Every spring, I grow a constructive heart. Walking down the street, there are construction sites everywhere. See, I am not alone, or I am just inspired by them. Why spring? Simply because winter is not suitable for that. So, what should we do this spring?
All along, my cars have been scattered everywhere. Some are in the workshop, some are in my current residence, some are in my previous residence, and some are in distant storage. Some visitors want to inspect all the cars at once, and I can only say “sorry, I would rather”. It’s not that I don’t know the beauty and convenience of having cars in a centralized location, but in a system where land is communal, no address is permanent. I really want to choose a piece of land that belongs to me and build a legally permanent residence – a car bedroom. However, the fact is that we have been evicted. In the past two years, the authorities have been urging us to move the workshop to acquire land for a school. Now we have been away for a year and nothing has happened there. Strictly speaking, even the most well-off people will be homeless at anytime in theory.
Last winter a car friend came to my car storage facility – I can only call it that. It is a warehouse with only naked concrete floors and walls, where several cars that “lost my favor” and cars waiting for restoration are parked. I looked at this mess and explained again uneasily that “I really want a permanent place”. He said, “You will have it”. Wow, what a relief. “NO” “Trust me, you will”. But where will it be? I don’t want to rent a temporary place, restore it like a car, and then wait until one day to leave. But as my children grow up, I realize the necessity of letting my children see all my cars. They love my cars, but there is currently no place to accommodate them all at the same time. I want a place that is comfortable like a second home, where family will want to stay. I have been looking for such a place, but it is impossible in the whole town.
In February, I first made a visual update to the workshop. Including wood grain vinyl flooring and white wainscoting, plus some wood furniture. I think the overall atmosphere has greatly improved, and the staff’s willingness to keep it clean has become much stronger. Finally, in March, I postponed the restoration of Big Apple and made a budget – to renovate the existing storage. There is no time, my children are growing up, so do their aesthetics. At this time, I must input what I think is beneficial. As for how long this place will be demolished, can this renovation be reimbursed. I am tired of asking the governor how long our facilities will be safe, and then listening to them give an answer that later proved to be nonsense. Let it go, this money is a small thing for the children’s growth, it will be a good investment for long. I hope their memories are eternal, in the future when this place no longer exists, they still remember what their old man did and appreciate what they saw.
This is a 15 x 12 x 3.7m space with a brick-concrete structure and a wooden roof. There is a gate and four 1.2 x 1.2 windows in the north and 5 same windows in the south. It was built in the 80s and has always been a warehouse. Three years ago, it received new roller shutters, windows and concrete floors. Although it is no longer young, the walls remain intact. There were no leaks in the roof and no flooding on the ground in the past use. It is a relatively permanent residence in terms of quality. It has a moderate height, but the area is small, only 180 m². The setting of doors and windows is also unsatisfactory. The location of the gate is not convenient for cars to move, and the lighting effect of the window is poor. Because there is a high wall outside the south window, it even blocks half of the window. It will only be lit by the sun in winter when the sun is very low.
Due to the legal fragility, the goal of the renovation was set to “aesthetics first, structure last”. From the beginning, I didn’t intend to approve the budget for the structure, because even if it would not be demolished, it is not a perfect location at all. I wanted to change the location of the gate, but the ideal location of the gate is not convenient for cars to enter and exit from the outside. I also wanted floor-to-ceiling windows with better lighting, but there was no way to make up for the fence outside the window. In general, this building is far from my ideal specifications, even if we can stay here forever, I don’t want to. We need a bright building with at least 400 m² and no obstruction on the south and west sides. So it’s better to say that this is another architectural test after restoring the workshop. I think even if I get a spacious permanent residence one day, I still need such an exercise, which is beneficial.
The changes made were mainly in color and touch. In short, my goal is to set an environment that matched the vehicle’s period. Of course, this is subjective. The W140 is like pizza, each eater has different tastes. I just designed it according to my understanding. I have tried the color schemes I admire on the blueprints of multiple buildings before. The problem is that the colors of the 3D rendering are always far from the reality. The actual light and shadows must be taken into account. We don’t have enough sunlight coming in through the southern windows, so bright and warm tones must be used to increase the warmth. Of course, the bedroom will be more detailed than the workshop in terms of craftsmanship. There will only be low-intensity use here, which deserves a more decent finish.
The existing layout of the building results in a rather monotonous solution for car parking. In the previous maximum utilization plan, 10 cars could be parked. Even so, this number is far from enough to accommodate all my family members. So I would rather reduce the volume ratio a little bit more, park fewer cars to make it more like a bedroom than a warehouse. In any case, since the door is on the longest side, cars needs to be adjusted several times to enter or leave their beds. In the final layout, ideally only 7 cars will be parked, and a maximum of 9 cars will be parked. The saved space is arranged for the inclined parking area on the west side, where a reception area will be set up, as well as some furniture. Not only will it provide visitors with a place to rest, but it will also store basic tools for cleaning and moving cars.
The yellows used in the workshop were considered a bit too yellow, although they were not on the color chart, but the abundant southern sunlight made them more yellow. As a counter-example, I would use a more saturated color in the low-light bedroom, which would be weakened by the low light anyway, until the winter sun sneaks in at a lower angle. I used a desert-like color, Dulux 20YY 64/171 Dakota Land. It looks bright on the color sample and its color can also be seen in the 3D rendering, but I believe it is not in reality. As an amateur, I don’t have enough experience and can only keep learning and pray for luck. Such education is of course costly, if I made a mistake, I will only know it after the budget has been spent, so I will be more cautious. At least I can avoid detours when decorating my future permanent residence.
The vinyl floor is LX Hausys 32405, with a thickness of 2.0 mm, which is commonly used in utility scenes such as hospitals. Our workshop has already laid the same product, I am satisfied with the quality. In addition to the cost, there is another reason for using floor coverings instead of flooring: the floor of the building is uneven. It would cost more to level the floor, but the effect is similar. At first, I wanted to try to use carpets all over, but I had to imagine the car turning and moving to tear the wool carpet. This is a possibility, because according to my layout, all cars must be adjusted many times before they can enter the parking space, and the friction between the tires and the ground will be very large. During my test the vinyl floor of LX Hausys is very wear-resistant and sleek, meanwhile it really imitates the bumpy texture of wood.
Since the white windows and the gate were installed not long ago, all designs will accommodate them, and this has been thoroughly considered in the choice of walls and floors. But in order to form a transition and make the room look less empty, white skirting boards and door frames were added, which echo the white doors and window frames. In the low-density 3-car display area on the west, the background wall is divided into 5 blocks evenly. Three of them are used to hang advertising posters. Considering the size of the wall and the volume of the car, their size is 70 x 100 cm, the photos I took are inlaid with the combination of W140 advertisements. Two blocks are used to place lights to separate the 3 advertising posters. Considering the cost of remaking the wall and the ugliness of laying wire tubes, directly installed solar retro lights are used. Its disadvantage is that it can only be lit at night. So since I hardly come here at night, they are more decorative.
Actually, I don’t like artificial lighting, especially when it reflects on the paint, whether it is for photography or just viewing by eyes. Sunlight is the most beautiful and natural resource. Therefore, there are almost no lights installed in the workshop, and there will be no lights here. On the roof, 4 large ceiling fans with a diameter of 200 cm are installed, the lights above are just in case. These fans will be installed with timers, combined with the ventilation fans on the walls to maintain daily air flow and also provide coolness for potential car work. Compared with the sanded and polished walls, the roof is just filled, it is not so flat. The color is still Dulux 20YY 64/171 Dakota Land. The light-colored roof, wall and floor can improve the weak brightness in the house through high reflectivity.
The placement of the cars is more important to define the feel of the building. Obviously, the existing capacity cannot park all of our cars at the same time and elegantly. At the same time, since the entire bedroom is kept highly clean and it is not convenient to move cars, this is not suitable for daily driving cars. What I placed in the 3-car display area are:
Octavius, 1993 S 600
As my first car and the most important one, he must go here first. At first I placed him on the north side, but soon I found that the shiny black body is not bright at all on the north side where the light is weaker. So I moved him to the south, next to the reception area, where there is the brightest lighting.
Bianca, 1998 S 320
The arctic white Bianca is my cleanest-looking car, she has the lowest frequency of use and is in the best showroom condition. She placed here because the closer the car is to the north gate, the harder it is to leave the parking space, and she will not be driven on the road for at least the next year. The bright white color also helps to emphasize this dark corner.
Chimera, 1994 S 500 Coupe
Placing the green coupé in the middle helps balance the black and white cars on either side, although the Chimera is a pre-restoration project. All the windows are open to show the contrasting beige interior. This location is almost opposite the gate, which allows for better flow, and in the future, there will be blue Persian Kitty or silver Nonna that will rotate in.
There are 4 cars parked randomly opposite, some of which are rotated into the display area. The room has shown good sealing in the past few years of use. In line with the good faith of cleanliness, all cars are not covered with car covers at present. The floor cleaning is done by the Mijia H40 robot vacuum cleaner, which can sweep and mop 173 m² in 160 minutes – this is the number after deducting furniture and tires. Every time the car moves back from the outside, it leaves dusty tire tracks, which are a piece of cake for the robot vacuum cleaner. In addition, it can easily drive on 10mm carpets. I am very satisfied with its performance.
My sons were the first visitors, and they came during the renovation. The main work of this renovation has been completed so far, which took a total of 2 weeks, and some small things are still being added to correct and improve the atmosphere.