Garage out of space. Need ideas.

Doctor_Ink · Feb 2, 2012

I'm 17 years old, live with my parents, and they're trying to sell the house. Every piece of furniture is taking up all the space we have in the garage. Any ideas on where I could set up "shop?" (I have my own set of tools.. I work on my car, building a bar, and an old go-kart.)

brihvac · Feb 2, 2012

Doctor_Ink said:
I'm 17 years old, live with my parents, and they're trying to sell the house. Every piece of furniture is taking up all the space we have in the garage. Any ideas on where I could set up "shop?" (I have my own set of tools.. I work on my car, building a bar, and an old go-kart.)

In another year....your own house.

Doctor_Ink · Feb 2, 2012

brihvac said:
In another year....your own house.

I don't make enough money to buy a house at 18. I'm a Maintenance Technician at an Elderly Living community.

GirlnAgarage · Feb 2, 2012

Doctor_Ink said:
I'm 17 years old, live with my parents, and they're trying to sell the house. Every piece of furniture is taking up all the space we have in the garage. Any ideas on where I could set up "shop?" (I have my own set of tools.. I work on my car, building a bar, and an old go-kart.)

Well if you're folks are trying to sell the house you're in probably not the best investment to start a new garage setup in there.

If you're under your parents roof it's their rules. Check with them. Other than that, start looking for your own place.

Doctor_Ink · Feb 2, 2012

GirlnAgarage said:
Well if you're folks are trying to sell the house you're in probably not the best investment to start a new garage setup in there.

If you're under your parents roof it's their rules. Check with them. Other than that, start looking for your own place.

I have started looking into apartments, as it seems it is all I could really afford. However, these would not give me a garage or any space to work in...

Jack Olsen · Feb 2, 2012

What's the kind of work you're doing (or wanting to do) in a garage?

Doctor_Ink · Feb 2, 2012

Jack Olsen said:
What's the kind of work you're doing (or wanting to do) in a garage?

Work on my car, go-kart, and snowmobiles. I have been working on a bar (home bar) and it is coming along nicely, but now I have nowhere to work on it

. Other miscellaneous woodworking projects.

DIC · Feb 3, 2012

Happy Birthday.....

plung · Feb 3, 2012

Pay for a storage unit and put all that junk in there.

BackTracker · Feb 3, 2012

I'm only slightly ashamed to admit that at one point i used a storage unit as a makeshift woodshop....and interestingly, no one seemed to notice or care.

reddog289 · Feb 3, 2012

That was me 25 years ago, Cept the folks wern't moving. Now they want to and like that I have my own cluttered garage. They want to fillit up more for me.
Good Luck

plung · Feb 3, 2012

BackTracker said:
I'm only slightly ashamed to admit that at one point i used a storage unit as a makeshift woodshop....and interestingly, no one seemed to notice or care.

Is that why my boxes are always covered in dust? :Gun1:

BackTracker · Feb 3, 2012

plung said:
Is that why my boxes are always covered in dust?

reddog289 · Feb 3, 2012

My wife works in storage, she could hook you up if you lived in Detroit.

rsieracki · Feb 3, 2012

plung said:
Pay for a storage unit and put all that junk in there.

i was going to suggest renting a small vacant factory/garage something... with all the empty property im sure he can find something cheap in the neighborhood... if it has a bathroom he can even sleep there and **** chick in it...

BackTracker said:
I'm only slightly ashamed to admit that at one point i used a storage unit as a makeshift woodshop....and interestingly, no one seemed to notice or care.

lol... i had a 12x22 i rented for a few years 110 a month where i parked and "worked" on my 76 eldo convertible with my buddy... we mainly drank beer tho... i packed so much **** in there i built a loft/ second story to store more... no i dont really have more pics that was years ago i had "the unit". you can see a lil bit of it in the photos shown.. im 5'6 and the ceiling was 10-12feet so it was a nice storage loft. thats my snow plow i had over there to repaint and thats the eldo and a 'spare' engine i picked up in hopes of building then swapping... i sold the car long before that happened

ddawg16 · Feb 3, 2012

Might be time to clean up.....how much of the stuff do you really need?

bazzateer · Feb 3, 2012

Try to find an empty unit nearby to rent and move all your tools etc in there. Make sure it's good and secure and fully insured! As someone mentioned, a bathroom opens the door to staying overnight on occasions.

Shadowdog500 · Feb 3, 2012

Doctor_Ink said:
I'm 17 years old, live with my parents, and they're trying to sell the house. Every piece of furniture is taking up all the space we have in the garage. Any ideas on where I could set up "shop?" (I have my own set of tools.. I work on my car, building a bar, and an old go-kart.)

After your parents sell the house, make sure they buy a house with a big garage.

When we were selling our old house our realtor gave us a sheet with tips to help sell a house. The first thing was to put all clutter in a storage unit. you have to make your home look like a show home. When people do a walk through and see a garage full of furniture, the think "this place is cramped." If they see a clean, neat garage that isn't cluttered, then can see how big it is and can visualise how they can park or work on their own car in that garage.

Tell your parents to move all of the clutter (including some of your tools) to a storage unit, and to make the garage show like Jack Olson's. (or at least as close as you can to that)

The other big one was to pay for a little landscaping out front to make the house pop. When a potential customer turns the corner to see the house for the first time you want them to see your house and think "I hope it is that house".

Chris

Spencyg · Feb 3, 2012

Doctor_Ink said:
I work on my car, building a bar, and an old go-kart.

A 17 year old building a bar. Hmmm. That's for soda, right?

bad_idea · Feb 3, 2012

Spencyg said:
A 17 year old building a bar. Hmmm. That's for soda, right?

and virgin shirley temples.

as a teen I rented a 10x30 unit and set up shop. Had a 79 camaro I stored in there and did a fair amount of work on it there. Most storage facilities don't want you working in the units, but if you call around you can find one that doesn't mind. There are whole storage facilities with the intent of the units being workshops or small businesses.

Doctor_Ink · Feb 3, 2012

Spencyg said:
A 17 year old building a bar. Hmmm. That's for soda, right?

Yessir, I don't drink much. As for the other suggestions I will definitely be looking into storage units thanks guys! Do you know approximately how much it costs to rent them?

bad_idea · Feb 3, 2012

I rented my 10x30 for $120 a month. It was a little out of the way but the place down the street from the house wanted $250 a month! Prices vary greatly from one place to another. Definitely call around.

Doctor_Ink · Feb 3, 2012

bad_idea said:
I rented my 10x30 for $120 a month. It was a little out of the way but the place down the street from the house wanted $250 a month! Prices vary greatly from one place to another. Definitely call around.

Okay thanks

wxm · Feb 4, 2012

I am off topic now. But seriously, at 17 year old, aren't you supposed to invest your time and money in school/college rather than shop/bar? The shop/bar will come naturally once you take care of your 'investment'? :lol_hitti

Doctor_Ink · Feb 4, 2012

wxm said:
I am off topic now. But seriously, at 17 year old, aren't you supposed to invest your time and money in school/college rather than shop/bar? The shop/bar will come naturally once you take care of your 'investment'?

I'm not into the whole school thing... I take school online and work full time. Don't try to tell me I should be doing something else.

GirlnAgarage · Feb 4, 2012

Doctor_Ink said:
I'm not into the whole school thing...

Who is?

Get the certs or degrees you might need though. There's a thread recently where a guy can't get into the job he wants because he doesn't have the tick in the box the hiring manager wants to see. He does have a lot of work experience though.

At the very least come out with an Associate's in something.

Doctor_Ink · Feb 4, 2012

GirlnAgarage said:
Who is?

Get the certs or degrees you might need though. There's a thread recently where a guy can't get into the job he wants because he doesn't have the tick in the box the hiring manager wants to see. He does have a lot of work experience though.

At the very least come out with an Associate's in something.

Technical College is where I'm headed.

GirlnAgarage · Feb 4, 2012

Doctor_Ink said:
Technical College is where I'm headed.

Right on

ket-tek · Feb 4, 2012

Doctor_Ink said:
I don't make enough money to buy a house at 18. I'm a Maintenance Technician at an Elderly Living community.

Well your in a prime position to make some new friends that may leave you some money or a house with a garage in the next few years..

Yeah, yeah. I know it f*d up to say. Ok, I'm a peice of sh*t.. :evil:

BackTracker said:
I'm only slightly ashamed to admit that at one point i used a storage unit as a makeshift woodshop....and interestingly, no one seemed to notice or care.

Nothing to be ashamed about???

rsieracki said:
i was going to suggest renting a small vacant factory/garage something...

lol... i had a 12x22 i rented for a few years 110 a month where i parked and "worked" on my 76 eldo convertible with my buddy...

There are tons of old factorys and industrial buildings around my city, and I checked into it one time. I found the owners wanted ridiculous money to rent them, like 8k a month. Seemed they would rather let it sit condemned than only make a $1-2k/mo for some reason. :dunno:

Doctor_Ink said:
Yessir, I don't drink much. As for the other suggestions I will definitely be looking into storage units thanks guys! Do you know approximately how much it costs to rent them?

I had a 10x20 for 8 months to keep my project truck in while I was building the new house. It was $110/mo, but they gave it to me at $85/mo to prepay the 8 months up front. It was kinda tight but I did work on it a little in there, only way to get power was through a srew in lightbulb adapter, that's the biggest problem I had there. This was a typical ministorage row place.

A friend of mine had a 20x30x16 in a more industrialized storage shed area, it was $300/mo but it had it's own 100amp breaker panel with some 120v and 240v outlets mounted under it. Still just a corrugated steal row shed, no insulation, etc.. Basically an oversized minished but it had a man door and a 12x10 roll up..If I had no garage this is where I would go, there were a bunch of mid-20's guys renting these to build their cars or bagging thier minitrucks in, as the power was there to have a big compressor and a welder.

PCO6 · Feb 4, 2012

You're on the right track Doctor_Ink. At least you're thinking about these things and starting to plan for them. I wasn't much older than you when I started building and racing off road cars. I hooked up with 3 other guys and found a big garage on a farm that suited our needs. It was perfect - even had a sub shop and beer store at the end of the drive way. About 5 years later I got in with another group in a big industrial building. About 15 guys stored their cars while another 5 of us worked on ours. It was a great set up and really allowed me to get established in my racing and restoration hobbies.

I made some good friends in my search for space when I was young. Good luck. :thumbup:

machine_punk · Feb 4, 2012

I've lived places where I have only had a 4ft by 8ft place to work. It was on the ground floor, next to a 2-car carport. I stored everything inside, then pulled it all onto the carport to work, then put it all back when done. I have a two-car garage and I still occassionally set up the table saw on the back patio to cut larger pieces of wood.

Build yourself a small, sturdy workbench with wheels. Make it narrow enough to easily get through any door (28") and short enough to move easily. Here is how I took care of the mobility problem with mine. The wheels are only on one end, so you can lift the other end of the bench and move it like a wheelbarrow...
View media item 10265
View media item 10266
View media item 10267
Here, you see the top of the bench (on the left) that I built many years ago to fit in that 4'x8' storage area...
View media item 11628
If you have friends you trust, you could go in together on renting a small house. Even if it doesn't have a garage, you could likely get the owner to let you keep a 10'x12' shed in the back.

As long as you are not actually using saws, you can set up a room in an apartment or a house to work in. Cut your parts outside on the patio and take them inside to clamp and assemble. Painting and finishing can be done on a back patio or an apartment deck.

Whatever you choose won't necessarily be easy, but in the end, it will be worth it. There is nothing like being able to look at something and say, "I built that." You basically have to start thinking, "How can I make this work?"

Good luck.

M_P

Garage out of space. Need ideas.

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