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The Garage,
Have you ever given it much thought ? I didn't either until I was sitting between errands the other day and my mind started to wander, as I sat there I started thinking about the house I grew up in. I believe my parents bought that house in about 1956 so I would have been about 2 years old, it was located in the south suburbs of Chicago, They bought it new, it was in what I would describe as a middle class neighborhood, it was a brick 3 bedroom 1 bath ranch with a basement, down the street was another sub-division that featured Cape Cod style frame houses no basements. One thing these houses had in common ? they had no GARAGES !! OMG un-thinkable !!
yup no garages all we had was a double concrete strips (not a slab) that ran up to the side of the house !
So what no big deal, well not so fast I'm thinking some of my adult problems may be traced to my lack of a garage as a kid !!
as the neighborhood aged stand alone garages started to pop up ,mostly 2 car garages built partially behind the houses with driveways
curving into the garage. (the lots were not big enough to accommodate a 2 car garage next to the house ) rear entry was not a option we had no alleys.
When I moved from that neighborhood when I was about 13 I would estimate less than 1/8 of the homes had garages. I was so envious of my friends that parents had garages built. Think about it they had a place to tinker with their bikes rain or shine, they could tinker with the lawn mower engines we pulled out of the garbage and got running again later to be installed on a 2x4 go cart with a old lawn chair for a seat !!
They were great hiding places for things you did not want your parents or siblings to find, My buddy had a dad who liked to hit the bottle, his wife did not approve so he hid all his booze in the garage !! My friends that had garages simply rolled their bikes into the garage once winter hit , I had to drag mine down to the basement ! (and my sisters too) people lucky enough to have garages just rolled their lawn mowers into the garage once fall hit, we covered ours with a tarp next to the house until spring. While the garages were not connected to the house and required a brief walk from home to garage at least there was no windshield scraping or snow brushing once you got to the car !! also all our patio stuff , tables, chairs, umbrellas BBQ grills had to be hauled to the basement at the end of summer because we had no garage.!! seems my sisters escaped that duty it was up to me and the old man for that ! garages were also great hide outs for my friends that didn't want to be found ! so you see I may be emotionally scared and suffered trauma from not having a garage as a kid !!
I recently went back to the Chicago area for a wedding and took a stroll down memory lane to the old hood, to my surprise it's greatly unchanged and many, many of the homes still do not have garages.
Can you imagine a home builder offering a new home now without a garage ! also imagine no garage, no OLDSMOBILE'S
Did you have a garage when growing up as a kid !!
My father bought a house on a lake with a 2 car carport. Over the next ten years, it became a 2 car garage, then a 2x2 car garage with a second story. I lived up there for 12 years as a kid.
His dad had a 1 car garage, formerly a carriage house, and built another on two brick boundary walls. That was a house, no room on the sides, front door, and back yard with alley.
My dad's house, which he still lives in, was built in 1974 in the rural suburbs west of Lansing. His house was built with an attached 2.5 car garage it became a storage place for a while after 1st divorce. We called it out in the early 80's so we could park 2 cars in it.
I love your threads, Solly. Lots of memories come up when reading them. My childhood home did have a garage and it was great. I remember my friends and I had a little "fair" set up in it with games, etc- what fun!!
Good thread Solly. I grew up in North Louisiana. In 1957 we moved into a new house in a sudivision that had a single carport. The next year my dad built a 20 x 40 garage in the back yard. It had two pull up doors. I built my first car in that garage which was a 1940 Ford with a SBC. That is when I was in high school. I spent many hours in that garage and have many fond memories.
Hi this is a fun thread,
Brought back lots of memories.
I grew up in N. Virginia. Our house had an extended driveway up to the side of the house. Kitchen door right there but no garage. We did all our car repairs up near the house. Jump forward to owning my own house and I do have a garage. We moved in and that soon became storage. I have a beautiful '68 442 that lives outside.
Raised on a working farm and had many barns, sheds and lean tows, but money was always short. Liked most kids, I made stuff out of what was worn out on the ranch. One of the best educations one could ever receive is ranch work and a long trip to town for company. If I could put a motor on it and steer it, I went to town . Brakes were optional, Still waiting for the equipment shed, so I can put my extra cars in it. The Old Man said I can empty it out after he's gone, so he won't see the good stuff I'm throwing out. 60 years of broken equipment and every cardboard box that ever crossed the threshold. Ho, well, small price to pay for a great dad... Tedd
As a kid in the 1960's living in Yonkers, NY in an apartment my dad rented a garage space from a house around the corner. Our first house 1969 had a 2 car garage and the next few 1 car garages. When I married we rented a few apartments with garages and only our first house had a 1 car, the remainder had 2 cars. The house we live in now has a garage of almost 800sqft.
As a kid in the 80s we moved often since Oldsguy was in the Navy. It wasn't until he retired and we moved to the KC area that mom & dad bought a house with a 2 car garage. I was a teenager by then. I do remember helping my dad change the main & connecting rod bearings in his little Hyundai Excel as it was parked in that garage. What a POS car.
When my wife and I were first married and when I was in the Army we lived in plenty of apartments without a garage. Our first house in Lawton had an attached 2 car garage and now our house in Edmond has an attached 2 car garage and a 3 car shop in the backyard. Priorities.
Mom & Dad married in '48, had my oldest sister in '49. They built their 1st home on what was then nearly the north edge of town. It was a 2 BR / 1 BA single level home on a basement w/ a 1-car detached garage (2 concrete strips leading up to it) and a breezeway between it and the house. After 2 more older sisters were born, dad raised the roof and built a dormer and that became the "girls bedroom" (my older brother occupied the 2nd BR on the main floor). When I came along in '61, I shared the BR w/ my brother until '64 when my twin younger sisters were born. At this point, we needed a bigger home, which was found 2 blocks away. It was a 2-story home on a basement, 4 BR, 2.5 BA (if you count the toilet in dad's workshop in the basement) and had a 2-car garage that was entered from the rear of the home (the gravel drive ran around the side of the house and there was a large turn-around area behind the garage). Despite the garage being attached, there was no doorway between the interior of the house to the garage, you still had to go outside to get into the garage.
Some of my fondest memories were working on dad's cars with him. Once, he was rebuilding the carb on his '62 Sedan DeVille and couldn't get the air horn off the body of the carb. I pointed out to him that the bolt that secures the air cleaner to the carb was not in the diagram he was following, so he took it out and voila! It came apart. Another time he trusted me (at ~ age 10) to change the rear brake shoes on his '66 Impala wagon. After I got the job done, I got the keys and pulled it out to allow the self-adjusters to do their job. Apparently when I parked that big wagon back into the garage I got if a bit off-center. The next day mom pulls it out to go to the store and ends up scraping the entire rear quarter on the side of the garage door opening. She had to call the mechanic at the nearby service station to bring out a floor jack to lift the rear of the wagon and get it off the opening of the garage. The last big project I did in that garage was to finish priming my '68 Cutlass and get it ready for re-paint in '86. Dad had a small tankless compressor w/ a spray gun I used for shooting the primer. It did a pretty decent job for what it was, but I made a real mess of the garage with all the overspray. Dad was NOT happy about that. I cleaned out the garage and hosed EVERYTHING off. That got me into good enough graces to be able to use his garage years later to store my Cutlass in the winter (when I didn't have enough of my own garage space to do so).
Of course garages are for parking cars and while my garage is not the most organized I do park cars in it . its probably at capacity with the things I have stored in it.
I have driven through the neighborhood and have seen several garages that are so packed with stuff the owners are parking their cars in the driveway because there is no room for cars/
I have driven through the neighborhood and have seen several garages that are so packed with stuff the owners are parking their cars in the driveway because there is no room for cars/
My neighbors have 2 car garages attached to the house but they are full of junk and boxes. I mentioned to a coworker that his garage was for 2 cars, not 200 boxes.
None of the houses i grew up in had a garage... SOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I think i may have over compensated....
How wide is the front end of that?
I am contemplating a similar door layout, but I think I only want the front of the building to be 30 wide. I think I would need to be one double door and a single. Single doors seem to be 9', with some 10', and some older ones 8' wide.
I am contemplating a similar door layout, but I think I only want the front of the building to be 30 wide. I think I would need to be one double door and a single. Single doors seem to be 9', with some 10', and some older ones 8' wide.
40 X 100... two 8X9 and one 10X10 doors... It also has a 10X12 on the side and another 8X9 in the back....
I grew up in Torrance CA. My parents bought our house in 1963. It had a oversized two car attached garage. I spent many hours in there making my own skate boards, working on bicycles, then dirt bikes and eventually cars. I built my first engine in that garage and then some of my friends engines. In the evenings and on the weekends (when we weren’t cruising the strand (for those who know) my friends and I were always hanging out there. I have alot of great memories of those days. Everything was so pure and innocent back then. If only our youths could find what we had back then…
I'm 68 years old and never experienced the pleasure of having a garage until I bought the house I currently live in that was 1992
when I bought my first hot rod a 1957 Chevy sedan delivery I had to store it and work on it in a friends garage. It was a kind of strange situation
he was a truck driver with very erratic hours, there were times I wanted to take the 57 out for a spin and could not because his car would be parked in the driveway behind it and knew if his car was there he was probably sleeping and I did not want to disturb him, I missed a lot of road time in that car because of that situation but beggars cant be choosers and I was grateful to have a place to store my hot rod !!
40 X 100... two 8X9 and one 10X10 doors... It also has a 10X12 on the side and another 8X9 in the back....
Have you found out that it's too small yet? When I had my garage built, I was thinking that a 32' x 48' would be big enough. Now that it is built I wish it was about double the size.
Have you found out that it's too small yet? When I had my garage built, I was thinking that a 32' x 48' would be big enough. Now that it is built I wish it was about double the size.
There are certain immutable laws of the universe, and many apply directly to Garage construction. The first is "It will never be big enough"....
Have you found out that it's too small yet? When I had my garage built, I was thinking that a 32' x 48' would be big enough. Now that it is built I wish it was about double the size.
I found that out a long time ago when my inventory reached 34 vehicles... Now I am in the process of down sizing, so I do have a little more free space now...
Wow this old thread got revived !!! not much changed since original post My Olds still proudly living in garage, garage too small !! since the Olds occupies half and my wifes Grand Cherokee occupies the other half my Jeep has been relegated to the drive way outside behind the Olds !!
I Have some minor things I want to do to the Olds BUT ITS STILL TO DAMN HOT OUT !!! sure wish the garage was air conditioned !!! I have 3 girls all married , all own homes with garages but none of them park their vehicles in the garage !!! TOO MUCH CRAP !!!!! I dont get it
my garage may be a little disorganized but at least I can get my vehicles in it !!!
I grew up in a 1940 house that my dad had built just before he was drafted into the Army. It had a single detached garage with two strips of concrete leading from the street. We always parked our car in there.
When I married, we lived in a $50/month, furnished garage apartment (above three garages). I had plenty of parking for our 1963 Bonneville convertible and 1970 LT-1 Corvette.
Our first house was built in 1924 in a neighborhood where nearly every house had a double, detached garage tucked behind the house with a full-width concrete driveway.
Eleven years ago we moved to our current 2007-era house with three garages--attached.
In garage terms, my adult life has come full circle!
But Solly, I still don't have air conditioning in the garage. (Although one person on the block has it--and he's not even a car guy.)
