A Fresh Start-My first garage 36x30

[GCncsuHD]

EDIT: It appears there was an issue with my photohosting site, so most of my pictures are down now. If I get time I will try to fix each individual picture, but until that time, here is the link to the gallery with the pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100855299@N02/sets/72157635271258667/
Clicking each missing picture "should" take you to the correct picture, just the embedded image itself isn't working.

First post here, I've been lurking for a while getting ideas, but I'm finally getting to work on setting up my garage.

I'm calling it a fresh start, because so many changes have happened/are happening in my family this year. First and foremost, our first child is due in about a month, and we just completed building and moving into our first home. After living for a while in an apartment with no garage, having to drive 45 minutes on the weekends to my parent's shop to get what I needed done, having my own garage will be a blessing.

I let my wife have pretty much free reign over the design of the house (she sketched up the floor plans) as long as I could have the dimensions of the garage I specified. I went with 36x30 for a three car garage, room for her car, my truck, and whatever project I am working on at the time. Any other projects, ATVs, tractors, mowers etc will stay parked either in our barn on the property, or in the shop at my parent's house.

It will never be as nice and fancy as some of these on the board, but the plan is to have a workable garage for a few years until I get the time/extra money to build a detached shop.

So here goes, this will be a mixture of the house build, finishing up with the garage. I will update as I go along with the progress in the garage. Some of this is copy/paste from other forums so bear with me the dates and verbage may be a little mixed up and include non-garage related items.

Here is the land. Where you see the "H" in the tree lines, that is where the house will sit, just in front of those trees, with the driveway running along those trees to the left of the "H". Most of the trees that make up the center cross bar of the "H" have been cut, leaving just a few. It is surrounded by ~50ac that is my grandmother's, and we hope to purchase later down the road. Surrounding that 50ac is another 160ac that is my uncle's farm, another dairy farm, and we know most of the neighbors well.


1 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

This is the view from the road

2 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr
View looking towards the road from where the house will sit.

3 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr
View of the backyard. It's hard to see over the pines, but you can see the mountains off in the distance on a clear day, the view will be much better from the back window up in the bonus room above the garage.

4 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr
Couple of our barns off to the side. I will probably be restoring them and using them for vehicle/lawn mower etc storage.

5 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr
One of said barns, needs some work, but I will be using some cedar siding boards I had milled from the trees we cut down to repair it.

6 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

Matthew 7:25
The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

Probably going to have that inscribed on some wood and hang it over the door. Right where we are building there is a good bit of granite underneath. This is also why we are not digging a basement...
You can see a bit of rock poking out below the tire.

7 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

 

[GCncsuHD]

Here you can see why we aren't doing a basement, this is just what came out of the ground while digging the foundation.

8 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

9 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr
Foundation going up, even without a basement, the low end of the house has about 60" of clearance in the crawlspace, plenty of room for cellar storage.

10 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr
Foundation complete
11 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr
Floor joists going in

12 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr
Walls up and roof trusses going on

13 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

14 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr
9x8 and 18x8 garage doors

15 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

Garage plan, plenty of room for 3 vehicles with plenty of room for tool storage and workspace. Made it deep enough for a CCLB truck if needed, with room in front. Even 4 vehicles could fit if needed with one turned sideways up front. (Throw the C10 on dollies).

16 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr


18 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

 

[GCncsuHD]

More Pics

19 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr
My truck playing peekaboo, testing out it's new habitat.

20 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr
Pulled my truck in last night, plenty of room to the side for storage, rolling tool boxes, etc.

21 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr
Outside looking in

22 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

Plenty of room in front of the truck, I will be putting the air compressor and welder under the steps. This is the "project" bay, my SWB 67 C10 will spend most of it's time, being 2ft shorter than this LWB truck, there will be more room to work.

23 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

24 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr


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26 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

High end of crawlspace, eventually I want to pour a ~20x30 concrete pad under there for additional storage space

27 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

 

[GCncsuHD]

More

Coming up the nonexistent driveway, can hardly see over the hay.

28 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

Siding done, columns will be put in on the porch after the concrete is poured.

29 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

Cut the hay Saturday and got a better view

30 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

Also spent all day jack hammering a huge rock in the yard that was going to cause drainage issues. Started pouring down so I didn't get an after pic, but it creates a mound right there, I got it down about 4-5", I could fit my truck on the exposed area of rock now. The concrete pad in front of the garage will cover part of it, the rest will be covered back with dirt and grass to be part of the yard.


31 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

Gratuitous Garage shot, fits like a glove, 4-5' of room to walk around the bucket up front

32 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr


33 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

34 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

35 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

36 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

Put the mailbox up, feels "official" now

37 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr
Looking up the driveway

38 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr
Railing is painted white now

39 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

40 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

 

[GCncsuHD]

Spent their first nights parked inside a garage ever. Both have been parked outdoors for as long as we had owned them before.

41 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

The wife made this wreath for the front door while we were carrying boxes in (no lifting, doctor's orders). Check out Indy mean mugging the camera, he's already claimed his spot on the porch.

42 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

First time actually mowing the grass, using a 60" swisher mower behind my three wheeler, before that we were just bushhogging it.


43 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

44 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

The view out of the kitchen window a few days ago. The small sassafras tree in the foreground is less than 10 yards from the back door.

45 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

Swisher mower broke down, so I had to bring in the backup mower, hopefully by next summer I'll have a zero turn.

46 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

Some pics the wife took of her decorating/flowers.

47 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

Was feeling crafty, so I made a little wall art/thermometer to hang in the garage.

48 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

The loaner car from the dealership, I think the wife was getting spoiled to it, goes back today for her 17 year old Infiniti. You can see the start of my garage decorating in the background, lot's more to go.

49 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

And the plan I have come up with for my garage cabinets/workbench to go along the front wall of the garage. The pantry on the left is 18x84, it will most likely be storage for fluids, paint cans, cleaning supplies, etc. The left side is unfinished particle board, so I plan to finish it with a tall white board for scrawling notes/plans etc, the workbench will be 10ft, with drawers on either side and 6ft of legroom for a workspace. The upper cabinets are 24" tall, but come in 54" sections 2x 54"=9ft, so I had to make up the last 12" with the 12x30 cabinet. I will be putting shelves under the cabinet down to the work bench to tie it in. The right side will be against the wall. Up top I will use the top of the cabinets as a shelf to display my old model cars I had as a kid, trophies, etc. The workbench will be a 10ft slab of laminate countertop to keep everything looking neat.

50 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

I also intend to build a 2x4 "butcher block" workbench to put along the left wall of the garage to put my vise and anvil on, and to do any heavy/rough work that might damage
the laminate countertop workbench above. I will also build a steel welding table to go along that wall beside my welder.

 

[NTIMD8]

Very nice! Keep the updates coming!

 

[GCncsuHD]

Annnd that has us caught up to today. I will continue to update it as we go. Since some of the above has been copy/pasted from my full house build thread on another forum, some of the verbage/dates are mixed up, and includes a little extra non-garage related pictures, sorry for that.

 

[GCncsuHD]

Very nice! Keep the updates coming!

Thanks!

 

[GCncsuHD]

Almost forgot the shop help, I swear you can't get good help anywhere these days, hopefully when my daughter is big enough she'll be more helpful than my Border Collie/Chow mix Indy. He is good at keeping the creeper from rolling away though. Now if he could just distinguish between a 9/16s and 15mm wrench, we'd be all set.

51 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

 

[M-technik-3]

Nice modest homestead you have there. How big is your lot?

 

[GCncsuHD]

Nice modest homestead you have there. How big is your lot?

Thanks, my lot is 2.75ac, surrounding that is 50ac of my grandmother's land, which I hope to own one day, and surrounding that is 160ac of more family land.

 

[M-technik-3]

Yeah I saw that you mentioned the family land. That why I curious about your plot. How far back from the street are you? You must have No road noise from looking at the driveway.

Do you have town Water/Sewer or Natural Gas.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Nice set up, great work, looking forward to seeing your progress!

 

[GCncsuHD]

Yeah I saw that you mentioned the family land. That why I curious about your plot. How far back from the street are you? You must have No road noise from looking at the driveway.

Do you have town Water/Sewer or Natural Gas.

I would say my front door is approximately 250 yards or so from the road. No road noise with the exception of the occasional tractor trailer, or straight piped redneck truck. Once we get a few trees up front, that should buffer that a bit more as well. Nope, we don't have city water thank goodness, just good ol' well water. Septic tank in the front yard. No natural gas, cable, fiber, or dsl available either , we've just been living without TV at all except renting redbox movies, and going off of my cell phones wifi hotspot for 2 months. We do have 4g signal in certain parts of the house if you hold it just right . Crossing fingers that Verizon doesn't cancel my unlimited data plan

 

[968944]

When I first built my place, I cut grass with an old IH "A" with a belly mower. I had a ton of stuff to cut around and with the steering play it was no fun. In a few years I got 72" Diesel ZT and life was good. That was over 20 years ago and I still use that mower. I have around 5.5 acres.

Nice place and good luck with your projects..

 

[j p smith]

Nice build. My friend John Menzler would appreciate that your first sign was A Comp Cams Sign.
Later, Jeff

 

[GCncsuHD]

When I first built my place, I cut grass with an old IH "A" with a belly mower. I had a ton of stuff to cut around and with the steering play it was no fun. In a few years I got 72" Diesel ZT and life was good. That was over 20 years ago and I still use that mower. I have around 5.5 acres.

Nice place and good luck with your projects..

Lemme tell ya, that Cub doesn't handle like a Corvette..that's for sure . The way I have the property planned out, I'll mow about 2ac on a regular basis, then after the last cut of hay I will have about 8ac in addition to that that I will keep knocked down with the 15ft batwing bushhog. If we're having people over, say a bunch of kids that would want to play football or such in the big field I'd probably hit it with the Cub to get it nice and neat.

Thanks!

Nice build. My friend John Menzler would appreciate that your first sign was A Comp Cams Sign.
Later, Jeff

Thanks, He could thank me by sending a Thumpr for the 5.3 in my 67

 

[GRN96WS6]

Is that old dually yours as well? Looks like a nice place and should be for years to come.

How many bedrooms and bathrooms is the house?

 

[GCncsuHD]

Is that old dually yours as well? Looks like a nice place and should be for years to come.

How many bedrooms and bathrooms is the house?

Yep, that's an older pic, there is a more recent and better pic of it in my intro thread http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=213958

Thanks, we built this with the intention of being our "forever" home, we both grew up in the area and intend to stay here. It's 3 bed room, 2 bath, 2040 sqft with an unfinished bonus room just shy of 600sqft.

 

[Hotrod Addiction]

Very cool congrats on the new house. I'm super jealous of your barns though. Love old barns.

 

[Nor'Easter]

What a beaut that Chevy is, would love to see more of it.

 

[GCncsuHD]

Very cool congrats on the new house. I'm super jealous of your barns though. Love old barns.

Thanks! The old barn needs a lot of work, I want to keep the rustic look, but it is missing lots of siding panels, especially in the back. If you notice the "star" hanging in the opening, I was getting it ready for our church's annual live nativity that we host every Christmas for the community, my great uncle started hosting it many years ago, but it went on a hiatus for a few years after he had a stroke. A few years back my wife and I, with the help of his granddaughter, revived it. This year our baby should be here just in time for her to play the part of Jesus.

This is the scene inside that old barn.

53 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr
Up in that loft up to the right is tons of parts to pre WWII Chevys. My uncle had a 37 Sedan he just completed before his stroke, and two more 37 Pickups that friends and family are working to complete for him.

What a beaut that Chevy is, would love to see more of it.


52 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

Thanks! Not sure if linking to other forums is allowed, if not I apologize, but most of my pictures of it are arranged here:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=577031

 

[BeachBoy]

Pulled my truck in last night, plenty of room to the side for storage, rolling tool boxes, etc.

I doubt you'll put much on that wall.

I had about the same clearance and used to hang stuff on that wall, it was a PITA to get to/from the car I ended up removing everything to keep a clean access line. When you get in and have stuff to grab, you want a clear path.

 

[GCncsuHD]

I doubt you'll put much on that wall.

I had about the same clearance and used to hang stuff on that wall, it was a PITA to get to/from the car I ended up removing everything to keep a clean access line. When you get in and have stuff to grab, you want a clear path.

There is much more space there than it looks, the vehicle that will park there is not a daily driver at all, rather it is actually a bare rolling frame currently, so comfort of getting in and out is not a big concern, for that matter I'm not opposed to sliding across the bench seat to get out the passenger door once the truck is complete.

As that truck sits there is just shy of 4' from the side of the truck (not counting the mirror) to the wall. If you consider two standard 9' wide parking spaces side by side at the local grocery store, with two identical trucks (using this one as a comparison at 80" wide, not counting mirrors) there would be 2'4" between the sides of the trucks.

My current plan is to line that wall with my heavy wooden workbench and my welding table, when I am working on either of those tables the truck will be rolled outside anyway. Where my toolbox will go will be several feet in front of the truck along that wall.

Just for reference (and because your post made me question myself for a second ) I drew up a quick sketch.

On the left are standard 9' wide parking stalls, there are two identical trucks parked perfectly in their spots (never happens ) Given the 80" width, there would be 2'4" between the trucks.

Now on the right is that side of my garage. There are two 16" cement blocks from the wall to the 9' door opening, there's 32", plus 14" from door opening to my truck for a total of 3'10" from door to wall. If you look at the bottom of the wall, you'll actually see a 2" lip on the cement block wall to the drywall, so really there is 4' if you consider that. Now if I put a 2' deep worktable against that wall I'll have 1'10" from truck to table. We'll just consider that the average "soccer mom/Prius driver that can't fit between two lines situation", to make up for that I can shift over to the other side a few inches (the dashed outline) for about the same space I'd have at the local grocery store if I was trying to get in and out of the truck.

Parking by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

Besides, we're never worried about hitting stuff with our doors when we get out, it's always the person parked beside us we have to worry about...and I don't think my work bench is going to jump out and ding me, but you never know

 

[sunsation288]

Wow !! , nice job ,well done

 

[BeachBoy]

ahh ok, if you don't use the truck often then it's not a problem. I use my car everyday and it was really getting annoying.

I use these $8 bumpers on the wall so I don't worry about bumping the wall.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000221M94/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[GCncsuHD]

Wow !! , nice job ,well done

Thanks!

ahh ok, if you don't use the truck often then it's not a problem. I use my car everyday and it was really getting annoying.

I use these $8 bumpers on the wall so I don't worry about bumping the wall.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000221M94/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Yea I definitely see what you're saying. The truck in the picture I use everyday, but it will not park there, it was just there getting a "feel" for the space.

This will be that space's inhabitant until I get a proper shop built.


54 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

 

[GCncsuHD]

Did a little bit of work in the garage this weekend. Mostly cleaning out a chunk of the wife's storage, moved it to the attic, bought the cabinets to go along the front wall, squeezed the wife's dually into the garage, and hung a bit of wall decorations.

Tight squeeze, but she fits! 105" wide (don't tell the DOT ) through a 108" wide door to get out of the rain.

Untitled by wrfalcon75, on Flickr


Untitled by wrfalcon75, on Flickr


Untitled by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

To get an idea of space to the wall, with the door opened to it's first "stop", there is 33" from the door to the wall. Getting in and out won't be too much of a challenge even with a ~24" deep workbench there. The second (wide open) "stop" of the door left 19" to the wall, so I'll just throw some bumpers on the edge of the workbench or remember not to swing the door wide open.

Untitled by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

The pile of cabinets waiting to be set in place.

Untitled by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

More of the cabinets, some of my wall art, with more waiting to be gone through on top of the cabinets.

Untitled by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

Banners, still have to get a few to fill in some gaps.

Untitled by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

Might not be everyone's style, but here is my take on the Ricer/JDM "StickerBomb" fad, less the JDM style stickers.

Untitled by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

 

[QwikKotaTx]

Very nice house and land, that garage is massive for an attached one!

 

[mdkingsley]

Nice house and garage and very nice land. Where in this great country are you located?

 

[GCncsuHD]

Very nice house and land, that garage is massive for an attached one!

Thanks! The wife was not initially on board with the large attached garage, but now that she has me working out in that garage within earshot of her in the kitchen or office, she likes it. Projects will get completed much faster now than when I had to travel 30-45 minutes to my shop.

Nice house and garage and very nice land. Where in this great country are you located?

Thanks! I'm located close to Salisbury, NC.

 

[my68spit]

I'm glad to see i'm not the only one who plans out all his spaces in CAD.

Nice looking build. Very jealous.

 

[GCncsuHD]

I'm glad to see i'm not the only one who plans out all his spaces in CAD.

Nice looking build. Very jealous.

Thanks, yep, I'm a very visual person, so it helps to see how things will fit.





Grabbed a glass top to make a tire table. Haven't decided if I'll use both tires for a tall table, or just a single tire for a lower "coffee" table. The tires are 305/35R24, so roughly 12" wide (tall) so two of them make a 24" tall table.


Untitled by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

Untitled by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

I also have a bench seat out of a truck with casters on it to use as a roll away couch for relaxing in the shop (most commonly used by my dog as a bed). It's still at my shop at the parent's house so I need to bring it up here.

More than likely these will get moved upstairs to the bonus room/man cave once I get it finished or if I run out of room here in the garage.

 

[Press_Corpse]

Holy cow. Beautiful setting with TONS of room to expand if you choose to. Love it! It's even better because you are by family that is willing to let you grow if you want the land. I wouldn't give any of that up! Keep us up to date on this.

 

[vtec?lol]

Looks great!
This is almost exactly like my lot in La. Family acres. I only have 2 but hopefully if I ask nice enough ($$$) my grandma will give me another 2.

 

[GCncsuHD]

It's been a while, life has taken place of garage work, but we're getting settled now and I'm getting back to it.

First off, the distraction, this little bundle of joy arrived 10/11/13 weighing 7lbs 0oz, taken right after we got home from the hospital with her big brother checking her out. I think he's more attached than we are, hasn't left her side since we brought her home.

Untitled by wrfalcon75, on Flickr



Now then, back to the garage. I've been spending my spare time battling stinkbugs rather than working in the garage, but I finally started laying out my cabinets. The stem wall seems to pose a problem though, it is about 3.5" out from the drywall. I don't want to have a 3.5" gap behind the wall so I've got to do something about it.

The base cabinet on the left is on the concrete, against the stem wall, about 3.5" out from the drywall. The countertop in this case will be 35.5" tall, a bit low. The one on the left is sitting on top of the stem wall with some scrap under the front to level it. In this case the countertop is about 42" tall, a bit too tall for me (5'10"). I think what I am going to do is cut the 4" or so toekick (wasted space) area off the bottom of the base cabinets, set the back on the stemwall, then add legs to the front to level them up. This should bring the countertop height down to a comfortable 38" and also allow for storage beneath the cabinets.


Untitled by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

 

[scootermcrad]

Hey man! First off, congratulations! Great looking family AND house-garage!

SECOND! I'm local to you! I'm just East of Concord. We're practically neighbors. Looks like some quality construction right there. I just may have some questions for you as I get closer to starting my new garage. And I could certainly use some recommendations on a good concrete and block/masonry guy(s) to get it all started.

Again, congrats!

 

[GCncsuHD]

Thanks! Yep, not too far down the road, just let me know if you have any questions for me.

 

[GCncsuHD]

The in-laws came over for dinner last night, so I enlisted their help to hang my wall cabinets. Elcheapo HomeDepot/Lowes unfinished specials, but they will do the job. Also cut the toe kick off of the bottom of the base cabinets, cut out the molding on the wall, set the back of the cabinet on the foundation wall and used stainless Ikea legs for the front. Now just to cut some filler strips for the wall cabinets (wall cabinets come to 10' exactly, base countertop was 10' 1/2" and I left 1/4" gap on either side to fill with caulk for any possible expansion), apply laminate sheet to sides of tall cabinets, and set my workbench top.

Concept

50 by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

Reality

Untitled by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

Original idea was to continue the tall skinny cabinet down to the workbench and put a shelf there, but decided that area just to the left of that cabinet under the shorter cabinet door would make a handy spot for a paper towel roll holder instead, and retain my workbench real estate.

You can also see the beginnings of the shop stereo, a cheap chinese 2.1 amplifier, two 6.5" kenwood speakers in 6" PVC pipe that will be the "headlights" in a 71/72 C10 grille that will hang on the wall over the cabinets, and a 12" Infinity subwoofer and box I got from my brother in law, yes I know there is a Kenwood sticker on the box, it was made for a Kenwood subwoofer he had, he pulled the sub, and put this one in it, no I haven't checked the volume and port tuning to see if it fits for this subwoofer, but for the acoustics in the garage it sounds pretty decent. I'll probably build a shelf and hang it up out of the way below the workbench and later add a 12v power supply I have, 12v battery, and a bluetooth headunit I have along with a couple more speakers.


Untitled by wrfalcon75, on Flickr

 

[dubber]

Love the sticker bomb. I'm a big fan of stickers but i'm always super hesitant to put them on anything so i did my own sticker bomb project to appease that desire.