Author Topic: What is it about a 3-car garage? Are sheds a thing of the past?  (Read 30910 times)

zolotiyeruki

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Re: What is it about a 3-car garage? Are sheds a thing of the past?
« Reply #50 on: April 09, 2016, 10:10:37 PM »
After reading this thread know I'll avoid buying a HOA governed home.  I guess i'd would save me a lot of time deciding what to do, since the rules don't leave much to consider.

There are already too many rules in life for me already.  I'd never "pay" to endure more rules.
You don't *have* to avoid buying a home in an HOA, but I'd highly recommend you read up on any restrictions in the HOA before deciding to put down an offer.

Is a garage a luxury?  Perhaps.  But I think of the benefits in a few mustachian ways: 1) it helps keep my cars out of the nasty winters we can have around here, prolonging their life, 2) it provides a nice place where I can do my own car maintenance/repair at night or in the winter, 3) like it or not, resale value, and 4) happy wife, happy life.  I don't think DW would appreciate having to scrape the snow and ice off the car in the morning because I wanted to save a few thousand bucks on the house. :)

Metric Mouse

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Re: What is it about a 3-car garage? Are sheds a thing of the past?
« Reply #51 on: April 10, 2016, 06:10:38 AM »
If you're going to build a garage, build it big enough to use!

This. What is the difference between an extra garage stall and a giant fancy-pants shed outback? If you have to build an ENTIRE SEPERATE BUILDING to house your junk, why is that so much more efficient than just tossing it in an otherwise unused garage stall?  Obviously if one has two stalls or less for whatever reason and needs more space, a shed is perfect. But to rule out three-stalls with the implicit plan to build a shed outback seems silly.

BlueMR2

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Re: What is it about a 3-car garage? Are sheds a thing of the past?
« Reply #52 on: April 10, 2016, 02:49:41 PM »
We are definitely 2-car people and we have extra stuff.  This isn't a diatribe about "clown cars" or anything.  But I really feel like the 3+ garage as a norm has gotten kind of out of hand.  Anyone else have luck with a 2-car garage and a fancy pants "shed" in the burbs????

Well, yes, sort of...  I consider myself "stuck" with a 2-car garage and a shed as 3 car garages just aren't a thing around here (NorthWest Ohio).  Which makes me very sad.  The 3-car garage is the only thing we were not able to get in our house that was on our list.  A shed is better than nothing, but is not substitute.  My cars barely fit in our 2 car garage, I have to kind of wedge them in sideways due to the entry door bumpout.  There's not much room for storing anything and/or working.  I can't even find a safe spot for my little reel mower, so it goes into the shed.

Quite honestly, the shed is a PITA compared to having things in the garage.  Especially in Winter when I have to shovel it out so the doors will open.  When I can get the lock deiced (I cover it, but sometimes water gets in anyways), it's very cold trying to work in there vs. the unheated but attached garage...  The rest of the year the rain adds to the pain...  Trying to do projects out there that can't get wet, but need to be moved back and forth between the house and shed.  Also, working out there at night means more lighting issues.  It's still possible to get stuff done, but it's definitely an extra layer of resistance that has to be fought through.  Very much a #firstworldproblem, but it does dissuade me from doing things after a long hard day at work.  Example: I was rebuilding motorcycle forks last year in the shed.  In the garage, I can just pop out there in seconds by walking through a door to do something for a minute, then pop back in the house.  In the shed, I have an extra couple minutes just to access it (plus if it's raining, we've got the whole gotta cover the tools/parts/me depending on how hard it's raining).  Projects that fit in the little garage space get done quicker as I work on them pretty much any time.  Shed, basically only nice days on the weekend.

Jack

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Re: What is it about a 3-car garage? Are sheds a thing of the past?
« Reply #53 on: April 10, 2016, 07:36:34 PM »
Projects that fit in the little garage space get done quicker as I work on them pretty much any time.  Shed, basically only nice days on the weekend.

And even that is superior to having nowhere to work but a driveway; the added hassle of not being able to secure the area (and thus having to haul tools out and back again every time you want to do something) changes the schedule from "nice days on the weekend" to "severe procrastination," at least for me.

Rural

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Re: What is it about a 3-car garage? Are sheds a thing of the past?
« Reply #54 on: April 10, 2016, 08:12:48 PM »
Projects that fit in the little garage space get done quicker as I work on them pretty much any time.  Shed, basically only nice days on the weekend.

And even that is superior to having nowhere to work but a driveway; the added hassle of not being able to secure the area (and thus having to haul tools out and back again every time you want to do something) changes the schedule from "nice days on the weekend" to "severe procrastination," at least for me.


Now imagine the driveway is unpaved, full of sharp bitey rocks at the best of times, and is a mudpit full of sharp bitey rocks after a good rain - this is why the barn has large double doors.

nobody123

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Re: What is it about a 3-car garage? Are sheds a thing of the past?
« Reply #55 on: April 11, 2016, 11:21:12 AM »
I wish I would have splurged for the 3rd bay when we built 4 years ago.  Like others have said, the garages in new construction barely fit 2 cars, let alone anything else.  My MIL, while having good intentions, bought my oldest a two-seat Power Wheel a few years ago.  Now, that and the bike trailer park in the spot my wife's car used to fit into.  We can build a shed, but HOA rules say it must be built out of the same material as the house, have a concrete pad, matching roof shingles, etc., so it's about the same $12K investment that the extra bay would have cost us.

My parents' 2.5 car garage from 1975 fits 2 cars, a workbench, built in shelving, bicycles, a riding lawnmower, a snowblower, garbage cans, etc.  I think they just build things smaller now.

Chain link is ugly, so I'm glad our HOA bans it.  They do allow wood fences for the back yards of houses, split rail or vertical wood slats.