Hot Rods So normal people don't care about garages?

My wife and I have been looking to move a little closer to her first grandbaby for a couple of years now...I am ok with leaving my place as the town is a lot busier than it ever has been...population explosion for sure...
My must haves in a property is a decent garage at least the size of my current garage which is 26x32 with a 12 wide lean too on each side...she continuously finds a ok house but no garage...so then the other day we are looking at (online of course) another possible place to buy...and I am like "ok where is the garage?"...and she says
"Normal people don't care about garages..."
I was not sure what to say to her...so I said nothing...but that saying has been rolling around in my head for days now...
I am not "normal"...my father was always in his garage...it was his safe haven...his happy place and I am the same way...my peaceful place is in my shop doing shop stuff...my current project is not a HAMB friendly but I have had several in the past...the one below is resting in my lean too....
I never knew I was "not normal"...

Are we gear heads not considered "normal" any more??

 

We aren't normal? I know I went through the same thing every time we ever looked for a house. Thankfully, my wife has always wanted to live on some land which gave me room to build shops... But, I do know that my first shop I built that dwarfed our house several years ago didn't add any value to the overall property other than to "abnormal" guys like us which doesn't include the folks who bought that house...

 

Had to look Mechanicville up on google earth, small town. Maybe the wife missed a few by accident . Tell us where you two want to go and let the hamb members do a search for you . Hamb search is usually fast so give it at least 1/2 hour

 

I have a house with a garage, and a pole barn a few minutes from my house on a few acres. Place to store my stuff and work on it, and my garage st home has some semblance of normality.

Plus wife never wants to go to the barn. Win win.

 

I never claimed to be normal.

 

In my town, a majority of garages are used for storage. A large percentage have another garage in the back yard with alley access. The average around here is probably at least 3 vehicles per household. We are in a rural area and travel is important to get to shopping, medical facilities, etc. Almost no house has an attached garage the size you quoted. Most are 24' deep. Mine is 18x28 and is shared with my tools and the wife's vehicle. When I'm doing a project, there is a lot of moving on my part.

 

Your wife is correct. I had that same discussion with several Realtors over the years, in suburban Chicago, Arizona, and in the UP. They all more or less said the same thing.

Our latest house purchase was in Az. The Realtor had a hard time understanding that I had absolutely no interest in a house with no garage, or even one with only a single car garage.

Garages don’t sell houses, except to a small minority or subset of house hunters.

 

When the people you hang with are all car people, having a garage is considered normal. I consider a garage, an outside the house, "recreation room". Like the one in the basement, or back of the house, with the TV and games, only for me with tools and stuff. And space for a project.

 

Been that way in UK for a while now, most new built houses you're lucky to get a driveway let alone a garage, then if you do spec a garage on your new build it doesn't even fit a car!! Just a place to store old paint and a lawn mower, perhaps a home gym if an internal access door is there.

Sad times!!

 

I guess I dont hang out with many "nomal people".

 

I noticed that 90 percent of the homes down here with an attached garage had turned it into an extra room. See it everywhere I look now.

 

Buy a house with enough land to build a garage and in an area without a HOA so you can build what you want.

 

NORMAL IS A DRYER SETTING!!

 

Who wants to normal? Carproperty.com is a fun rabbit hole for a while, but I've not visited there for a good while.

Chris

 

In my opinion, normal is over rated. If I’m abnormal, it seems pretty normal to me.

 

Redfin includes "number of garage spaces" as one of its filters (as well as cost, bedrooms, baths, HOA, etc.)
https://www.redfin.com/
My wife gets to choose our retirement home anywhere in the world, as long as it has a 2+ car garage.

 

Normal people are lame. Luckily I married a car gal, so she's the one that sent me the listing of the house with a 2 car garage and a 30x40 shop, THEN she tells me there's room for a second shop for her. Non car people use their garage to store cheap shit they should get rid of while their overly expensive daily driver cars sit outside, it's dumb. Any good realtor sees a shop or big garage and takes photos of it because they know it's a selling point to a certain group of buyers.

 

There's a house near where I live that I joke with my wife about being the ideal house; it looks like the one in "Krass and Bernie" comics.

 

Move to Lake Havasu, AZ. Boat deep garages are a must and are front and center in real estate listings. Along with a/c.

 

Where I live, all the cars park outside because the garage is a storage space for crap they never use. I don't understand why you want to get into a really cold or hot car when you have a nice two car garage. Me and my brothers all lived in the garage with dad, we are not normal either.

 

Been looking to downsize. Hated to give up the garage I had made.
But the rest has become too much both physically and financially now that I’m older and don’t bounce anymore.
Looked for at least a two stall with ample storage with a lake view (fishing!) and one floor. Hard to find unless you have a boatload of money to spend immediately.
We got lucky and found a perfect place.
Time to sell this old gal.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/...w=public?utm_source=nativeshare_activation_v1

 

I could live in the loft over a proper two car garage.... the hell with a "real" house. I could probably live in a van down by the river....

 

I went through this when house shopping back in '87. Would not even consider a house with out a garage.
Most of the houses around here have garages that have been converted to living space, makes me ill! The few remaining garages are used for junk storage, cars outside along with lawn equipment.

 

I think you guys have pretty much nailed it. In fact, right across the street from me, the crap-that-they-never-use has now expanded past their double garage and is taking over the yard too.

 

We've been married for over 50 years.Neither of our reg. cars have been in the garage.The ply. was built and was in the garage.Before I retired I got a 56 f 100.so I bought a shed garage for the ply. and the 56 is being built in the garage.I'm not even close to normal.

 

Best Way To Save A Marriage Is With 2 Buildings....

 

Lou,
I take it the one in the middle is last on your priority list to pull out in case of fire.

 

Out here where I live it’s quite common to find a property with a small house and a very large barn, shop or outbuildings. Unfortunately most of the houses are very old and not the “updated, move-in ready” that most folks desire these days. There was five of us when we were last home hunting and many of the properties that the realtor showed us had me drooling over the barn or metal building but the houses were too small. I kept saying that it’s cheaper to add a couple bedrooms than to build a big shop. She wasn’t buying it….
We eventually scored a 2500 sq ft house on 5 acres with a partially completed 30x40 shop. We did have to spend more than we initially planned but I’m glad we were patient and kept looking.

 

My nom de plume: Y.B. Normal