Shedlopnik

"functionoverfashion" (functionoverfashion) 06/22/2018 at 10:42 • Filed to: None

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Or, wait, you’re building a 12' x 24' enclosed structure that isn’t a garage?!

Because reasons! Mostly, though, we just don’t have any place other than our basement to store things like bikes, mowers, rakes, shovels, you know, SHED STUFF. Also firewood.

The basic idea is to have a 7x12 section on each end with some airflow for firewood (about 4 cords each side) and a 10x12 section fully enclosed in the middle for an actual shed. As this is on a slope, the downhill side actually has quite a bit of space underneath; we could toss things under there like kids’ sleds and lawn furniture that we don’t really need to keep dry, but would be nice to have out of the weather a bit.

My hope is that by having this, when we do build a garage in another year or two, one bay won’t be filled instantly with all the other crap that typically clutters up a garage. We plan to build a 3-bay garage, but already we have 4 vehicles, and I currently pay to store my boat in a warehouse in the winter; I’d love to avoid that, and also be able to work on it over the winter.

This shed also means I don’t have to mess around with tarps to get wood in the middle of winter, shoveling snow off and then trying to re-secure it so it doesn’t blow off in the next storm.

Of course, we could use that whole space for things other than wood, but it would be silly to do that when we’ll have a garage in the *hopefully* not-too-distant future.

Also, we just can’t quite bite the bullet on a garage yet; it will involve landscaping, fairly extensive tree and stump removal, driveway expansion, propane tank relocation... yeah. We could have built a simple 2-bay detached garage right where we have a space already, but we hope to be in this location long-term, so we want to do it right, once.

So I’m psyched to have some space in the interim, and a really nice way to store firewood for the long term!

facw > functionoverfashion 06/22/2018 at 10:50

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Nice. My parents have a large ~ (20'x20') shed and it is great. Lots of room to store all various things instead of piling it up in the garage. Granted they also have two garage bays full of other stuff, but their house has an excessive number of bays, and the old detached garage is a bit nicer for storage than the basement or attic.

functionoverfashion > facw 06/22/2018 at 10:53

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My in-laws had a garage under their house, 2 bays. Then they added on to the house and put a 3-bay in front of that, so you can’t access the 2-bay, it’s just a basement now. BUT if you put in a big door, you could easily get in there from the 3-bay. This, to me, is perfect - you could have your 3-bay garage for parking , and pull any car into the inner space to work on it. That part is heated, too. But to a passerby, they’d never know you have that space in there.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > functionoverfashion 06/22/2018 at 10:53

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Since you’re building something that isn’t a garage but will, Winchester Mansion-like, attract, divert, and confuse clutter ghosts, I’d say that’s almost as good as a garage.

Ash78, voting early and often > functionoverfashion 06/22/2018 at 11:08

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Amazing. Our old house had a basement garage that was over 1,000sf, so more than half of it could be used for non-car stuff. Our current garage is a slabbed 2-car garage with a small storage room. Not nearly enough. Half of our stuff ends up in a spider-filled crawlspace under the house. Our cord of firewoood is stacked under the eaves (on a raised metal frame) and it stays nice and dry.

Don’t even get me started on new hom  construction. Garages are tiny, no storage, and lots too small for a shed (if the HOA even allows them!)

Future next gen S2000 owner > functionoverfashion 06/22/2018 at 11:50

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My dad has a two car attached garage. That wasn’t quite enough space so he built a 3 stall extra wide and extra deep pole barn to fit more stuff. Then he tacked a lean-to onto the pole barn to keep the plow truck out of the weather. Oh, and he heats with wood, he has enough wood to last at least 2 winters in northern Michigan at the moment and he is getting more. He put up a roof basically to cover the wood so that it would dry out better. This is sized for roughly 1.5 winters - I have no idea in cords what it is. The wood filled it’s space and is now overflowing next to the wood storage area. He is gets wood ever weekend between May and October. A full pickup load, 8' bed with HD shocks and 10 ply tires on the back of a 1/2 ton. He beats the hell out of that truck.

My brother also has a two car garage and decided that wasn’t enough so he built a 2 stall garage that is 2.5 cars deep. It is now full.

Point being. Double whatever you think you need. You’ll eventually use it all.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > functionoverfashion 06/22/2018 at 13:47

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Had a coworker who bought a house that had a 2 car garage added in front of a 2 car garage. So 2 deep and 2 wide, plus the garage door was still there between the 2 and that inner one was heated. It was a nice setup

functionoverfashion > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 06/22/2018 at 14:07

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That’s pretty near ideal, because we don’t need to access all the cars all the time. Except in winter, you’d want to be in the heated part... I suppose I’d survive.

One idea that’s been floated at our location, because we have a hill to one side, is to make our garage a little higher than the first floor level of our house, then cut around to the side (or back) to get two under. That would be way more expensive than a regular 3-bay on a slab, but much c ooler, too.