We (my daughter) got a cat. The original plan was for it to be an outside/garage cat. He came from next door where they have a few outside cats to take care of mice in the horse barn. Since he's still tiny he was in our garage over the weekend, but we had a contractor here to finish a flooring job so I put him out in my shop. He's litter trained (seems to be doing good) and I'm toying with the idea of letting him live in my shop. Pros, I do get mice over the winter which he'd probably take care of. Shop stays heated all winter (42 when I'm not using it.) Drawbacks? Besides maybe not getting the attention he'd get in the garage where she at least goes 2x a day on the way out and the way home?
Plan C, if he really is litter trained, would be to let him live in the basement, which is where her "hangout" is so she'd be down there a fair bit but I'm not ready to go there yet.