A Mans’ Garage Is His Castle

I recently spent my few days off working to get a large list of Honey-do’s done before spring walleye fishing clouds my better judgement. My boat is in for some repairs, and soon as its ready, the honey-do’s will take a back seat to the AutumnArcher means of grocery shopping. Fishing. A lot.

 One thing I am bound to get finished is my garage. Its been a slower than planned work in progress, but good things cannot be rushed. The basic construction took place (fall 06), then when funds permitted, the interior finishing was started. A little insulation here, some drywall there, and a smattering of paint as time permits. This weekend was time to work on making it a kinder and gentler garage, with organized( a word which does not come to me easily) storage for important stuff like tools, hunting gear, fishing gear, boating gear, and camper stuff.

One could easily say I’ve procrastinated ( a word which comes quite easily to me)  in this part of constuction. OK, I admit there was a few minor things that delayed me, such as 2 weeks of elk hunting in September. Oh, and for a short period of time (October, November  and most of December) to take in a little deer hunting and then of course there is the Christmas season. December- January which was compounded with shoulder surgery, followed by those too freakin cold out to do anything months.  Taken one at a time, a person could easily say that these are minor distractions. Hence they have no clue about life in the AA world.

When I started construction, I knew I didn’t just want some unfinished, cluttered mess of a garage. You know the type, crap piled everywhere with no room to park a bicycle let alone the gas guzzling family SUV. My wife and I disputed how big to build. I was shooting for something along the lines of 32×40′.  Of course she wimpered ” why does it need to be that big”- obviously her judgement clouded with ovarian logic. So I explained that you can never really have a garage too big. We settled on 30×36′, only due to some limitations based on GOVT imposed rules like setbacks and other such nonsense.

That is a fair size for the Castle. Until now, all of my tools are in a small cramped workshop in the basement. Not to complain, the only thing better than 1 man cave is 2 man caves.

But everytime I needed to fix something, or build something, I had to haul all the required tools up and down the stairs. Now I can keep the fixing and building  tools in the garage, and use my basement shop for its intended purpose- archery stuff, gun cleaning and reloading ammo. Those being winter projects.

So, back to the job at hand. As I am about climbing out of my skin in anticipation of some serious spring walleye fishing, I am busting my backside to get the Castle finished. A garage is a mans space. Truly one place he can seek solitude, crack a cold beer, leave his shoes on, and always find something to do. Where a little coffee sloshed onto the floor doesn’t raise an eyebrow. It smells of oil, sawdust, and wood finishing products. On a good day, I can get all 3 vehicles inside, along with the boat.  But normally its 1 or 2, the boat and a project going on in the corner.  In inclimate weather, I can shoot my bow into the target hanging in the corner. 

this week I’ve finished building two built in closets to store our vast array of receational gear. Sportsmans Warehouse would be impressed with my inventory. Along with that, I have installed a overhead shelve for keeping coolers, deer blinds and treestands up and out of the way.  Soon asthe weather gets a bit warmer, it the floor will be power washed, and the concrete sealed with a colored stain/sealer. The fridge will be restocked with beer.

Then I can go fishin……