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Sunday, March 01, 2009

Need Help Planning a Manspace

... otherwise known as a garage.

In a few months, I'll be getting married. (YAY!) Our blended families will need more space than my fiancee's house has. In addition, she converted her garage to living space a while back. Our plan to solve this problem is to build a detached garage with an apartment above. Our teenage boys would live in the two bedroom apartment and I would get a glorious manspace below.

I like working on cars and want to start woodworking as well. What would you want to have it was your ultimate manspace?

Mohawk Lifts offers a good starting point.

7 comments:

  1. KT,
    well congrats. When is the date?

    As for Man spaces, basements served that purpose in about half the country. Nevertheless a man space should have a central theme. So you actually need two spaces, one for a wood shop and the other for the auto. ;)

    For the wood shop a table saw is a must, but if you can afford it a radial arm saw is even better. Wood Craft is a great resource, but you can actually get some pretty good deals on tools at Sears and on Amazon.

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  2. Kelly, it will be some time in August. I love the suggestion, but I'm not sure I can get two garages on our lot.

    :-)

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  3. Left to right, built into walls:
    Shelves, work bench with fridge and door, cabinets with dart board and any posters/white boards needed. Sound system on top of fridge.

    Center area big enough for at least one vehicle with 5 feet on all sides to allow for a roller to go under.

    Cement floor, lots of florescent lighting.

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  4. Anonymous9:00 PM

    A sturdy lock to keep my husband shut in when I want to go shopping!!! Oh, and a mini fridge stocked with his favorite stouts and ales.

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  5. At a bare minimun, it needs to be a 2 car garage. One for the 'B and the rest for tools and workspace. Any cars that go in will have to add stalls.

    You'll need an air compressor and tools (grinder, ratchet, etc.). Maybe a sand blasting enclosue. A good tool bench, and a stacking tool chest. There are never enough shelves. A parts cleaner would be nice. A lift would be spectacular, you need to have height and extra thickness in the concrete/footing. A two post lift is plenty.


    As to woodworking. I have a radial arm saw, no table saw. I like it, but ripping is a bit scary. I won't let the kids do that. For most of what I do, a good compound miter saw would do. I don't like my band saw, but think it's badly out of adjustment. I need B^2 to come over.

    Thinking about it. I have two stacking tool chests. 1 for the garage and one for the work room. Barely enough.

    I'm looking for the web site of the 5 car garage (all MGs) - 2 lifts. It's fabulous.

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  6. Cement floors aren't good. They crack easily, are cold and absorb oil etc. Some sort of epoxy covering is much better for you, the parts and spilled fluids. I need to do that in my garage.

    Full sized fridge. And lots of lighting, from multiple angles. Florescent would be fine in SD. In Minnesota, it just freeze.

    A proper garage, and a lock to keep him in wouldn't be needed. Why would he leave.

    A sink for washing up would be great. Again SD doesn't have to worry about freezing. How about going completely nuts and having a cheap computer for looking stuff up on the internet. A little Atom based machine with a 15 or 17 in monitor would be great. That could double as the sound system.

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  7. Ah, perfect...
    http://www.mgnuts.com/

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