Texas Garages

The definition of a garage is: a building or shed for housing a motor vehicle.  The Texas definition of a garage is: a building or shed used to store all of your extra furniture or household items that do not fit in your house, because your house does not have enough storage space, or a basement. This definition may be a bit long, but everything in Texas is Big!

When my husband and I were looking for a house we wanted a three car garage, because we have three cars. See how that works. The cars go in the garage. We found many homes with three car garages and it was amazing because most of the sellers were using them as a two car garage and a storage space. It was very hard to find a home with storage that was actually in the house. That is a necessity for us as people that have always had a basement for storage.

Common look for a Texas garage

The worst part about using your garage as a storage space, and not a shelter for your car, is you have to leave your car outside in the elements. By elements I mean hail.  After two major hail storms in as many weeks there were thousands of cars damaged, and many totaled by hail. Many of these cars were parked in driveways and on streets because the owner's garages were full of stuff.

One week later there was a warning of inclement weather that included possible hail. The storm was predicted to hit around 10pm. My husband and I had tickets to a hockey game that started at 7pm and we knew we had plenty of time to go to the game, and still get home before the storm. We also knew that if the storm came early we would be safe in the arena, and the car would be in the arena parking garage.  When we got to the parking garage it was pretty full and we assumed there was some other event going on in the complex in addition to the game. The manager of ticket sales came to our seats and apologized to us and asked it we were able to get a spot in the garage. We said yes, and he said people were parking in the garage because of the incoming storm. By people we thought he meant the workers at the event, until we left the game and got to the garage to go home. People from nearby neighborhoods and apartments were bringing their cars to the garage, leaving them there, and getting a ride back home. There were cars everywhere. They were double parked, parked in no parking spots, and parked along the exit ramps. All of this so their cars would be protected from hail. The crazy part was, the storm was a mild thunderstorm at best and a big waste of their time for a dud storm.

There should be a lesson in this situation, like maybe you should rent a storage unit, or better yet, have a garage sale and clean out your garage. Cowboys don't leave their horses out of the barn in a hail storm, but they will leave there $60k pickup trucks out of the garage. The only people that win in the whole situation are the insurance companies and the rental car companies. They are making a hail of a lot of money!