We've lived in this house for 10 years. In all that time, we've never had our vehicles inside the garage, not once. The space has always been teetering between dumping-ground and workshop.

A dumpshop?

I've always envisioned it as my bad-ass workshop, but its certainly a multi-use room.

Bless my sweet wife, she's always happily allowed me my man-cave, without complaint.

Along with general family storage, I've slowly taken the place over with workshop stuff. My tool chest, workbench, the 5-in-one Shopsmith multi-tool, a thickness planer, and my beast-sized, custom-built miter saw bench dominate the garage workshop. I've got wood, hardware, and building material jammed in every nook and cranny. In true Arizona style, I also get to share the space with our laundry facilities.

Spring Cleaning

From a homeowner standpoint, we're at a cool spot in our parenting years. Finally, our youngest is starting to move away from massive kid toys. I started loading the truck with an outgrown bike, unused toy tool benches (2), a booster seat, and other stuff that has been cluttering the garage, unused for a couple years. I had boxes of books and clothing to get rid of as well. I'd making a quick Goodwill run.

I started clearing out the big toys and piles of  junk accumulated through the winter, making way for upcoming spring and summer projects. It's incredible just how much stuff gets shoved in there. The biggest task is breaking down cardboard boxes that inevitably get chucked in a corner, too big to fit in the recycling bin, but too unimportant to take a razor knife to right away.

As I got loaded for the Goodwill delivery, a sneaky bastard of a rainstorm tore into the neighborhood. After quickly jamming everything left on the right side of the garage, it was a short sprint through the rain for the cab of the the truck. Better to get the truck under cover than than unload it in the rain.

For the first time ever, I eased the Ridgeline into the garage. I nuzzled the nose right up against the miter saw bench, ever so slightly bumping into the 2x4's.

Now it is a garage, no doubt . Solid proof in the fact that, there was a mid-size, 4x4 pickup parked in it with the big rolling door...    

...ahhh crap!

When one builds a monstrous " Economical but Beefy Miter Saw Bench", one needs to consider that a mere 2 inches less depth may be enough to allow for a garage / workshop hybrid. In my case,... the cargo was dry, but water was blowing in through a two foot tall shortcoming in my garage door closing ability.

The rain passed quickly, the front edge of the garage started to dry out, and the truck got loaded.

Pretty soon, I'm going to have to solve this Garage vs. workshop vs. dumping ground quandary. We've got a 16 year old now and only room enough in the driveway for two vehicles. My workshop is going to have to be much more flexible. Unless I figure out where to put another vehicle that will satisfy HOA rules, there's going to be a car in there, probably perpetually coated with a healthy layer of sawdust.