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The first garage project was for our home in Burnsville where we added about 1 1/4 stalls worth of space to the existing 2-car. This was done after I restored the Jeep but before work started on the Chevelle. You can park another car in front of the Chevy, but you have to twist the Jeep sideways (which we did) to get a car parked in front of it. We were limited in spaced due to the irregular dimensions of the lot.
But the current garage is a different story. So let's start with the inside. As you will see the "garage" is a two story structure with my wood shop on the second floor. You get access to the second story via the staircase pictured here, or via 4-post lift to a door on the second floor (good to pass large and/or heavy materials for projects) from the lift garage addition pictured below. Not much to look at or brag about -- just holds three cars and my non-woodworking tools. But I feel blessed to have this -- I really do. I spend some weekend time in here for sure. That red Jeep CJ front end kind of started my restoration bug. I wanted a large piece of wall art and making it was much cheaper, and more fun, than buying it (if such a thing even exists).
I hang quite a few pictures and memorbilia on the walls in the garage too.
During the winter the CJ/5 and the Chevelle may be parked here, or in the lift garage (see addition below). The rack in the middle of the picture to the right is an old Sun Microsystems 40u computer rack I keep my battery and corded hand tools in. A reminder of a former life in I.T. To the left is a shot looking down the stairs. Lots of photos of me and the family at car events, races, shows, off-roading, etc. adorn the walls both here and around the garage. The MOPAR neon is behind a leaded glass window that came out of the house when we replaced the ancient windows with modern, efficient units. In the red case are some 1:18 scale replicas of my favorites. The gate swings from the bottom of the picture up and across the staircase area and bolts into the black door framing. The platform leaning against the railing towards the middle of the pic lays down and you have a walkway with a safety railing leading to that door into the lift garage for material loading.
I painted the walls and ceiling satin white -- a little sheen to help reflect as much light as possible.
You can see the traffic light here which we used to assist us in parking the Jeep SRT. I picked up the light and built a parking system using an Arduino microcomputer and some relays. A sensor is mounted on the door for entry and exit notification and a sonic distancing sensor near the light to "see" the vehicle approaching or departing to control the green/yellow/red light sequence. It also has a simple sequential flashing sequence just for show. Also, the German made Kettcar pedal cars I restored can be seen handing on the exterior wall. To the right of that is my steering wheel collection -- all cars I've owned or driven (sans '59 Impala -- which is a car I'd just love to own). The collection is a bit larger now... The garage doors are insulated and have spring loaded hinges that force the door into the jam to almost eliminate air leaks (heated interior air leaking into the outdoors during winter -- it improved efficiency a lot).
I thought I'd include a shot or two of the lift garage going up. The four squares in the pad are for a deeper concrete pour where the 4 post lift will sit. You can see the scissor joist setup which gives me over 16' in the center so I have enough room to lift a car up and still open/close the garage door. Nice. It's heated like the original part of the garage too.
So on the left I'm picking up my 4 post lift from Wildfire lifts in Minnesota -- a local company that I went with (after YEARS of overkill research). Small and compact and heavy. To the right it's installed in the new lift garage. My son and I completed the work on a Saturday. I did not sheet rock the garage interior but hung corrugated steel on all the walls and ceiling and ran surface mount electrical to give it an industrial look as well as a very cleanable surface. There are eight 5000k 8-foot LED lights in there -- it's nice and bright when I want it to be.
The next photos are garage related in that it is really what the building offers me to do. Namely, get my car hobby fix so I can drive and attend shows. Out here in small town, Minnesota we have a car cruise that stopped at this typical Morris Country setting. Don't let the barn fool you. There are several buildings decorated to the nines, reminiscent of an old town gas station with signage, muscle cars, rods, customs, and all the automobila you can shake a stick at. Small towns rule, sometimes... Check out this Pioneer PBS video link for this specific Morris, MN location.
And my old cars (I'm really talking about the '67 Chevelle, '71 Cutlass and the '74 CJ/5) are daily driven. I don't just want to look at them. Here is a picture of my son, granddaughter and her friend after a softball game in town. We took the Chevy to the game and then to the Dairy Queen for ice cream after the performance. And NO, we were not on the road in the left picture -- it was just a picture in the car!
We use the garage for a lot more things than storing a couple of cars for a crazy old man. In the summer we do all kinds of projects, like making works of art as we are doing in the left photo. In the photo on the right you can see a set of those bean bag toss games that we enjoy on Saturday evenings. See the fun 'n games area on why these are just a little bit special.
Of course I work on the cars in the garage as well. I can do just about anything that doesn't require machining. Here the girls were helping me switch out the winter tires on my BMW 328 Touring. Why oh why did I get rid of that car?......
Thanks girls, I'll take all the help I can get.
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