Like a few of you reading this, I worship cars. If I spent as much time doing anything else, I’d be a professor or some kind of guru. Over the years, family, friends, partners… they all came to accept the fact that I had a problem. I have to try hard NOT to talk about cars. Now I’m not some kind of broken record, its not always the same story and I am capable of having a conversation on other topics. I love travel, movies, art, photography, music, science; in most of its divisions, architecture, the list goes on.
So what if I worship cars!? Many of my family and friends are quite religious, I am not. But for me, my interest in cars is almost like a religion. Many people go to church to pray and worship, car nuts and gearheads go to their garage. And therein lies the problem for me. I don’t have a garage……
I am in the process of attempting to buy a house, after many years of waiting and watching the market slowly settle following the mayhem. I almost had the ideal place a while back. The house was serviceable as a home, ie it had a roof, windows, doors, electricity, water and heating. Ideal!
What was the major factor for me was the insane level of garage goodness. How big? about 15,000sq ft. Nice.
I was imagining cars all over the place, my own version of the kind of high roller garages you see online. But instead of multi-million investment cars, mine would be wall to wall, down to earth drivers cars, if possible, my Gran Turismo garage from back in the day.
I’d have a lift, 2 post or 4, not sure. Single and 3 phase power, just because. Oh ok, 3 phase gear is cheaper. Plenty of wall space for the mountain of car posters, parts and scale models I collected over the years. Lots of lighting, well insulated so I could work in there year round and painted floors. One thing it would have to have, is a man cave. I was asked not to use that expression on a certain garage forum, I’m sorry. How about games room? There was room to open a full on arcade, in one corner. How I miss that place. Kindly the estate agent “forgot” to call us when we were outbid. Hmm. Don’t worry, that was only one of many strange or dodgy property situations I encountered. The joys.
I went out and bought an old pool table, borrowed a broken down beer fridge, some stools, bought some cool glass lampshades from an old pub and other stuff like an old hifi setup. I’ve got plenty tools, mostly cheap stuff, but it does the job. Its coming together. All I need now is a place for all this stuff.
A gearhead without a garage is like a devout religious person without a church, really.
Another issue I have is the size of place I’d like, versus what I can get permission to build/afford. Encouragingly, the owner of one firm who build sheds and other large buidings told me not to worry about that, just build it…. knowing my luck to date, as soon as it was finished, a chap from the council would appear and demand it gets demolished.
If you have any experience with large garages(built inexpensively) I’d love to hear from you. If you have any advice on the planning side of things or even have some advice on building, get in touch.
I’m getting a lot of ridicule for having more interest in the garage than the house, but hey, I don’t worship furniture!
Diesel is for tractors 