Some garage stats for you.

Currently:

• Entirely my domain, wife has no desire to use it at all.
• Roughly 9.3m x 3.3m (or even more roughly 30ft x 11ft).
• Has plenty of power, rated to around 40amp, but only 3 outlets and 2 working lights.
• The frame is a mix of thick metal pipe and hardwood. Done properly and is solid, but looks to have been a ‘home made’ job by the previous owner back in the 50’s.
• Corrugated Iron sheeting on all sides, with a ‘flip up’ garage door at the front and normal doorway near the back on the side.
• The sheeting on the roof has too many rusty sections, it needs to be replaced.
• One small window that is so covered in spider-webs that I am petrified of walking anywhere near it.
• Currently has ZERO dedicated storage; a couple of old shelves and an even older bench.
• Concrete floor, pretty even, not dead flat but no major issues.
• No insulation of any kind, lowest temp in Winter would be 3ish degrees celcius, but that is very rare. Highest in Summer is 45c, garage feels around 60c when that happens and is unusable. Anything above 30c is uncomfortable.
• Used as my workshop, storage, and I hold some decent poker games in there every couple of months too.
• A few thousand huntsmen, white-tails and red-backs. Spiders. Look them up on google yourself. Or better yet, don’t.

Desired:

• To stay my domain entirely! But to be nice enough that wifey and the kiddies can happily come and rummage around for whatever they need or just to hang out with me.
• Outlets EVERYWHERE plus a couple hanging from the ceiling over where my workbench will be.
• New iron sheeting for the roof and a couple of patch jobs around the side.
• No window! I may incorporate a a skylight or two later on but the window is getting boarded over
• Not touching the existing frame, but bulking it out with timber so I can insulate and then plaster the entire garage.
• Along most of the right wall and the very back, custom made (by me) benches and cupboards to store everything I could ever want to, plus more.
• Near the existing doorway, I will install my pot belly outdoor fireplace, with a flue through the roof. This will keep it warm in winter and provide an easy way to get rid of off-cuts.
• To be spider free! Or at least to only have them in the frame, not where I work!
• The more I check out workshops, the more I want!

So first job is really demolition and emptying – not in that order of course! There isn’t too much demolishing to do, just a small storage loft above the main doorway and some random hard wood lengths the pre owner had bolted in different areas to suit his needs. The hardest part will be removing the old workbench. It isn’t suitable to be used by me, but I may be able to re-use the wood somehow.

A good friend of mine is a qualified electrician so he has already checked out the wiring and is set to go when I am. And it is very helpful having a brother in law that is a qualified builder, he’s already given me a stack of tips as to how I should go about installing the frame. The metal tubing does make things a little difficult to be honest.

Progress should be pretty good now, I should finish pulling out the workbench tomorrow and hopefully start on the frame too. Wish me luck, and feel free to yell out with any suggestions or critiques as I go!