# New House - I have a garage at last.....



## woodycivic (Jun 4, 2015)

We moved house last March as we needed more space (We have a son who is 3 now and when you have kids boy do you realise how much space you need!).

Previously we were in a 3 bed with a massive upstairs but very small kitchen diner (13ft by 8ft). The garden was nice and private but we didn't have a garage, just a drive and a couple of brown storage boxes to keep things like the lawnmower and various other gardening tools, products as well as my car cleaning stuff.

Our new house is much better for us, we have a much bigger downstairs with a kitchen diner, small extension which acts as a playroom for the little man and I finally have a garage to turn into a man cave :driver:

I've been reading through the threads on here and some of the work is superb! You guys really provide some good inspiration and ideas on how to organise and setup your caves. I doubt ill get to some of the high standards set on here but ill give it a go :thumb:

The garage is quite old and the inside was and still is a bit of a mess. The front door is actually bolted shut so there will be no housing the car in it (I couldnt even if the door opened anyway as there is a fence and gate between the front of the drive and the part where the side kitchen door opens preventing any car driving down to the garage anyway. There is obviously a lockable side door allowing entry though. The lack of the front door opening actually works well as that can effectively be used as another full area for storage rather than having to leave it clear so the door will open.

This last couple of weeks ive been wiping down and painting the walls white as a starting point. I also bought a racking unit from screwfix (£25 and a bargain, its really sturdy and holds a good amount of weight). I've just used cheap wilko white matt at £6 for a 2.5 litre tub and it covers really well. I've only done one coat so far and i think that will be enough.

My car cleaning products are on a shelf i made from some old scaffold board. I intend painting this black as it looks messy at the moment. As you can see, compared to some my detailing stock is pretty small at the moment. We are having a new fence and artificial grass installed in the garden so money is tight at the minute!




























As you can see from the pictures below there is still a lot of sorting to do. The area behind the garage door has boxes of DVD's and various other bits from our old house that don't go in the new house. These need clearing out and deciding what needs to be kept and what can be binned/sold. I've got a nice wooden 4 drawer filing cabinet in my Mum's garage that ill be using to store the DVD's and bits we want to keep from our old house. Eventually i want to get rid of all the DVD's after ripping them all onto hard drive so i can setup a media centre at home, that's another story though and probably a project for next year:



















Still a long way to go yet. As you can see it is filthy, cob webs everywhere and ivy growing in from one of the garage side walls. I hate it been like this so will working hard to get it cleaned up and a nice place to walk into.


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## percymon (Jun 27, 2007)

First job is probably to get a plastic storage box for outside to put all the kids toys in - £80 - 90 in BnQ and most have provision for a padlock if needbe.


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## woodycivic (Jun 4, 2015)

percymon said:


> First job is probably to get a plastic storage box for outside to put all the kids toys in - £80 - 90 in BnQ and most have provision for a padlock if needbe.


That's a good suggestion.

The first year we concentrated on getting the house how we wanted it. The previous owners smoked and had 2 dogs. We are non smokers and not massive dog fans if i'm honest so the smells were really noticeable. We've re-decorated the whole house and put new carpets in.

The garage was somewhere we put things that we didn't particularly need or want in the house so this year we are sorting the garden and garage out. Its something i'm determined to get sorted and in decent order/condition. The last owners just used it as a place to dump things and didn't keep it clean, sweep it or do any kind of work inside at all, as you can tell from the pictures!


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## Arvi (Apr 11, 2007)

Interesting read and good luck on the developments. I've tided our garage several times but shelving is lacking and whenever I see project threads on here I convince myself that once I sort the shelving it will be a lot better and easier to find things. 

Really want something like the large width Costco shelving units but there £60+ a unit - guess you get what you pay for, as the plastic home base one I currently have is only good for light items.

Keep us posted!


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## Del-GTi (Mar 31, 2007)

Looks like you've got a good starting point there, that'll keep you busy.

You've gotta be ruthless when you move house, we did it almost 3 years ago and the amount of stuff we binned was unreal. It's amazing how much we had that we didn't need!

Is there no way you could clear the path to get a car in there? A garage is an incredibly handy thing, especially when the weather is poor.


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## woodycivic (Jun 4, 2015)

Del-GTi said:


> Looks like you've got a good starting point there, that'll keep you busy.
> 
> You've gotta be ruthless when you move house, we did it almost 3 years ago and the amount of stuff we binned was unreal. It's amazing how much we had that we didn't need!
> 
> Is there no way you could clear the path to get a car in there? A garage is an incredibly handy thing, especially when the weather is poor.


I'd love to keep the car locked up away under cover but we would have to take out the fence and gate that are parallel with the house and also pay out for a new garage door. At the moment we don't have the cash to do this as we are concentrating on the garden this year (New 6 foot fence been installed between us and next door today so its more private).

As i am doing this garage refurb/refresh on a budget im going to add spending amounts to my posts to help those who are planning on doing something similar.

To date i've spent the following:

*Wilko Matt Emulsion Paint = £6*

http://www.wilko.com/wall-paint/wil...VLLvtCh1hcwgLEAQYASABEgIpfPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

*Screwfix Heavy Duty Shelving = £25*

https://www.screwfix.com/p/heavy-du...gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CKORxYa6jNoCFcxnGwodKMsIzQ

*Wilko Ladder Hooks x 2 (£1 each) = £2*

http://www.wilko.com/tool-bags-boxe...ge-hook-plastic-coated-red-large/invt/0161736

*Wilko Tool Clips x 4 (75p each) = £3*

http://www.wilko.com/all-hardware/wilko-tool-clip-25mm/invt/0344934

*Total Spend To Date = £36*


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## percymon (Jun 27, 2007)

Might be worth keeping an eye on ebay / gumtree for any old kitchen units locally for sale. I was lucky enough to have a colleague replacing his kitchen, so i grabbed a few units from him. They aren't super stylish, but they are matching and have good storage space. At least things don't get dusty, unlike open shelving








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## Derekh929 (Aug 28, 2011)

That's coming along nicely


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## woodycivic (Jun 4, 2015)

A little bit more progress made last night.

I made use of the hooks I bought from Wilko so i can now have the ladders off the floor and nicely hung on the wall:










As i mentioned previously, the floor gets damp at times in the garage. Im not 100% sure if its condensation or not yet and part of this garage cleanup is to get to the bottom of it and figure out a way of making the garage at least work for us in some way even if the floor does get damp at times.

The past owner had put down some old plastic linoeum type sheets across 2/3 of the floor (See pictures of my first post) which up until last night had not been moved since we moved in exactly a year ago. I doubt they'd been moved at all for a long time before we moved in either!

I took everything out of the garage and lifted these and they were filthy and wet underneath too. I've taken them out and they are in the back garden now as i want to let the floor breath a bit and dry out. I don't think its helped the garage with them been down permanently as any moisture under them doesnt get chance to evaporate at all!

Its throwing it down with rain again today but tomorrow onwards is supposed to be relatively dry. Ill see how the floor looks in a few days now.

I've made a bit of money from Gumtree so ill be buying another of the shelving units from screwfix as they really are well worth £25. There is an old tumble dryer and fridge freezer in the garage too that we dont use so these will be going at some point to free up some more space.

Given the issues with the floor the long term goal is to make as much use of wall space as i can for storage and to keep as little off the floor as possible. Once we get the floor clear and clean we can tackle that issue a lot easier then.


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## bigslippy (Sep 19, 2010)

Every man needs a man cave:thumb:


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## woodycivic (Jun 4, 2015)

So ive done a little more work since my last update.

As i mentioned earlier, there has always been a leak on the roof of the garage which hasnt helped the fact inside is damp a lot of the time. For the past year I made use of a spare water but that has been filling nicely with water from the leaky roof 

Anyway, last week we had a couple of dry days so i got the ladder out and some clear sealant. The roof of the garage is sheet metal which doesnt look that old to be honest. I certainly dont think its the original roof that was on the garage when it was first built. Anyway, the corner where the drip was coming from was obviously getting in between where 2 of the metal sheets meet. I made sure it was clean by wiping down with turps then put plenty of clear sealant all along where the 2 sheets meet and made sure it was extremely well covered, as well as a few of the screws nearby too.

Fingers crossed, the drips have now stopped! I'm keeping the water butt there for now but over the last 4 or 5 days we have had plenty of rain here and there is no sign of a leak anymore. I left a small off cut of carpet on the top of the water butt and this has remained bone dry. See pictures below:

Leak was coming from this corner:










Water butt in place still: 










So with that hopefully sorted now the floor will dry out completely, especially now the pieces of vinyl that the old owner put down have been taken up to let it breath.

Floor starting to dry out nicely:










Last night i continued with the painting of the inside of the garage door just to tidy it up as it was filthy (as you can see from my previous posts and pictures):



















The silver metal isn't very tidy and needs a cleanup so i've got a tin of hammerite silver metal paint in the garage that ill use to freshen it up.

Not massive progress but small steps and all that. The main of my work over the last few weeks has been the garden, installing railway sleepers for a raised border:


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## verbarthe (Feb 28, 2009)

It all takes time ..........and money. Am sure you ll get it all the way you want it eventually .:thumb:


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## BaileyA3 (Jun 14, 2015)

woodycivic said:


>


Congratulations on the new house and garage, looking good so far. I think you should budget for some bigger buckets though :lol:


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## woodycivic (Jun 4, 2015)

BaileyA3 said:


> Congratulations on the new house and garage, looking good so far. I think you should budget for some bigger buckets though :lol:


:lol::lol:

I wouldnt get much car shampoo in those thats for sure!

The little man is 3 now so ill soon be asking him to help me wash the car.....and training him how to clean it properly


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## woodycivic (Jun 4, 2015)

So the main of my work the last few weeks has been getting the railway sleepers installed in the garden. We intend getting artifical grass now but after one quote this might have to wait, its not cheap! (£1800)










I got some time last night to get back to work in the garage.

I painted the rest of the back of the garage door and also cleaned up and painted the metal bars with some hammerite just to clean them up a little:



















Then i moved things around and took up the last piece of plastic that the previous owners had put down on the floor. Having now fixed the leaky roof and taken up the first piece of plastic the floor is drying really well, lord knows why the last owner didnt just fix the leaky roof in the first place then they wouldnt have needed to put something on the floor to stop whatever they stored in there getting wet!

As you can see from the pictures below, the floor is damp and has been sweating under the plastic constantly, never having the opportunity to dry out. You can see where the previous piece of plastic was and comparing that to the other side it just shows how damp the whole place was. No wander cardboard boxes were getting flimsy and feeling damp and flexing when you moved them.



















Next i need to workout where exactly i want things to go and keep looking out on Gumtree, Freecycle for any free storage units that will look good and clean up well. Im definitely getting another of the tall metal shelving units from Screwfix as they are solid and have a good amount of space to store stuff.

I'm thinking of having the fridge freezer placed in front of the inside of the garage door (I know ive just painted it and cleaned it up and you wont see it anymore) in the middle with the 2 screwfix shelving units either side. I cant really utilise the back of the garage door for securing any shelving etc so it seems sensible to have free standing stuff here facing out then work from there backwards:


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## woodycivic (Jun 4, 2015)

So i had another couple of hours doing the garage again last night.

First i trimmed the ivy invasion that happens every year. One side of the garage wall (The one that faces onto our garden) has it growing and we really like it as it helps soften the exterior of the garage. The one downside is that it creeps through and needs trimming every now and again:










Next was to move more things to the other side of the garage, sweep off all the cobwebs and dirt ready for painting. The window was also filthy so needed a good scrub too. After this i got the white paint out again, see the results below:




























While getting all the dirt and grime off i also came across some historic notes someone had written onto the wall at some point. It seems there was a car repair enthusiast who used to live here 










Once id painted and cleaned up i started moving the first of my screwfix shelving units into place and organising it a bit better:










As i have mentioned in one of my previous posts, i bought some nice ladder hooks and realised last night that some slightly smaller ones of these will enable me to put our little 3 year olds ride on toys nicely onto the wall so they arent on the floor all the time. I had a look last night and have ordered some from screwfix, a bargain at £1.79. However, i mad a schoolboy error and ordered 3 thinking they came in pairs but they dont, its for a single hook! Ill see how 2 perform first then will order more if they are fit for purpose:










Hopefully ill get an hour tonight to put a couple up and hang his retro go kart onto the wall. I also need to get a few things out of the garage and broken up ready for a trip to the tip just to give me a bit more room inside now. I'm happy with the progress so far and i only have another 4 foot of wall to paint then im ready to be fixing and putting in place everything where i want it. I need to keep an eye out on gumtree too for an off cut of kitchen worktop to use.

*Updated spends to date:

Wilko Matt Emulsion Paint = £6

http://www.wilko.com/wall-paint/wilk...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

Screwfix Heavy Duty Shelving = £25

https://www.screwfix.com/p/heavy-dut...FcxnGwodKMsIzQ

Wilko Ladder Hooks x 2 (£1 each) = £2

http://www.wilko.com/tool-bags-boxes...e/invt/0161736

Wilko Tool Clips x 4 (75p each) = £3

http://www.wilko.com/all-hardware/wi...m/invt/0344934

Screwfix Storage Hooks x 3 (£1.79 each) = £5.37

https://www.screwfix.com/p/smith-locke-mid-duty-anti-slip-storage-hook-blue-200mm/5695j

Total Spend To Date = £41.37*


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## sbrocks (Jul 5, 2007)

Good progress and I think showing folk your supplier and a rolling budget will allow a lot of folk to follow suit.....not everyone on DW is running mega budget roller cabinet and double garage builds, and like the restoration threads on here I enjoy real life stuff as much if not more than the big £££ builds.......( I do enjoy a mega build or hypercar too by the way !!!)

Cheers for the thread and updates


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## woodycivic (Jun 4, 2015)

sbrocks said:


> Good progress and I think showing folk your supplier and a rolling budget will allow a lot of folk to follow suit.....not everyone on DW is running mega budget roller cabinet and double garage builds, and like the restoration threads on here I enjoy real life stuff as much if not more than the big £££ builds.......( I do enjoy a mega build or hypercar too by the way !!!)
> 
> Cheers for the thread and updates


No problems, im glad people are reading and seeing what im doing and that im not boring everyone to death! 

I've had a couple more nights at the garage since my last update and have plenty more pics to share which will be posted tomorrow at some point 

I too enjoy seeing the big double garage builds with big budgets as it gives you ideas and inspiration. However, im a husband and Dad who is saving for a new car as well as holidays, childcare and all the other expenditure that comes with having a little one and im damn sure there are a lot of others on here too in a similar situation as me who want to make their 'man space' as nice as possible with minimum spend. If you put the effort in and shop around (Gumtree, Schpock, Ebay) its amazing what you can get your hands on for such a small amount of money.


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## woodycivic (Jun 4, 2015)

So ive had another couple of nights to do some more work on the garage.

The little mans car is now on the wall:










We have had quite a bit of rain too and i previously said i though fixing the leaky roof would solve the damp floor issues, well i think i was half right but there has also been a couple of trickles coming in under the garage door too 

So, i looked behind the door and there is some form of metal gully in place and a couple of pieces of metal have corroded away allowing some water in (Not loads but enough for me to want to sort it). I cleaned out this gully as it had some grime/dirt/muck in it. I had some leftover cement that you just add water to mix so i have used that and effectively created a small damn behind the door:



















Its set really hard and fingers crossed this will solve that issue. I have seen some builders sealant that screwfix do and i may invest in a tube of this (Its only £3.50) and run this along the bottom of the outside of the garage door too just as another barrier. Its designed to adhere to external surfaces (Brick etc) so should be a useful purchase generally anyway.

Next i moved the old dryer and fridge freezer out of the way so i could get to the last wall that needed a lick of white paint. There was a casualty along the way too:



















Now to the last bit of wall painting, the walls are looking much better than they did at the start:



















I also got a couple of bargains from the Schpock app this weekend.

4 Shelves (3 are solid wood) with brackets for £10 and 2 football shelves where my trophies will be living for £5: :thumb:




























Im glad i have finally finished painting now.

Tonight im going to put the shelves up and start getting things off the floor/out of boxes and onto them so the whole place starts to look tidier and more akin as to what i want it to be laid out/look like.

:thumb:

*Updated spends to date:

Wilko Matt Emulsion Paint = £6

http://www.wilko.com/wall-paint/wilk...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

Screwfix Heavy Duty Shelving = £25

https://www.screwfix.com/p/heavy-dut...FcxnGwodKMsIzQ

Wilko Ladder Hooks x 2 (£1 each) = £2

http://www.wilko.com/tool-bags-boxes...e/invt/0161736

Wilko Tool Clips x 4 (75p each) = £3

http://www.wilko.com/all-hardware/wi...m/invt/0344934

Screwfix Storage Hooks x 3 (£1.79 each) = £5.37

https://www.screwfix.com/p/smith-loc...ue-200mm/5695j

4 x Shelves with brackets = £10

2 x Football Shelves = £5

Total Spend To Date = £56.37*


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## woodycivic (Jun 4, 2015)

So this is a small update. We have been away on holiday for a week to Spain (Much needed and a great time - our sons first time on a plane  ) and getting the garden all sorted and ready in time for when the artificial grass is been installed.

Ive put 2 of the shelves up that i bought from Gumtree. The top one is housing my storage boxes which have all sorted in them (Brackets, Various tapes, hose pipe fittings etc) and the second one down is my detailing shelf. Its looking a little bare and some of them are running low so ill be purchasing some more in the coming weeks (Fingers crossed ill be getting my new car over the next week or so to use them on).



















Ive also screwed in a piece of wood below the shelves and painted that white now:










I found some towel clips similar to those below in my toolbox when clearing it out and the idea is to put a few small screws or even hooks (I think i have some in a tub somewhere) into this piece of wood and use the towel clips to hang my wash mitt, microfibres from them. Easily accessible then!


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## woodycivic (Jun 4, 2015)

Another small update.

Gardening and me getting a new car have got in the way of my garage re-furb but i've done a few bits.

I cut to size an old piece of scaffold board and screwed it to the wall so i could use this to hang up our gardening tools. This wall is starting to take shape now:



















I've also painted the piece of wood i screwed to the wall below my detailing shelf and made use of some small screws to start hooking my cleaning tools on:



















So no additional cost on this post which is always good.


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