The Garage
From: ken (gebserspeakeasy.net)
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 08:24:42 -0700 (PDT)
Tim Clark wrote:
> Cars and how they are treated has been an issue with me for years. In fact
> it has kept me out of cohousing until now. (we are having 8 attached
> garages).

Park me in your camp.  I used to have a tolerate-hate relationship with
cars.  I still consider them too much independence and too isolating,
but a necessary evil.  So I'd always get beaters that I could park
anywhere and fix with paper clips and chewing gum.  (I actually "fixed"
an alternator mount once with the leg I broke off of a chair which was
in the garbage.)  I found that such cars cost about $200/year for
repairs; when the cost rose above that, it was time for a new beater.
These are the kinds of vehicles that neighbors would rather see parked
in a garage with the door closed.

Just a few years ago I decided that I didn't want to spend so much time
under the hood and got myself a newer vehicle.  Another consideration
played in after talking with a fellow customer at a muffler repair shop.
 (I had a coupon which got me the muffler replacement for free.)  This
guy asked me to guess the year of his car.  He'd picked the right person
for this question because I never pay attention to years, makes, and
models and had no idea at all.  From the absence of rust (a major cause
of new cars here in the snowy, salty north) and the sheen still in the
paint, I guessed it was about five years old.  It was over twenty.  The
secret, he told me, was that he washed his car every week, including
during the winter, and kept his car in a garage.

This brought me to ask myself, What's better: buying a series of cars
all of which end up in a junk yard and eventually partially recycled
(just the major pieces of metal), the rest going into a landfill? ... or
buying one car and making it last?  I concluded that environmentally,
economically, and aesthetically the answer was the latter.  With the
price of a car, even a beater, having gone up so much in recent decades,
it just makes sense not to have to buy another vehicle every few years.

I still prefer to walk rather than drive, but as long as it's necessary
to have a car, I believe, like any other tool (which, essentially, a car
is), it needs and deserves care.


> It isn't the car that is the problem it is the attitude and architecture
> about cars that is the problem. If all you can see is garage fronts when you
> look down the street of course it is a problem, but there are other ways to
> deal with cars then to punish them.

I agree here too.  Putting the garage door on the side of the house is
one solution.  It should also be integrated into the overall design and
appearance of the building, not appearing from the street as a separate
wing of the building.


> Do you really want to see your brand new Prius out in the sun getting baked
> and cracked or how about a little acid rain for the car's finish?

Most people wouldn't leave a saw or pliers out in the elements.  A
vehicle is much more expensive to replace.  The sun and heat also bakes
the plastic and leather in the interior and all the rubber seals
everywhere, leading to leaks.

One morning several years ago I woke up to a car horn blaring for
several minutes nonstop.  I looked out the window to see who the jerk
was and found it was my own car.  A day or so later I found out that the
sun had baked the plastic on the steering wheel, shrinking it, and so
causing the thin metal strips inside the horn ring to make contact.  I
was told that this happens a lot (to people who park their cars in the
sun).  The only fix for it was to replace the entire horn ring, not a
cheap job.


>  ....
> 
> Is perimeter parking another form of forced intimacy?

Attached garages are nice for avoiding the snow and rain and tracking
less of those both into the house and into the car.  There almost a
necessity for doing almost any kind of repair work during the winter.
Even in warmer months it's nice not to have to schedule work days around
the rain.

Garages are also nice places to hang out... for guys anyway (and not
that we're being exclusive).  I wouldn't call it intimacy, but some of
the more memorable times in my life have been doing work with other
folks in the garage.  Then there was a time when my girlfriend parked
her pickup in the garage because it had a sofa in the bed.  ;)


> How about the other functions of a garage other than storing a car, like
> extra storage, messy work space, play space on a rainy day when you want the
> kids to stay close to the house.

The garage is also the most sensible place to keep mechanic's tools
(rather than having to lug them up from the basement).

And garage sales and garage parties.  Put the car in the drive, unfold
the ping pong table and invite the neighbors in.

How many fewer rock-n-roll bands would there be without a garage to
start out in?

Hewlett-Packard started out from a couple friends hanging out in a garage.


> I personally wanted a studio (garage). I want to be able to get up at
> anytime and go to my studio, without driving cross town to get to it. If I
> have an idea in the middle of the night I want to be able to go to work. I
> want to work in my underwear if that is what is happening (door closed of
> course). 

The great thing about a garage is that it can be used for so many
activities.  I keep a couple chairs in my garage in case people stop by
while I'm there.  I should put an ashtray out there too.  I know people
who keep a stocked frig in their garage if a visitor is thirsty or wants
to make a sandwich.  If I had a bigger garage, I'd have a computer out
there (with wireless card) so I could pull up repair docs I consult on
the web, look up an address or phone number, take a quick look at a map,
track car data (mileage, expenses, etc.), even bang out a fast email.

One of Frank Lloyd Wright's principles which he tried to incorporate
into his designs was to mollify the dichotomy between inner and outer.
This is part of what makes porches really pleasant.  In a lot of ways,
garages are even better.


> 
> 
> Tim
> 
> Kaleidoscope Village

Where is Kaleidoscope?


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