself he is good with people and understands stuff. So he got into the sales part and basically lives in Japan half the time but makes bank. The place I've been interning just has me doing basic drawings and modeling, no hardcore engineering going on which makes me think it's a dead end.

 

Have to start somewhere. The only people I know who got tossed in the deep end on day 1 were people who got hired at big-name places they interned for a year, and some of the SAE Formula guys.

Add in the fact that there aren't really that many companies or organizations doing stuff on the cutting edge. Legit R&D positions are rare and require a masters at a minimum. Plenty of demand for guys who have a solid understanding of mechanics and can manage and update product lines.

There's a place in Berea SW of BW with a 25x30 garage.

 

Forget a garage, I want a shop. I have enough garage space for 4 cars and you couldn't squeeze a fart in there right now.

 

Funny timing to see a thread in here about garages. I'm just finishing up about a year's worth of effort on a major garage/shop remodel. I've been living and breathing garage/shop stuff during that time, even to the exclusion of some motorcycle stuff!

I started off with what could be considered a "dream" garage. It certainly was to me when I moved in. A detached garage that is approximately 6-car in size. It was the original owner's wood working shop (and garage) and was built before the house, as a base of operations for his construction of the house. It had seen a lot of use, and then an equal amount of neglect when I moved in, so took a big effort to clean up and get into shape.

So, I had plenty of space, but over time the biggest problem became the Florida weather. It is a wood frame structure build along the same lines as the house. It had no windows, and no insulation. The daily temps in there topped out in the triple-digits for roughly half of the year. So, you could open the garage doors, turn on some fans and tough it out or try to work in the evenings and get eaten alive by insects.

I learned to work with what I had, and tried various things to help (started insulating the walls, put vents in the roof, etc. etc.), but my limited time and skills weren't really making much of a difference. But after a recent (long) chain of events, we decided to go whole hog and and make it what we wanted. It has been a tough road, even having pros do most of the heavy lifting, but it is finally there. Now I can re-calibrate to actually using the shop instead of working on the shop!

Went from this:


To this:


The light-gray floor area is all under air. The whole building (including the carport area) is under one roof. There is a screen that closes over the end so you can wash a vehicle or open the shop door without the bugs. I had everything (including the garage doors) insulated up the wazoo so even the non-A/C section doesn't get nearly as hot as it used to.

Still getting used to the nicer digs, I hope it lets me take on bigger projects since I can effectively spend more time out there.