A good garage is worth the investment

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/06/2018 (3042 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

To build, or not to build — a garage.

That is the question.

The answer, for my long time friends Sue and Rick Kizuk, was an easy one. Yes.

After having lived in a home with an attached garage for many years, their move last November to a home without a garage left them no choice but to build one.

They want their vehicles out of the weather, need a place to keep seasonal equipment, store some stuff — all of the usuals.

It’s being built as you read this. It may even be finished by now.

Prior to shopping around for what it might cost to get a garage built, Sue pondered that perhaps it might be in the $12,000 range.

I probably would have guessed more in the $15,000 range, but like Sue, I too, would have been wrong.

They discussed their needs, shopped around for packages, and found the prices all to be pretty much within the same range.

They found a package that works for them, signed on the dotted line, and here’s what they chose: A 24-by-24-foot garage built on a concrete pad, one man door, one window, and a large single overhead door. The finished garage will not be insulated.

Total price, $24,450.

Holy smackers! That was a surprise to me. Every home I’ve owned has included a garage, so I’ve never had to build one. My garage construction cost awareness skills obviously stalled about 20 years ago. Maybe more. Understandable, I suppose, when you consider I didn’t get an iPhone until just this week. I was waiting for one to come out that had a dial on it.

The package Rick and Sue settled on came from Star Builders and is being skillfully erected by Matt and Matt of A&M Homes. Yes, Matt and Matt, which occasionally has got to cause some confusion. Sue, however, assures me the build is going swimmingly, and everyone is happy with the progress to date. Happy is good.

I can tell you right now this same setup would cost me at least $34,500 — the additional $10,000 would be to build a heated enclosed walkway between the house and garage. The thought of battling my way through a -40 C windchill between my house and garage is just more than my winter-weary body could bear. There is only so much one human being can take.

The cost of this spanking new garage brings me back to one of my favourite “things that make you go hmmmmm” topics.

I always find it amusing, and sort of fascinating, when I drive down some street and see a garage door open and all the stuff the owners have packed in there like sardines in a can. There’s no way to even begin to fit a car in there. On average, what is that collection of stuff worth?

Let’s be generous and say maybe $500 to $1,000.

How much are the vehicles worth that sits outside year round, in every kind of weather including hail, and forcing the owners — all winter long — to get into frigid and snow-covered vehicles, which they have to clean off before they can go anywhere?

Remember that old thing called common sense? Does it not seem to be missing here? And it’s not like that stuff cramming the garage is even being used. Humans can be so strange.

Anyway, congrats, on your beautiful new garage, Rick and Sue.

I have some stuff here I don’t have room for. Wondering if I might tuck it in a corner of your garage for a few years?

I heard what you thought there. Rude. Very rude.

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