As I've been tearing down the Golf this past week, I've found that my garage is quite inefficient for the work I'm doing.
With winter temperatures, it's difficult to heat up. That entirely ancient iron wood furnace is slow to start. Just as much smoke will pour out around the door as the chimney. The first hour is spent tending to the fire as you keep the garage doors open to prevent the smoke from smothering you. Once its going strong, you close the doors, revealing a slight crack at the top of each. Another hour later, the garage will finally begin to heat up a few degrees above freezing. Without insulation and those cracked doors, that's basically all you can manage. If you're doing work on the side opposite of the furnace, you're frozen. A trip to stand by the furnace for a few moments will be made fairly often to warm up. Don't forget to throw a log on when you warm up to keep the fire going.
For work that involves getting low, the dirt floor is just fantastic. You'll want to avoid any parts you want don't want covered in filth, afterwords. Interior work requires being attentive to what you touch and where you've been. Watch out, not only will fallen nuts and screws bury themselves seemingly as soon as they hit the ground, you'll find them when you get on the ground and feel them, the unexpected and sometimes painful way. You won't be able to see them, either. The few ceiling lights provide very little light, just enough for general work. Any detail work will have you getting out a flashlight or a portable corded light. As you scurry around the car trying to make the best of your time, you'll trip over that metal rod that blended in with the dirt. "Where the hell did that come from? F**cking junk" you'll exclaim, while wiping the dirt off your face. Err... is that a screw stuck in my forehead?!
I need a new garage.