The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Reclaiming Garage Space and Contemplating Life

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Yes, there was a problem with space
A good garage gone bad, a story repeated in garages everywhere. Yes, there’s workspace in there, … somewhere.

It happens slowly, after all it’s just a walk behind lawn mower, but it takes a really long time to mow the lawn that way and who wants to mow for hours, so a lawn tractor makes sense, right? And what about those snow tires for the wife’s car? You have to put them somewhere when the roads are clear. Of course when the snow gets deep you need a snow blower and if you park it next to the mower and tractor it won’t be in the way. Of course there are a few things like rakes and shovels, too, but this handy cart will keep those off to the side, you won’t even notice them. And so it goes. My garage space was steadily disappearing as one thing after another laid claim to previously open territory, turning the garage into a sort of disorganized storage locker, so I decided to build a shed and reclaim what was once a pretty roomy work area.

You can buy all sorts of pre-built sheds, but I wasn’t happy with the way they looked and how they were made so I hired some help to stick build something that would last. It’s 10X16, sitting on a concrete slab with a man door in the front and a garage door on the end. The walls are 8 foot high inside and I still have to add some hooks and hangers for the garden tools but in the meantime those are stored on the rolling cart I was using in the garage. Overall, the shed is sturdy, watertight and just what I needed.

The finished shed, all wired and ready to go
The finished shed, all wired and ready to go. It looks like one of those tiny houses that are all the rage.

When the basic shed was finally finished, I ran a 20 amp, 120 volt circuit from the house, burying it in the ground with 12/2 underground feeder cable inside underground conduit, I know, belt and suspenders, but I’m that kinda guy. I installed 5 outlets and two 4 foot LED lights, which is plenty, but simply saying I buried the cable doesn’t tell the whole story. The ground around our house is more stone than dirt and the trenching shovel hit a big rock pretty much every time I dug in, so I needed a pick to break everything up and dislodge the stone. I would have rented a trenching machine, but we have a couple of underground gas lines in the same area so I went the manual route. Sixty feet from wall to wall, the last 8 feet under a flagstone walkway and it took 3 and 1/2 days of really hard and steady work from beginning to lights on, and this was my first reality check. In the last 20 or 30 years, I’ve gotten older. I can still dig and run wiring, but it takes a couple of days afterwards to get back up to speed. Note to self, add recovery time to any project when estimating how long it will take. The endless energy of youth is in somewhat shorter supply.

Power and lights really are essential, but be prepared to get dirty and sweaty.
Power to the shed is essential, but be prepared to get dirty and sweaty when you bury the cable.

For those of you contemplating a shed, build one bigger than you think you need. They fill up fast, mine is holding a lot right now, much of what’s in that picture at the beginning of this article, and when winter comes, it will be packed. There’s deck furniture which will need a home plus a 10X12 gazebo that screws to the deck that isn’t designed to withstand winters in our area that will be disassembled and stored inside. Yes, the shed could have, and perhaps, should have, been bigger. Moving day was great, marching things out of the garage and putting them in the shed had me smiling all the while, though I quickly saw how small a 10X16 shed really is.

Room to work. Isn't it amazing what a shed can do?
It’s like one of those NutriSystem commercials, “Hey, my garage lost 1000 pounds and yours can, too!” A shed makes all the difference. Without one, you can rearrange forever, but the garage will still be crowded.

When everything was moved and I sat down in the garage to survey my new and more spacious surroundings, I was really pleased, but at the same time, feeling nostalgic. I was listening to the 60s on 6 on Sirius radio, experiencing vivid flashbacks and wondering what I would have done with space like this when I was in my teens instead of working on my Mustang out in the cold. How many men of a certain age experience similar thoughts when they sit in their garage? Quite a few I’d bet, and it underscores how fast time passes and why waiting for all of those things we think we need before starting those big projects just makes it far more likely we’ll never begin. Don’t wait, just get to it wherever you are with whatever you have. If those other things come along later, fine, if not, you’re on your way anyway.

I’ve already put this recovered space to good use, taking on a few projects since the shed was done and we’ll get into that next.

Comments

  1. I’ve always enjoyed the topics you write about so I really don’t care how it comes just as long as it does!

    Thanks,
    Kenny Bush

  4. OMG you you see my garage right now!! I’d be too embarassed to post a pic even – its winter here – but still no way to get to the bikes not even access to the workstand and stuff piled on every flat surface – how did I let this happen :0

    • If the shed was only for the bike, it would be a great workspace. It’s plenty big enough, but I’d have to move all of my tools out there which wouldn’t work when I had maintenance on the car or truck, there’s no heat for the winter and, of course, it’s out in the back yard. The mowers and garden tools, on the other hand, are right out on the lawn where they belong, so once again, all is right with the world.

  6. I’ve always enjoyed your posts. Good for you getting your garage back. Mine is full of bikes and a VW/Subaru-six swap project, not mowers and snow blowers. However, that still doesn’t make it any easier for me to build the motivation to get out there and work.

    Make sure you run a ground wire from your shed back to your main panel or attached to the plumbing.

    -todd

    • Mine looked that way for a long time, it just saps your energy when you try to do something about it while knowing there’s no easy fix, so you try to work around it and keep bumping into and stepping over things that shouldn’t be there where you’re trying to work. It’s frustrating, so jobs you want to do and know you should do get put off. It’s more common than you think.

      The problem is just like seeing those Photoshop photos of fashion models and thinking that’s normal, we imagine lots of other guys have garage workshops that are tidy little visions of organization and efficiency when the disorganized mess is more the norm and that’s because it takes a lot of effort to straighten things out and keep it that way.

      If you’re not changing the oil or replacing those brake pads, you’re not uncommonly lazy, you’re normal. It’s no fun to work when the place is a a crowded jumble. I’m certainly guilty of putting off things when the garage looked like it did, so I finally launched into the project, put up the shed and reclaimed the space. Not everyone will be able to build a shed, but making the cleanup a project in itself can help get you started.

  8. Before I turned my garden shed into a workshop, it was packed with, well. typical homeowner garden shed stuff that came with the house when I bought it. I didn’t want to get rid of any of that stuff: What if I need that stuff to do stuff? Then I determined which would cost more: A new shed or the stuff (That the last owners didn’t value enough to take with them) in the old shed?

    The stuff disappeared very quickly – and work started on making the shed into a viable workshop.

    Life is short – make something – leave some interesting proof that you were here!

    • Life is short – make something – leave some interesting proof that you were here!

      Yes, yes and yes.

  9. I’d just finished removing all of the shop’s old fluorescent lights and wiring the night before, and started spending the evening hanging the new LED lighting. The only light in the shop was from a big tripod job site light plugged into the junction box outlet in the far corner. I was up on the ladder drilling the rafters for the new fixture hardware, when I noticed the shadow of my 9 year old son sitting next to the light, just watching me. At first, it seemed weird – why would a young boy just sit in an empty shop and watch me work – isn’t there something more fun for him to do? Then it hit me. Hard.

    I now remember watching my dad in the old barn at that age, working on, well, lots of stuff. Most of it was for something he needed./wanted, but wasn’t available. Watching that kinetic combination of skill, cleverness, and work fascinated me.

    Thanks, Dad – never gave you enough credit for that.