Sounds like you are in good hands with the shop! Honestly, if you are ready to put it to sleep for the winter, it won't hurt at all to leave it in hibernation mode and deal with in the spring. Although, I love to get mine out on a nice crisp winter day when it's nice and dry out, so it's a bummer when you can't get in and run it around the block for sure.

As far as the lift, I should have bought it years ago...it gives me so many service options to safely work on the car in a smaller garage space!