Let's see your Man Castle

Yep!

And thanks, that corner is tidy. The rest of the garage is a wreck.

I like it! When the photos finally came into focus, a refrigerator appeared!

A quick follow up on my 20x20 build over the winter. Sort of finished at this point. I still need to add a bike lift, currently shopping for one. I had it wired to the house security system so everything is fully protected inside. Fully insulated.

Outside finished back in January:



Inside:


32" HDTV with cable, race channels and all the sports channels:


New stainless steel table top added yesterday:


It even has an attic for storage:

Very Nice!. Exactly what I want to do. Unfortunately with a half acre lot it would mean cutting down some of my wife's trees. I may have to divorce her.

Depending on what type of bike lift you are looking for, the latest edition of Motorcyclist Magazine had a coupon for the Harbor Freight lift at $299 and the front chock at $49. Good thru July 1.

I cut down 10 nasty pines, to put up a shop. She, then, planted 21 productive trees elsewhere around the yard. It all evens out.

My lot is only an acre. I did have to cut down 4 crapt(sp?) myrtle trees along the edge of the exisitng driveway to make room for the shop. I don't miss them at all

This was a long time coming for me. 16 years of being cramped in a 2 car garage was stressful. Now we can park a full size pickup and Honda car in the house garage and open the doors wide open and walk all around them. The shop so far is working very well.

I have looked at them and was a little concerned by some of the reviews mentioning cylinder leakage. My local HF does not carry them. All the other brands are chinese made as well except for the Handy brand. Direct lift and Auto Lift both are chinese knock offs of a Handy. Nothing wrong with that if the cylinders don't go bad. Suppose that could happen to a Handy as well. I do need to pull the trigger soon. I hate being on my knees and I have a brand new compressor that needs to be used for somethign other than airing up tires

Nice job on the garage Roy! I'm pondering a similar build myself. What did you go with for heat/AC?

Hope you get a S10 (not the truck!) to go in there soon!

Thanks Michael! As for heat and AC I have not done anything yet. The shop never got any colder than 40 when it was 17 outside. A small space heater warms it up enough to work in. Eventually I will have to get heat by next winter. As for AC waiting to see if it gets really hot in there. I have eye on a small window unit if that is the case. One of the wall outlets near the window is wired for full 20 amps just for that. It is under shade about 75% of the time from the huge tree line to the south and really big red tops behind it to the west. So much shade the ground dry's extremely slow on he north side.

The Super Ténéré can't get here soon enough but considering the ordeal over there now I will wait it out.

Ha, I love that method, as a matter of fact, I need to put one up in our garage so my wife does not pull so far forward.

When I lived in Germany my car (91 Thunderbird) barely fit in my garage, I had to almost touch the front wall so the garage door would close. I used the ball/sting method like you have.

I ordered some lowering springs for my car and put them on at the auto craft shop on post. When I cam home I was slowly rolling into the garage waiting for the ball to hit the windshield and BAM, rolled right into the front wall. I was pretty unhappy with myself, but damage was minimal.

I finally got a lift table for the bikes. I have wanted one forever.



I suppose that it is now time to take off the studded tires and tire wraps from the 450.

My garage is nice and deep. The the two four wheeled vehicles still fit in front of the bikes.

What sort of money are they in the States

PG

I have the same lift, it has been great for nearly 4 years of heavy use.

I have a couple of suggestions:

Swap out the front tire holder for one of these:

http://www.harborfreight.com/motorcycle-wheel-chock-96349.html


Also, make sure all the pivot points and joints are well greased, and the lift cylinder is full of fluid.

Finally, do not let it sit directly on your racedeck type flooring for long, especially when you put the feet down and weight on it. Use some flat steel or aluminum under it, or it will bite deeply into your floor tiles.

Nice garage, I am very jealous!

Jim

Just get a window unit that does both.

This somewhat shows my back wall. There are a line of 4 openings for windows with a 5th opening (right at the edge of the pic) in the middle for a combo HVAC unit. This space is 24' X 24'.

Find a local independant HVAC guy to hook you up with a demo'd out central home unit. My guy is currently looking for one for me and he's talking like $1,200.00-$1,500.00 installed.

They typically run $350.00ish for the Harbor Frieght lifts like your asking about to several thousand for a Snap-On. Of course asking how much to spend on a lift is about like asking what oil to buy. The HF unit has been demonstrated by many to be serviceable enough for the typical home application. There are a bunch of choices in the $750.00-$1,500.00 range that seem to attract most folks.

I got lucky when I bought mine in that I found a used Handy air lift(thought by many to be the Gold Standard as they are used in alot of professional shops) with all the options for $500.00. These units are typically $1,500.00.

My castle is more of a shed. But it's better than what I used to have.

I just got this over the winter; still need to insulate and wire it up, but it's already proving to be a nice place to work.

Me too. What is it with wives and pulling so far forward!