A Roof Over its Head

TL;DR : I've bought a garage

Against my will, yet another saga that began on Christmas week  🎄🎅☃️

We were on holidays at the belgian coast, with the Caterham kindly stored at House of Speed during their week off. I came to think that it had been sleeping outside for nearly 2 years and it was well overdue to find a it better sleeping quarters.

In about 5 minutes, two or three options looked promising : a well located and very secure garage box, a small warehouse, and a small house that had been flooded 5 years ago.

On the way back home, we stopped by the 80 m² (square meters) warehouse, to find that the entrance had been pimped a bit, but the roof was covered by a tarp. That was an instant no-go.

The small house, already converted as a garage, had allegedly a buyer already. The prospect of being that close to the river didn't enchant me more than that either.

Finally, that reasonably-priced garage was well located, a short 10 minutes from home. The place looked familiar, and I knew it would be very secure.

I gave a call and pushed for a visit on the next day, December 30th. It was exactly where I thought it would be, under a large building, behind 2 rolling steel doors (at night - only one during the day) + the garage door itself.

The price was very appropriate for its size (4.1m x 5.1m; over 2.6m in height), in pristine condition, clean, painted, with smoke detection, 2 sprinklers inside as well as very limited monthly charges from the housing association.

But there was a but : it was a judiciary sale. I would be buying it from the Belgian state as its owner was dead 5 years prior with no heirs. I cannot even fathom how one does not even have cousins or a testament that would define someone or some organisation in their will. Anyway...

I opted to buy it anyway. All went smoothly except it took 6 months to proceed. The realtor and curator have yet to engage a court case of some sort to get their fees paid. But that is none of my business.

Early January, we also visited a garage in our neighbourhood. For the same price, it was a tad deeper but narrower, it would never allow to store 2 Caterham / Classic Mini / WW2 Jeep that all share the same footprint. It looked old and tired, and the monthly costs would be more than the rent of an equivalent place. That was a no-go.

I also called to get some information about another one located "upstairs" from the one I bought. It was way smaller and not as secured.

So here we are, on June 15th I got the key, the place is mine.

It's well protected from the cold in Winter and it remained at an acceptable 23°C when we got over 40°C during the heatwave in the last week of June. 👌

The plan is to keep it free from any mess, this is not a storage place.

Except the Caterham parts on one of the large shelves, while the other will be dedicated to our camping gear exclusively. I will also allow the kids' electric scooters as well as their bicycles and the car bike rack when we come back from the Summer holidays.

The original bonnet will be attached above the half shelf on the right-side wall.

My equipment does include :

• a pair of flat wheel trolleys, so I can store my various sets of wheels and move them around
• a pair of covers to go on said wheels
• a pair of 180x90x40cm metal shelves
• a single 150x75x30cm metal shelve I kept in two halves
• a pair of magnetic LED workshop lights, that remain on the door
• a new cylinder lock as it was cheaper to get a new one with 3 keys than have additional keys cut
• a "Boxio wash" camping sink, which is a real splurge (the black box on the left)
• a huge Caterham flag from Aliexpress, 120 x 180 cm    I was lucky that they have it in yellow with the matching badge, other options are available

I'm considering buying a new hydraulic jack that would stay there, and maybe a large white flag on the left wall, but all I've found are a K&N or a Nürburgring one; we'll see.

I thought about getting an indoor car cover too. But the prospect of not being able to use it when the car is wet or when the engine is hot makes me think it's a silly idea. I will use the long-nose shower cap as usual.