Wayne's Garage: Following the Crowd

Well after years of trying not to join the blog revolution, I've finally given in and have created my first blog page. The main motivating reason for this is that I love my garage and I want to share that joy with the people I know and hopefully some future friends as well. As I perform miscellaenous projects I'll post updates and how-tos. Everything from oil changes to 5th wheel axle changes to barleywine homebrews are game.

I built the garage in late 2007 as a dream come true. I have waited many years for a place to not only house my tools and toys, but also a place that I can perform miscellaneous projects without getting grass and gravel down my shirt. Sure I've had an opportunity or two to build a shop, but I've always felt that a good garage can never be too big. Why rush into it and build a standard 2 car garage when I can hold out and maybe one day build a 3 car garage.

Well, after many years of biding my time, I finally built it. As it turns out I decided to hold on the 3 car opportunity and went for something bigger. By my calculations I could probably fit 18 cars in it (maybe twice that if you pack them tight)!

Its dimensions are 80' x 60' occupying exactly 4800 square feet. We built it next to the house. Our house is a one and half story ranch of 2400 square feet. Obviously this structure makes the house look kinda small.

From this picture you can get a good idea of how much space is available in the shop. During the design phase, I was pretty adamant that the roof pitch not be too flat. We went with a 4/12 pitch which only makes the interior feel even more spacious. It also has an alternate effect of making the ceiling much higher; 29 feet to be exact!! I had to buy an old, used scissor lift in order to be able to get up there to change light bulbs and do other standard maintenance tasks.