It wasn’t as if lifelong auto buffs Don O’Connell and Karen Parish weren’t shopping for a new house. They were, but it was the garage they were focused on in their Anaheim Hills search.
“We would have been happy with a three-car garage,” O’Connell said. “That’s what we needed to park my Corvette, El Camino and Karen’s Honda.”
A 1969 Corvette Stingray is fitting backdrop in the stylish garage of Karen Parish and Don O’Connell. A classic black and white checked floor, Richfield antiques and Shell memorabilia grace this Anaheim Hills garage of the month. //ADDITIONAL INFO: This will be second in a series of Garage of the Month It looks like a Nascar pit stop. Classic black and white checked floor, tools, plus the cars themselves. � autogarage.0212.cy 012111 CINDY YAMANAKA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER – CQ’s ADVERTISEMENT
More from Home and Garden
As many home sales go, Parish found a four-car garage (with a house attached) in their price range, and it had a car lift. O’Connell was out of town when Parish found it.
O’Connell, a project engineer for a local aerospace company, hopped a plane. They bought the house the day they looked at it. Then they set about making the garage everything they always wanted.
“We had a week before we moved in to paint and lay the floor,” O’Connell said.
O’Connell and Parish have auto-related backgrounds. He is a self-taught mechanic, and she is the granddaughter of a Richfield gas station owner.
“I still have my 1973 Snap On tool box,” O’Connell said.
O’Connell is a Shell guy, Parish a Richfield gal. Together they have collected or purchased all of the décor for the garage.
They call shopping for auto items their eBay extravaganzas. One particular vintage item Parish couldn’t wait to get her hands on was the Richfield Gas Station seed packs that she found online.
“I remember these from when I was a little girl,” she said. “They were free giveaways in the 1960s when you bought gas. We planted these seeds on the hillsides in Thousand Oaks. I like to think that is the reason there are wildflowers there now.”
O’Connell remembers his Shell story – for every 10 punches on your gas card, you received a place setting of dishes.
“I think we still have some of those dishes,” he said.
O’Connell’s favorite way to spend time in his garage is during what he calls his “tech parties.” That’s when a group of friends from either his Corvette club or Camaro club put their heads together to build a transmission or work out another auto problem.
“Or to just B.S. and have fun,” he said.
The best part of having a four-car garage was the room they had for another car. That’s where the Camaro comes in.
Similar Posts:
- Changing a garage into a Raiders shrine
- Garage door repairing ensures that nothing serious happens to it
- Do you Really Need Oak Flooring?
- Fashion Friday: Sequined Nightmare.
- White Small Apartment
Add A Comment