The garage: the plan, in the order I have to do it

Updated October 5, 2026. The plan changed enough that I rewrote this post. The first version had me painting before framing and building a raised floor. Neither idea survived.

I have one bay of the garage and a plan to turn it into a place to build things and a place to grow. This is the slow project. It gets worked on between everything else.

Status: slow burn. Still mostly a garage.

Why not just use a tent

I’m moving away from tents. I can’t grow in the house, so it has to be the garage, and the garage is super hot in the summer and cold in the winter. A tent takes on whatever the room around it is doing. I want a room that stays where I set it.

So this is a real room: framed walls, insulation, a door that seals and its own air conditioning.

The layout

Most of the bay is the Maker Lab: a desk, an electronics corner and one 3D printer. No sawdust in there. The woodworking stays out in the main garage.

Behind a wall at one end are two small grow rooms, one for flower and one for veg, each with its own door.

There is also a fish tank set into the wall as a window. It has nothing to do with growing. I wanted one.

I’m keeping the measurements to myself, along with what goes on the benches and how much of it.

The order

I wrote the steps down in order so I can’t skip ahead to the fun ones.

1. Dumpster, demo, empty the bay. Call the city and ask what needs a permit.
2. Frame the walls and the door openings.
3. Electrical rough-in, on its own subpanel. An electrician makes the live connection. Then the first inspection.
4. Insulate, close the walls, and paint with something I can scrub. Coat the floor.
5. Air conditioning in, then the final inspection.
6. Benches, water, lights and fans.
7. Sensors, controls, and alarms that reach my phone.
8. Run it empty. Then a test run with plants I don’t mind losing.
9. The desk and cabinets on the Lab side. They’re last because they’re the part I want most.

Each step ends somewhere the work can stop safely, because it will stop. Often.

The one rule

The room has to hold its temperature and humidity, lights on and lights off, before anything I care about goes in. The air conditioner is the gate. No plants before it runs.

Mold is the thing I’m most worried about. Still air and walls you can’t wash are an open invitation. So the walls get a washable finish, the air gets a path, and every step gets a sensor before it gets a plant.

What I’ve already gotten wrong

The first thing that happened was that my tape measure disagreed with my floor plan. That’s roughly how I expect the rest of it to go.

My first budget didn’t survive the drawing either. I’d said almost everything would be second-hand. Lights, fans and filters still will be, tested on the bench before I trust them. The wiring tie-in and the air conditioning install I’m paying people for, because I like my house.

How long

I get about twelve hours a week for this. At that pace the rooms should be ready for a test run in late spring 2027, with the first real run after that. Dates on a project like this are a guess, so I’ll update this post when they slip.

No photos yet. There isn’t much to look at.