OV9

Rich B wrote: Sat Jun 01, 2019 8:07 pm Bikes are a bloody nightmare to store efficiently. Handlebars and pedals just get in the way. I tried the vertical storage option and found it less efficient than just leaning them up against each other.

I have a 5 bike hanger, which actually works well for the bikes that are on it, except MrsREV nor the kids can store or retrieve bikes from it. We keep my 2 bikes, MrsREVs 2 bikes and ElderREVlet's old bike on there. ElderREVlet's main bike and YoungerREVlet's 3 bikes are just dumped underneath leaning on each other, plus the 2 electric scooters. It's a nightmare. I think I'm going to sell my hybrid bike because I never use it, plus 1 each of the kids bikes. I'm also trying to convince MrsREV to get rid of her newer bike that she secretly hates but can't admit.

OK, 1st attempt at a layout using what are supposed to be standard Wickes kitchen units. I couldn't figure out how to make them plain white, I'm not really planning Cherry wood cabinets. I do plan on at least painting the bare brick walls, I probably won't plaster the walls.

I plan to just leave a gap where the brick pillar juts out. This will give me somewhere to store my trolley jack and axle stands etc.

I need to double check the measurements as there's some door hardware around where the roll cabinet fits, plus some detail I missed out round there. It'll be close!

NotoriousREV wrote: Sat Jun 01, 2019 9:13 pm OK, 1st attempt at a layout using what are supposed to be standard Wickes kitchen units. I couldn't figure out how to make them plain white, I'm not really planning Cherry wood cabinets. I do plan on at least painting the bare brick walls, I probably won't plaster the walls.

I plan to just leave a gap where the brick pillar juts out. This will give me somewhere to store my trolley jack and axle stands etc.

I need to double check the measurements as there's some door hardware around where the roll cabinet fits, plus some detail I missed out round there. It'll be close!


garage2.jpg

If you want a cheap solution and don’t care what the units look like have a chat with a local kitchen fitter- most will let you take the old units they strip out for free, as it saves them a fortune getting rid of them

First order retrieve-ability, whatever you need for each job in its own space.

When I started the garage I wanted it to be an efficient place to work, so I wanted a small workbench for all the toy fixing, hobby stuff and for it to be practical. For me work surfaces just attract clutter so I didn’t want much, plus slim metal cabinets on walls etc. One drawer with all my soldering stuff in, one with my measuring things, one with all my driver bits etc.

It’s incredibly calming knowing exactly where my tools are.

I’ll do some pictures this week of my little piece of calm.

Also I found some small fold out shelves are great, if you are working at the front then a little shelf to pop stuff on that can fold away etc.

I still can’t decide on power socket location or lights for the middle but that’s part of the fun

Also I’ve found kitchen cabinets never really last, I made my bench and have metal cabinets but I wanted particularly shallow cabinets which don’t suit everyone.

Dave!

I’m all set up for summer now - I’m absolutely loving having the doors open on a morning like today.

I’d love to be in a position to do the patio properly and get rid of the step down, but the layout is a success imo!

Rich B wrote: Sun Jun 02, 2019 8:55 am I’m all set up for summer now - I’m absolutely loving having the doors open on a morning like today.

I’d love to be in a position to do the patio properly and get rid of the step down, but the layout is a success imo!

Of course - it looks shit.

But it doesn’t actually! Loving those doors.

When the boys are a bit older I’d like to knock through the wall to their playroom from the kitchen. That would give us 12.4m length and room enough for a pool table and a DJ Booth. We need the playroom for the moment though to save me from Dan Fcuking TDM.

Don’t forget that step down forms part of your protection against water ingress during heavy rain, not sure how it would affect the door seals

My parents house has bifold doors but they’re in the deep countryside and there’s far too many bugs so they can’t use them unless they want to spend the night swatting flies. They added AC units the next summer.

jamcg wrote: Sun Jun 02, 2019 9:21 am Don’t forget that step down forms part of your protection against water ingress during heavy rain, not sure how it would affect the door seals

oh yeah, I’d never thought of that...

In all seriousness, that is the big challenge (and probably expense). My brother has a similar set up and he used decking to allow drainage through - my missus isn’t a fan of real decking (upkeep) and the synthetic stuff gets proper hot in direct sunlight, so I think it’ll have to be a raised tile patio. A project for next year I expect.

If you have a French drain directly along the outside of the threshold, that would do the job, would it not? I don’t know how it deals with the damp proof course though.

We may have the same problem as Mito’s parents with a large opening; I suspect we will not open ours all that much.

I can’t imagine you’d have much of a bug problem with the cats Jobbo. Ours are incredibly efficient at catching and eating any invaders .

Having a house in the country then hermetically sealing it because of insects is pure townie logic anyway.

Rich B wrote: Sun Jun 02, 2019 8:55 am I’m all set up for summer now - I’m absolutely loving having the doors open on a morning like today.

I’d love to be in a position to do the patio properly and get rid of the step down, but the layout is a success imo!

That looks brilliant. Now I’ve got the hang of Sketchup I want to do my whole house and remodel it all

ZedLeg wrote: Sun Jun 02, 2019 10:29 am I can’t imagine you’d have much of a bug problem with the cats Jobbo. Ours are incredibly efficient at catching and eating any invaders .

Having a house in the country then hermetically sealing it because of insects is pure townie logic anyway.

We always have the windows open but that’s a bit different to opening up 20ft of what would otherwise be solid boundary wall!

I’m not a townie anyway, which is why I appreciate a distinction between outside and inside space.

ZedLeg wrote: Sun Jun 02, 2019 10:29 am I can’t imagine you’d have much of a bug problem with the cats Jobbo. Ours are incredibly efficient at catching and eating any invaders .

Having a house in the country then hermetically sealing it because of insects is pure townie logic anyway.

I'm in the countryside and if you leave the back door open with the kitchen light on the the place fills up with bugs really quick. It's really annoying. Those doors of Rich B's are fabulous BTW but evenings sat outside would mean they'd have to stay shut sadly.

I've never heard of anyone in real life having issues with their house filling with bugs because they had bifolds / sliding doors. Are you all fertilising your lawns with cow shit on a daily basis?

This place seems to be a haven for those that uniquely struggle with normal day to day life.

ste wrote: Mon Jun 03, 2019 10:29 am I've never heard of anyone in real life having issues with their house filling with bugs because they had bifolds / sliding doors. Are you all fertilising your lawns with cow shit on a daily basis?

This place seems to be a haven for those that uniquely struggle with normal day to day life.

We get quite a few moths and the odd bug coming in, but not on a biblical scale and we back onto a forest.

I've a wood and pond backing on to me. If we leave the windows and/or doors open all day we can expect to wake up the following day covered in bites. They're right little sods.

I had to venture out there last weekend to coerce the cat to come in when it was getting dark and despite wellies and trackies etc before venturing into the undergrowth I still came in with 3 bites.

Forests are not bad, don’t have many flying biting insects, standing water and farms are a real fucker. Growing up we lived in the countryside but the village didn’t have any farms or ponds, just grass fields. You could leave the windows open a week and would only ever have a handful of bugs which were dealt with by the dog.
My parents newer place has cows 20 metres to one side, horses 20 to the other a pond on the drive and surrounded by fields fertilised with manure. You leave a window open and you’ll get raped by horse flies and mosquitoes.
When the sun shines on the southern facing walls there’s a solid coating of insects warming up on it.

Well it’s the only house related stuff I’ve done and has taken a surprising amount of pondering. Also excuse the mess, I’ve got a load of projects on the go and it needs a tidy.

Time is precious to me and also I’m very bored of struggling for tools etc.

So I’ve made my garage exactly how I want it apart from my air system and electrical set up, they are on-going.



My red cupboards hold my rc batteries and charger, my brake fluid kit, my dremel and all the accessories, polishing stuff and the end cupboard is in-decided.

The blue drawers hold o-rings, RC spares, house electric stuff etc etc

To the right of that is my charger set up for the garage only tools, I keep my other chargers for the drills and impacts I take when I’m working at my parents or the in-laws. They will be on smart plugs so I can turn all the chargers on when I know I’ll be in the garage that day.

Below that is my measuring drawer, more electrical parts, multimeter, a torch drawer, a glueing drawer, a lubricant drawer and a soldering drawer.

The left side of the bench folds down when not needed (Toylander drive system on there at the minute) and is handy for light work. The bench itself has an oak kitchen top and I can hammer on it without issue. I have a small dremel drill mount which has proven quite handy.
I have a 28” monitor and Raspberry PI running so I can geek, watch instructional videos etc and do all my garage work in the garage. So if I need parts I’ll order them in there and keep my geekery out of the house.

Underneath it I keep a small trolley toolbox which has all my house DIY stuff in it so I just wheel that in and have 95% of the stuff I need. PTFE tape, fittings, silicon, sockets and connectors etc, masonary drills.

The small red toolbox is my metalwork box, drills, taps, warding files, nuts and bolts, grinder parts, flap wheels etc. Anything I need to modify metal basically.
I removed the lid so I keep my most used impact or battery drills there. It needs to be bigger so I’ll extend the shelf once I find a bigger toolbox I like.

I also have 3 cupboards to the left of my compressor where I keep all my oils for the cars, each car has a cupboard apart from the Defender as they take up too much space.



My toolbox is not finished, it’s full but I’ve yet to properly organise my sockets and spanners, it’s surprisingly hard to have them exactly as I want, very sad I know.
I have lots of random stuff, every screwdriver, spanner, pliers etc that I can think of and it makes working on the car a joy. Knowing you have the correct tool gives me a lot of peace so it has genuinely improved my home life where before every job I did required me to drive and buy or collect something. That rarely happens anymore.



Last trip I stripped down and mounted my 3.5hp twin cylinder compressor in the roof, I’ll have around 80litres of air supply once I find the lorry air receivers I want and that will do for pumping up tyres and the few air tools I still use. I’m pretty much just batteries now as they are so good.



These 2 shelves are brilliant, they fold flat against the wall when not in use but my end one is for when I’m working at the door end, when I did the TT it’s very handy to have a flat space to put stuff while working. I should have done it years ago. The longer one covered in my to-do list of RC tinkering has a metric and imperial square mounted on each end and I use this when marking out. I used this recently to make a chess board and it saved me so much time marking out. Both small additions but they are the biggest time savers.

When I’m away the 500e goes in here, my motorbike, my barbell and plates, all the rc stuff, all 3 adult bikes and other bits and pieces. I wish it was 2 metres longer but annoyingly I had kids and they want space, gits.

It’s my little piece of calm and once I figure out how I want the electrics it will be perfect for me. I like wood so everything wooden is oak butcher block and protected with tung oil, the ventilation is good but I still have a desiccant de-humidifier for the damp days so everything stays bone dry.

Dave!

Nice!