I got a garage by accident, and initially it was planned to sell 18 and a half meters of space without windows and doors (gates do not count) and use the proceeds to buy an apartment. Then it was more topical for my family.
When I first went there, a sigh of disappointment involuntarily escaped from my chest. The “inheritance” looked unpresentable. There was nothing of the word “at all” there: the walls were without plaster, rusty pipes of the fire extinguishing system and exhaust gas hood, the floor was covered with a thick layer of construction dust.
All this happiness was illuminated by a pair of dim lamps. As soon as I remember, I’ll tremble!
The idea of selling soon failed. At this time, another crisis broke out, and it was not square meters that were in short supply, but money. Despite the fact that I posted ads on the main Internet sites and lowered the price several times, not a single interested buyer responded.
Garage turned into warehouse
I soon became immersed in renovating the apartment and began using the garage as storage. First, I loaded finishing materials there. And when it came time for finishing work, instead of wallpaper and tiles, he brought boxes of household appliances, leftover laminate flooring, some buckets, etc.
Gradually the mountain of rubbish grew. Following the construction legacy, an old TV, refrigerator and children's electric ATV, which were “a shame to throw away,” were moved to the garage.
There was also a working archive: notebooks covered from cover to cover, certificates of honor, diplomas, books...
Over the course of several years, the mountain has grown considerably. This became more and more stressful. Then the desire to gather financial strength and put the legal 18 and a half meters in order finally took shape. I no longer wanted to sell the garage.
The main question is traditional: where to put the junk?
How it works. Apartments in Moscow garages. (photo)
Alexander is 25 years old. He comes from Borisov and studied at Minsk College as an electrical engineer. Three years ago he moved from Minsk to Moscow, and for the last three months he has been renting a garage for $600 near the transport ring. The garage was equipped as an apartment and for Moscow this, it turns out, is not considered anything surprising. Now he is back in Belarus and is ready to share his impressions and photographs.
In 2010, I met a girl from Moscow, she offered to move in with her,” Alexander recalls. “We lived in her apartment for a year and a half, then we ran away. What's next: rent expensive housing or return to Belarus? Here friends from college came to the rescue - they also settled in Moscow. Move, they say, to our garages.
Living in a garage probably sounds crazy. But for Moscow, as it turned out, this is in the order of things. Garage owners in cooperatives figured out how to make money, built second floors, and installed communications. Move in - live. My first garage was without water, and the only furniture was a sofa. Fortunately, I didn't live there for long. I met a girl and moved into an apartment. Our relationship lasted a year. And then again my friends called me to the garages, but in a different area.
Garages in the cooperative are two-level, with a second floor built on. Below there are iron gates, above there is a single window. Each box has sewerage, running water, electricity, and an electric boiler for heating. There are personal counters on the walls.
Alexander agreed to pay the owner $600 a month. This is how much it costs to rent a well-renovated room in Moscow today. Here the money is the same, but the area is disproportionately larger - two floors and a basement. And complete freedom. — $600 for a garage is the average price. My friends, who had more decent furniture and an infrared sauna, paid 1000 a month,” says Alexander. — For 200–300 you can rent a box with just bare walls.
No one lives there on the first floor - there are no windows. Many people use it as a workshop. You go downstairs - you're at work, you go up - you're at home. This is incredibly convenient for Moscow. No traffic jams for you. A man from Brest lived next to me - on the first floor he repaired cars. I only kept my bicycle and some useful household items downstairs.
Behind the stairs on the first floor there is a door - behind it is an elongated combined bathroom, upholstered in clapboard, like the entire first floor.
Under the stairs, a hatch opens in the floor to the basement, where the owners store jam, honey and compotes.
The room is on the second floor. In one corner there is a kitchen with a heating boiler.
Opposite there is a sofa, a wardrobe, several tables, a TV on the wall.
— What were your first impressions? You can live! There was no stove in the garage - I bought it to pay rent. The downside is poor ventilation. It's stuffy in the summer, especially when there are several people in the room. It was impossible to create a draft - we had to circulate the air with a fan. In the summer it was $100 a month for communal services. In winter, of course, it will be more expensive. In severe frosts, when there is not enough electric heating, the guys take heat guns to the garages. Overwintering there is not a problem. And in order not to pay a lot for electricity, you can lay LED strips and insulate the outside walls. Of course, no one lives with children in the cooperative. According to Alexander, there are literally several married couples. Mostly young people who have arrived in large numbers.
“It happens that people live on the same landing and don’t know each other by sight. It's different in garages. It's like being in a student dormitory. Everyone got to know each other, helps each other, borrows tools, goes to visit.
Everyone settles in as best they can. One friend made a chill-out room in the basement. There's a TV, a console, a sofa, a couple of armchairs, and on the wall there's a painted yellow submarine, like the Beatles', that glows in the dark.
On the ground floor there is a kitchen and toilet.
On the second floor there is a living room and a shower cabin.
And these are the interiors of another garage in the cooperative.
Of course, they live in garages illegally. But each box is rented out under a lease agreement, as if for work.
— If you type into Google “Rent a garage for living,” you won’t really find anything. Garage owners do not like to publicize their business; they look for tenants through friends. But, in general, the police don’t care about all this. My friends who have lived in garages for a couple of years don't remember a single inspection.
Alexander spent three years in Moscow. There was enough time to be convinced that this city was not for him.
— In Moscow, everything revolves around money. I've known people who got up at 6 am, went to the office and returned home by midnight. What kind of life is this? People are angry and uncommunicative. It seems that if you feel bad on the subway, everyone will step over you and move on. When in the city you are held back by feelings for someone, vanity fades into the background, but when you are left alone, you soberly assess the situation.
Among my friends there were almost no people who rented an apartment and lived there alone. Too expensive. People in Moscow are crowded. Two or three families in one apartment. This gives rise to some kind of hostels, communes. That's probably why I went to the garage. I didn’t want to share the kitchen, bathroom, toilet with strangers, or agree on who washes the dishes after whom...
Minsk is a calm city, but it doesn’t suit me either. There are problems finding a job. Here they look not at your abilities, but at what kind of hair you have, how you dress. In Moscow it was easier: I came to the company, said that I could figure everything out on the fly, and within a few days I was selling expensive equipment. The job allowed me to save some money, travel and complete half a diving course. Perhaps I’ll hang out in Minsk and after some time move to a tropical country, complete a course of study and become a scuba diving instructor. Sitting in an office from morning to evening or turning nuts in a factory is someone else’s life, not mine.
Source
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Start of renovation: where to put the trash?
Conversations with the experts I brought in to discuss the features, plans, and cost of the renovation quietly led to concrete action. They took me to a similar facility, where I liked everything.
To be honest, I couldn’t wait to see the changes, and I quickly agreed so as not to change my mind.
But the first step was to get rid of the junk. Have you ever thrown away something that has been an eyesore for a long time, but still couldn’t get around to sending it to the landfill?
My advice: find the strength, time and definitely get busy!
Firstly, you will realize that you have been storing a bunch of unnecessary things. Secondly, you will experience relief. Third, enjoy freeing up valuable space.
Despite the measures taken to clean out the garage, there was still an impressive portion of items that needed to be put somewhere. At first I planned to rent a box nearby. But there were no such proposals. Luckily, a close friend's father-in-law had a garage in the next block. On the builders' bus we took bags, boxes, an old refrigerator, tires, etc. there. We had to make 5-6 trips.
Looking ahead, I will say that the move to the already renovated garage also took place in transit through a landfill. After the first event of throwing away trash, the second one was easier and with even more pleasure. So I highly recommend...
The walls are crooked, it’s cold, the plaster doesn’t dry
We started with electrics. I wanted to properly illuminate the box (so that I didn’t have to look for a wrench in the dark), and also install additional sockets for ease of use of electrical appliances. At the same time we agreed to change the shield.
A special wish for the future: the electrician installed a five-core cable for a three-phase power supply system, so that in the future it would be possible to charge an electric car. Still, I hope that over time they will become more accessible.
A compliment from the electrician was the installation of a motion sensor that turns on the lamp when you approach the gate.
It was decided to paint the walls and ceiling, clean the exhaust pipes and fire extinguishing systems from rust and also paint them. They persuaded me to lay inexpensive ceramic tiles on the floor.
However, even during the preparatory work, some not entirely pleasant nuances were discovered. The garage was built in the post-Soviet years, and the quality was not so good. The workers found out that the walls were very crooked: it took a lot of plaster, effort and time to correct the shortcomings.
Then another problem surfaced. Although the box is heated, in the cold season the pipes were barely warm. Therefore, the plaster took a very long time to dry. The builders brought a heat gun, but that didn’t help much either.
But when the frost hit, a valve somewhere in the system was unscrewed and it became really warm. Only then were the walls dry and work could continue.
But essentially all that was left was to paint, seal and hand over. These works were completed very quickly. It was an absolute pleasure to receive the object. Special thanks for the coverage!
How to convert a garage into a comfortable apartment
The question of how to purchase affordable housing in a metropolis worries not only Russians, but also many people living abroad. This is due to the high cost of square meters in large cities and the reluctance to take out loans. To avoid paying rent for a rented apartment, young couples often resort to tricks. For example, our portal has already told you how to build an inexpensive frame house with your own hands for year-round use and at the same time save money for a full-fledged cottage. An interesting project is that of an Australian studio that has undertaken the reconstruction of a garage and its transformation into small apartments.
Peter McGregorArchitect
Real estate in Sydney is expensive, so people get by as best they can. A customer approached my studio with a proposal to convert his garage into an apartment. Although the idea is not new, we took on this work with pleasure and, I think, were able to fully realize all the client’s “wants”.
Because the garage is located within the city, in a dense building, then the option of a global remodeling and addition (as is usually done) of a full-fledged “second” floor was immediately eliminated. To ensure that the building did not stand out from the overall picture, the designers decided to only slightly increase the overall height of the garage by building a residential attic on top.
To make it possible to walk at full height in the room and not feel cramped, Peter suggested lowering the garage ceiling, turning it into the floor of the superstructure, and dedicating the space below to a storage room and technical room.
Peter McGregor
Using this trick, we got a full-fledged room, and the superstructure, finished on the outside with seam panels, does not seem very large. You can get into the house through a side door, and then, going up the stairs, the owner finds himself in a mini-studio, where there are all the amenities for a normal life.
The garage apartment has a kitchen with a sink, stove and oven.
We have arranged a place to sleep with a double bed.
The bedroom is separated from the main volume of the room by a sliding partition, which at the same time provides access to the closet.
Next to the bedroom there was a bathroom with a full shower, washbasin and toilet.
The walls of the bathroom are decorated with mosaics.
There was also enough space for a kitchen table and a sofa, which serves as an additional sleeping place if guests arrive.
Peter McGregor
A small area imposes certain restrictions on the design of the room and finishing options. To maximize the visual volume of the apartment, we installed large windows oriented to the south and painted the ceiling white. To reduce the cost of the project, the walls and furniture are made of plywood with a pleasant “warm” wood texture.
All necessary utilities, including a ventilation system, are installed in the apartment garage. According to the owner of the mini-apartment, he got what he wanted - comfortable and inexpensive housing where he can live all year round without feeling deprived in any way.
Another option for converting a garage into a house is offered by American builders. We recommend articles on the topic: Diary of life in a mini-house and How to build a mobile home with your own hands.
The video shows how to independently build a workshop where you can live while a country house is being built.
Equipment: cabinet, shelves, household appliances
Then it was necessary to think through the storage system and use the space as rationally as possible. With the foreman who oversaw the process from start to finish, we came to the conclusion that it would be appropriate to install a cabinet near the back wall, and shelves on the sides on top.
Before the work began, transparent containers were purchased in which it was planned to place rags, old cameras, various types of car fluids and other belongings.
The foreman personally built a special structure for the tires. You can store two sets of wheels at once.
And I installed the shield so that in the future, if necessary, I could hang the instrument. In the meantime, shelves for all sorts of small items are in greater demand.
I never thought of the garage as a place for leisure. But sometimes you want something warm. Therefore, I bought a kettle, brought cups and other accessories for non-alcoholic sugrevo.
I moved chairs and a coat rack from my old apartment. If the need arises, you can sit and rest. And hang your clothes carefully and don’t throw them under your feet.
As I mentioned above, in the cold season it can be chilly in the garage, so I bought a small heater. I'll be honest: I need more help.
To top it off, a vacuum cleaner was purchased, which serves two purposes: to clean the interior of the car and the garage itself. I decided to go with the simplest Kärcher, which has two buttons: on. and off He copes with his responsibilities.
A stepladder is needed to once a year throw in/take out a Christmas tree, toys and other things that are required extremely rarely from the top shelf.
I consider the project under the code name “Garage” to be completed. We managed to bring the box into a more or less divine form, build a normal storage system and even create the groundwork for using an electric car.
