Garage Jealousy

swanicyouth

swanicyouth

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Last night a friend of mine got keys to his new single house. The house has a 100% empty 2 car garage with dual auto openers. Its huge and has a million power outlets. I went over there, and all I could think of is how I would light that garage up with fluorescents and how easy it would be to detail in that garage.

Now the house is gorgeous. It's only 2 years old and it was an investment property that went bad, so it was only briefly lived in. It's all hardwood floors, as some fancy type of 15k blinds, beautiful new appliances, marble counter tops, a fancy kitchen, and every new electrical automatic thing a new house could have. The bedrooms have white rugs that are "tucked in" at the edges - rugs look like they were installed yesterday - not a mark.

The basement is huge and looks like an empty roller skating rink. The walls don't have a mark, a scratch, or a bump on them - perfect. He has those keypads to open the garage and front doors.

When I was checking it out, all I could think of was that damn garage though.

My friend has two cars - both 2012s. One is a Subbie STI, the other is a WRX. Neither car has ever seen a proper wash, no less a wax or a wheel cleaning - cars are basically as trashed as a one year old car could be.

All I could think about was detailing those cars in that garage. For anyone that has a garage like this you may not understand.

I have a single narrow car garage that is stuffed with stuff and my BMW (small townhouse). The wrong move in there and something is likely to come tumbling down on the hood of my car. Any detailing work in there involves pulling the car within a centimeter of the opposite side wall so you have enough room to work. Every time I hold my breath and pray I don't hit something.

I really need to buy a house. My main motivation is the garage.
 
I hear you brother. I used to joke that I want a large garage with a small attached house (well, maybe that wasn't a joke). My friend Jr. and I have talked about trying to find something like a strip six car garage to live in. Two or 3 bays for the cars, one for her Endless Pool, and one or two to live in.
 
A lot of people tease me. We have a 1800 square foot garage/ shop. We have more invested in the shop and the vehicles than we do our house.

It works for my wife and I!!!
 
For me a properly designed "house" would just be a 20,000 sq ft structure with a wash bay, a grease pit, a paint booth, over insulated, great AC, a humidifier, a de-humidifier, a heater, one bedroom, three bathrooms, and two kitchens.
And of course the home theater.

And of course it would be Zombie proofed.
 
The other thing that got me was, my friend's house had one of those household water softners. Soft water, from the tap.
 
We have a 4.5 car, 960 sq ft monstrosity, I can fit the car, truck, and rzr in there with all my other junk. I beginning to think the wifes car is going to get ejected into the cold to make more room for my treasures. :xyxthumbs:
 
If I ever buy another home, it will have a large garage. My current one is a one car deal. I can do a full detail on the car (except a hose wash) but its tight.

My dad has an oversized, finished 3 car garage with great lighting but 2 of the bays are filled with stuff.


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Our house was built in 1923. Our large 2 car garage is considerably older, as it was a stable for a flower farm during the 40 years prior to development of the neighborhood. Unfortunately, it is rather filled with typical garage stuff, including boxes and bags of clothing, etc from my daughter, who moved back in with us after being on her own for a few years. I can only look at the garage wistfully and dream of what might be. That and its not zombie proofed.
:-(

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I love my 2 car garage. It has been rather cold in Tulsa the past several days. However my unheated garage is never below 65 degrees in the morning. It is attached to a great house with absolutely incredible insulation coupled with double exterior walled construction.
 
oldmodman said:
For me a properly designed "house" would just be a 20,000 sq ft structure with a wash bay, a grease pit, a paint booth, over insulated, great AC, a humidifier, a de-humidifier, a heater, one bedroom, three bathrooms, and two kitchens.
And of course the home theater.

And of course it would be Zombie proofed.
Click to expand...

Now you're talking my language!
Actually, before I retired I owned a HT consulting and design business. ;)

An old friend dropped by earlier in the week (hasn't been down here in over a year) and was asking my why I was putting all this work into my sons 4Runner. "Are you going to sell it?" he asked? DUH!!!! I said, "Think about it Michael, should you take care of the cars you are KEEPING or the ones you are getting rid of!?!?" What an idiot!
 
swanicyouth said:
When I was checking it out, all I could think of was that damn garage though.

My friend has two cars - both 2012s. One is a Subbie STI, the other is a WRX. Neither car has ever seen a proper wash, no less a wax or a wheel cleaning - cars are basically as trashed as a one year old car could be.

All I could think about was detailing those cars in that garage. For anyone that has a garage like this you may not understand.
Click to expand...

I guess you're right, I've not thought about it in so long as it was one of those things we looked for when we bought this house as well. Our old house only had a carport, not enclosed. Should have moved much much earlier but our family (both sides) were both only ½ mile away so we stayed in order for the kids to grow up with their grand parents really close.

You got me to thinking though so I just ran out and measured my garage(s). Upstairs we have a 3 car, that's 38½' x 23½' and I've got a L shaped shop downstairs that'll hold 2 more cars if you took all the junk out. (It's 12x16 to the left & 12x17 looking in from the garage door). Problem with that (downstairs) space is although the basement is over 2200 sq ft finished, the shop part is unheated which is directly below our bedroom and bathroom. Ended up putting a heater down there so the darned bathroom wouldn't be so freaking cold during Dec ~ Feb. :o

Anywho... It's weird how we look at people that don't care to take the same sort of care with their own cars. I mentioned my neighbor a few weeks ago that just made my skin crawl whilst he was using an old rag, hardly any soap on his BMW X5 and I just took him a bucket of ONR.

I had an old friend stop by (from the high school n college years back in the 70's) the other day while I was working on my Roof Rack project (in another thread I started today). He was flabberghasted that I would put so much work into a vehicle. He travels for work and his DD is a Corolla with 132K on it that the paint is ROUGH to say the least. (Which BTW I could fix if only he would let me)
He is of the mindset that I was doing all this paint correction to sell the truck! I asked him WHY would I only buff a vehicle to sell it rather than take care of a vehicle to KEEP IT? He honestly didn't have an answer. In my old age I don't see vehicles as disposable. We all tend to keep them longer these days, so why not take care of them is my way of thinking. :dunno:
 
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