The Pain Cave/Movie Room/Workshop/Panic Room Garage

[pgray007]

It started simply enough in late 2011:

Wife: "I think we should build a bigger house."

Me: "Me too... But it needs to have a detached garage that's all mine."

Wife: "Ummm... OK."

Baby #2 was on the horizon, and the house we'd bought, our first, was getting a bit small. With a growing family comes an ever-increasing number of strollers, bikes, and child-related accoutrements, which were gradually taking over my workshop area, hence my desire for a separate space that I could call my own.

We loved our neighborhood, and decided to become one of those odd ducks that moves within the neighborhood all of a half mile down the road (there's a lot of them around here). There was a new section opening where they'd cleared the trees, but not yet marked out the lots, so I was able to scope out the ideal location for our "dream house" on a cul de sac that would leave enough room for the man cave, and we got the builder we wanted to work some magic with the developer and "pre-reserve" the lot.

We were off to the races!




Note added October 2017: In an attempt to recover from the Photof---et fiasco this summer I've moved all the pics to dropbox. Some were lost along the way, so I've tried to replace them with others that might be slightly out of sequence but ultimately show what I was trying to explain.

 

[pgray007]

We were building this house from the ground up, while simultaneously selling our current house in a questionable market, and getting ready to expand the family, so the garage played second fiddle to important decisions like kitchen tile and shower grout color.

Our builder was pretty helpful though, and despite my lack of knowledge and time for research, he offered some good suggestions and we ended up spec'ing out a 20X24' detached garage with a room above. Some of the smart decisions made during the build process included:

1) Putting a bonus room on top. At this point, the goal of that space was "TBD"
2) Doing a "salt box" configuration upstairs that provided much more usable space than a standard "peaked" roof.
3) 100A service to the garage
4) A utility sink in the garage, which provided water supply and sewer (going to a lift tank back to city sewer via the house)
5) Stairs on the outside of the building, so keeping usable space in a small garage maximized

We sold our house faster than planned, with us almost cancelling the first showing to the couple that bought the house since it was the day after Christmas, and closed and ultimately relocated to New Hampshire for construction since relatives had a vacation home up there. Great in terms of not having to deal with an apartment, tough in terms of construction occurring a thousand miles away.

Fast forward several months and the garage is taking shape:

The "family" garage and the cave

Insert Poop Here

Great storage space for your Gatorade bottle!

That first step from the room above is a doozey!

 

[pgray007]

So, what's with the title? Well, the purpose of the garage has "evolved" since originally built in 2012.

Fast forward to late 2015, and a third child starts cooking, a major backyard project consumes most of the year, and the garage remains an unfinished space, with the downstairs serving as general **** storage and woodworking space, and the upstairs a lonely unfinished space that gets used for hiding Christmas presents. This nonsense needs to stop.

At least she looks good on the outside.

To save some money* (the story one tells their wife as an excuse to acquire more tools, and take 28X longer to finish a project than it should) I decide its time to do something with the space. Wife and I are both getting fitter, the family is soon-to-be a party of five, and my firstborn son is showing an increasing interest in building stuff, creating visions of RC cars, dirtbikes, and furniture projects in his father's head. We need to stop wasting this great space.

After some discussion, it's determined that we need a bathroom on the second floor, with a shower for reasons unknown. Otherwise, it's a blank slate. After much deliberation, I determine that the upstairs should serve as a multi-purpose room. I want a hidden screen/projector for movies or videoconference/presentation work, a guest sleeping quarters for when the house is full (or wife and I need to retreat from the kids in panic), and a flexible office space since working from home is becoming a challenge with kids and dogs and unending screaming.

Let's do something with this space!

Downstairs also needs to follow the multi-purpose guideline, with the ability to provide an exercise space, primarily for cycling, running, and basic strength training, woodworking capabilities, and general "tinkering" with electronics, bikes/motorcycles, etc. Basically, we want to turn this mess into something organized and functional:

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Subscribed!

 

[Kevkx125]

Looks and sounds like a cool project!!

 

[TomcoPDR]

subscribed

 

[slimpickins]

Looks cool! How long ago did you build? You've got some great potential there!

Cheers!

 

[pgray007]

Looks cool! How long ago did you build? You've got some great potential there!

Cheers!

House was completed in summer of 2012, and started finishing things last fall.

 

[pgray007]

Actual useful interior work started in October of 2015, and like most things, was due to a cascading series of dependencies. For the uninitiated cascading dependencies are when a simple task requires a precursor task, which requires a couple of precursors, and on, and on, until a simple idea like "It would be nice to drywall the garage to I can hang some cabinets" leads to "Let's finish the upstairs." Once drywall was in the cards, it led to "Well, what would we want to put in the walls before they're closed?" which led to a 200 line (and growing) task plan.

Like any good computer jockey, I started mocking up some plans, and solicited the opinion of the GJ gurus over here: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=231435

The initial focus was finalizing the layout for the upstairs, so that plumbing, electrical, and low voltage could be run before the downstairs wall were closed in. From the initial thread to now, the vision for the upstairs shifted from dedicated office-type space, to more of a multifunction room, with the bath and kitchen space minimized to allow the larger space to work as anything from a guest room, to movie room, to guest space.

I don't have any particular competency in building, other than having done some basic handyman stuff around the house, and knowing which is the correct side of the hammer, but it was important to me to complete any work on this project that I found interesting. For example, plumbing has always been a mystery to me, so I figured that would be a great area to learn, versus putting in insulation, which seems like a miserable job better left to outsourcing. My grandfather was an auto mechanic, and built his house with his bare hands and lived in it until the day he died, and I'd always admired the fact that he taught himself along the way using friends and family, and built it as time and money allowed. I've got a friend named YouTube (in addition to my friend named Jesus), so figured I could take a slightly more modern approach.

Wanting to do the job "officially," I pulled a permit, and chronicled my adventures here: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=304243

So, with a weekend home alone and a car full of 2X stock, the party started:

 

[pgray007]

So, what's the deal with this "pain cave" thing? At a basic level, it's a stationary bicycle. As you get a bit fancier, you attach your standard road bike to a "trainer" that immobilizes the bike. The trainer adds resistance to the bike, so you get a decent workout.

The trainer allows you to get a cycling workout regardless of weather, reduces the risk of being run over by a texting Nissan Spanish Armada driver, and allows exact control over your workout, which usually means inflicting more "pain" than can be consistently replicated on the road.

Turn the geek volume to 11, and you can get a computer controlled trainer that adjusts resistance based on detailed parameters. You basically generate a workout on the computer based on your current abilities, with the aim of exceeding your thresholds in order to expand them. There's even a cute "video game" that lets you cycle virtual roads during the workout.

So I've clearly already got the cave, complete with inadequate lighting and cobwebs, and also have the pain, but what would really be nice would be some decent flooring before we salt up the concrete too much with this kind of nonsense:

I'm in the midst of doing the math on porcelain tile vs. epoxy and leaning towards the tile. Any thoughts based on the goal of a multi-purpose wood/shop/exercise room, with most tools and storage on wheels to allow for frequent "transformations" of the space?

 

[pgray007]

In one for the "don't argue with the wife" files, the Mrs. is intent on having a full bath in the upstairs room. I talked her out of a tub, but still needed to accommodate a 30x30 shower pan and associated plumbing, making the bathroom a bit larger than I would have liked. Frankly, I'd be happy with a urinal in the garage, but that option didn't fly, although in an emergency there's always the utility sink down there...

When the detached building was designed, there was no real purpose in mind, so windows were evenly spaced and ultimately put some constraints on the location of the bath, requiring that the bath "consume" a window. Not the ideal situation, but not the end of the world.

With plans done and permits issued. I set about framing the bathroom. This is something I've never done before, and rookie mistake #1 was assuming I could be a "real man" and just use a hammer rather than purchasing an air nailer. One stud later and I was running to Big Blue to pickup a nailer, and kicking myself for forgetting the second rule of Home Improvement Club: Any "cost savings" provided by DIY are an excuse to buy new tools.

Nailer in hand and a "Framing 101" video or two under my belt, and the bathroom framing went up fairly fast. I nailed a top plate to the existing joists first, scribed the plate onto the floor with a plumb bob, and built the wall on the ground.

Look ma! My first wall!

In retrospect, this was a bit "sub optimal" as my top plate needed some shims as I either cut some studs a hair short or the ceiling joists weren't even, but ultimately it all worked out, and was approved by my management team:

The only minor problem was that like a dingbat, I measured the location of the door from the exterior edge, rather than the interior, so the door trim would have been in the shower. Oops. An afternoon later and the door opening was moved over about 6" to compensate. It's great to measure twice and cut once, but that's assuming you actually measure the right thing!

My research into our local building codes indicated I needed an opening to the attic as well, which was quickly framed up after the slightly nerve wracking task of cutting the ceiling joists:

I did sub out some of the framing work. Although their rates were exceptional (they were paid in apple sauce and goldfish crackers) most of their advice centered around making things pink:

With framing complete, plumbing, electrical, and low voltage were next on the list. I'm probably most competent in the low voltage side of things, and had already added an LV panel that connected to the LV conduit the builder had installed at my request.

It's a bit of a mess at the moment and only really feeding a couple of PoE IP cameras, but ultimately will house an alarm expansion panel (essentially integrating the detached into the main house alarm/automation panel) and network gear for the IP cameras, wireless access points, and automation. There will also be a "server closet" in one of the storage rooms upstairs, housing theater equipment and additional network equipment.

Running conduit back to the crawl space of the house was a stroke of genius during construction. I think the builder charged something like $50 to do a job that would have been a massive pain later in the process. Ultimately I probably would have preferred larger conduit than the 1" that was run, but I was able to get 2 Ethernet and 4 4-wire alarm cables, so I should be OK since most of the equipment in the garage will terminate in the can rather than needing to go back to the house.

(edit: for some reason this image is sideways and I can't fix it since moving it off photobucket!)

 

[Bib Overalls]

You have a great conversational style to your writing. Enjoying the read. Pictures in Post #3 appear to be lost in cyberspace. Any chance they can be rounded up?

 

[pgray007]

You have a great conversational style to your writing. Enjoying the read. Pictures in Post #3 appear to be lost in cyberspace. Any chance they can be rounded up?

Thanks! Hopefully the pictures are fixed (not sure where photobucket sent them).

And with that, I'm off to finish up rough electrical before it gets too hot.

 

[kjdhawkhill]

Looks more like a wattage cottage than a pain cave to me. But thats just me... or my jealousy from the midwest.

As a dedicated basement (pain cave) trainer rider between January and early/mid March, I suggest a bigger fan. The kind they use to dry out flooded church basements and circulate air in enormous warehouses. Really helps with the salt on the floor, helps it dry on your shirt faster.

Looks great, can't wait to see where it goes from here.

 

[pgray007]

Looks more like a wattage cottage than a pain cave to me. But thats just me... or my jealousy from the midwest.

As a dedicated basement (pain cave) trainer rider between January and early/mid March, I suggest a bigger fan. The kind they use to dry out flooded church basements and circulate air in enormous warehouses. Really helps with the salt on the floor, helps it dry on your shirt faster.

Looks great, can't wait to see where it goes from here.

Wattage Cottage is the funniest thing I've heard all day. Hopefully we'll be borderline Power Penthouse when all is said and done...

I'm relatively happy with the Vornado fan, although I usually have it on half speed so I can hear the tube (the trainer has done wonders for my binge watching) so that's probably my fault, combined with the "sultry" South Carolina weather we've had as of late.

On the docket is mini-split HVAC upstairs and down, so hopefully the salt deposits will be a thing of the past.

 

[pgray007]

Filled with confidence after framing my first bathroom, leaning against it, and not having it collapse, I figured I'd tackle plumbing.

Plumbing has always been a bit of a black art to me, somewhere between voodoo and fractal geometry, with strange terminology, "rules" that apply in most situations but then are abandoned in others, and the strange dynamics between water, waste, and air. I'd done my own irrigation system, but that was a bit less "risky" as any screw ups just meant a miniature version of Old Faithful in the lawn and a quick repair, rather than mold, or the innocuously named but insidious "grey water" dripping on junior's head.

With the Interwebs and the bookstore at my side, it was time to get to work.

Part of the problem I found with plumbing was that different books and seemingly authoritative websites would disagree on the finer points, and in some cases, competing version of regional plumbing codes would disagree. Unlike electrical, which seems to have standardized on the National Electric Code, plumbing varied widely. Lots of what I read would say things like "For 200 years we did it this way and it was fine, but last year we decided that method was absolutely terrible and now we're doing it completely differently." I guess this is why plumbers have bill rates that rival mine!

Before framing the bathroom I'd mapped out the bathroom fixtures on the floor in pencil. Of course my well laid plan had fixtures going through floor trusses and whatnot, so I tweaked my bathroom sizing a bit from the plan before framing the bath. That was a good bit of foresight.

With fixtures more or less mapped out, I'd drill a small hole in the center of the drains, check the garage below to make sure I had clearances, and then put holes in the floor.

During the build of the garage, I'd requested a slop sink, so I had cold water supply, and a lift tank that pumps waste back up to the house and into the city septic. I was intimately familiar with this tank as the pump had failed a few months prior and I replaced it, thankfully before the toilet became "active" as it was funky enough just from the slop sink.

I tired into the existing waste and supply line, and I was off to the plumbing races:

Due to work and other commitments, it ultimately took me about 8 months to finish up the plumbing, although in some cases a month would go by without any progress. I chronicled my (mis)adventures in plumbing here: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=305144 and ultimately ended up with a finished product I'm happy with, that doesn't leak, and seems to drain well.

Supply manifold with water heater stub:

Primary wet wall, with toilet and shower drains:

I passed inspection painlessly, although I took the time to clean up the work area, label everything, and attempt to make it look like I actually had a clue as to what I was doing. The only thing the inspector said was "they usually fill the drains with water," and then I pointed out the test fitting (in the main stack just above the picture above) that was a bit above his line of sight and filled with water, and he nodded and that was that.

The biggest problem I had with plumbing was that conceptually things are easy, for example I need to get pee from the toilet to the drain. THEN you realize there's venting involved, a half dozen rules about which fittings you can use in which situations, and just when you think you've figured it out, you realize there's a truss in the way of your master plan. I did TONS of test fittings, and would glue up a small section at a time, say from the shower drain to the next truss, and then again dry fit the larger components, since gluing invariably changed things just enough to cause problems.

So, would I attempt plumbing again? Yes. I actually enjoyed the problem solving aspect of it. When I got towards the end, it took a good 20 minutes to figure out the sequence I needed to connect and glue everything since I no longer had as much "give" with everything else connected. I wrote down a sequence, tested it, realized that I really need to do step 4 before step 2, redid it, and then made another tweak until finally passing my "dry rehearsal" and then gluing. Depending on your personality, this could be a fun exercise in using a different part of your brain, or drive you absolutely bonkers.

With the plumbing documented, we're almost caught up to present day, with a some shocking adventures in electrical right around the corner.

 

[gabriele82]

Great Work!

 

[pgray007]

The electrical plan is fairly straightforward, and I have a leg up since the builder did some initial wiring when the shop was built. It's not perfect and there was nothing upstairs save for a couple of bare bulbs, but there's good outlet coverage in the shop area, 100A service, and breaker panel already installed.

After some planning on the computer and mapping out outlets with a sharpie, it was time to actually do some work. I added lights, outlets, and a bathroom fan in the upstairs room, and also swapped out the bare bulbs for cans (and of course when showing my wife pictures, noted the "niiiiiice cans!").

Neat Panasonic combination fart fan and LED light fixture:

Nice cans... Turn 'em on and they get good and hot too! They'll ultimately be replaced with LED retrofit bulbs. I thought about a full DC LED system, but that just doesn't seem mature enough at this point and would have probably created more trouble than it's worth. These Halo banded cans (from Lowes) were nice enough to include the press-in crimp things, so they were easy to wire up:

Also added a 20 amp 220V circuit for the future Daiken mini-split. Amazon had this nice box with a GFCI outlet so I was able to check the "must have a service outlet box near the HVAC" checkbox on NEC and minimize the holes I needed to drill through the building:

Here was the panel more or less as the builder left it, with existing circuits for outlets, lights, and the lift tank pump and alarm. I was actually kind of surprised at some of the "missing" items... No grounding rod, and some "jury rigged" staples where the electrician just used some scrap neutral wire to add a 3rd piece of Romex to two cables that were already stapled down, but I'm cleaning all that up.

Here's the panel now with all my new circuits installed. I still need to add the earth ground, main breaker, and clean up those funny twisted neutrals (thanks, Square D), but everything has tested OK thus far.

The low voltage (white) can on the right is where the "brains" of the garage will live. I'm a bit of a geek, and have been messing with home automation and "connected home" technologies for the past decade or so. I've been hooked ever since seeing an 80's vintage video on PBS or something like that, with a young Bill Gates talking to his house. I also have some professional involvement in this space, so I'm looking at the garage partially as a lab where I can play with these technologies.

So far, the "brain" is pretty empty, save for a "junior Cisco" PoE switch that provides connectivity and power to a couple of IP cameras and a wireless access point. I really like these switches, as they're higher grade than the rebranded Linksys junk Cisco used to sell to the SMB market, without all the nonsense (i.e. paid service contracts to get firmware updates and confusing interfaces, not to mention cost) of the "real" Cisco stuff. It's also got a lifetime warranty and has survived two summers of 100F South Carolina weather without missing a beat.

Next up for the can is an extension of our Leviton OmniPro panel for security and other cool "tricks" like opening the garage door via phone. I'll also automate lighting, door locks, shades, and the theater components in the upstairs, with as-yet-undetermined technologies. I'm really digging our Amazon Echo, so also hoping for voice enablement so I can finally replicate that show with Mr. Gates and tell my house to "turn on the lights."

I'll post some shots of completed electrical and low voltage as it wraps up, and hopefully complete electrical inspection by end of week and be ready for insulation next week.

 

[TLCObsession]

Don't be too quick to add a ground rod. It looks like you have a 4 wire feeder. I assume the neutrals are not bonded? Code for separated buildings and sub-panels is a little different depending on location - some of that changed after the 2008 NEC. Make sure you know what is required locally.

 

[tweidman]

I'm glad I found your build, its right up my alley. I also zwift in the winter. I need to step it up this winter with a smart trainer. I will probably go with a Kickr as well, if funds allow.

Not that I want to think about trainer time right now, I'm still in denial that summer is basically over. Later this fall I want to re-do my pain cave, last year I was riding in the basement in a sea of moving boxes with my laptop on one of them. This year I am definitely upgrading the space in the basement, or moving my trainer to the new shop I just built.

Looking forward to seeing your final product.

 

[pgray007]

Don't be too quick to add a ground rod. It looks like you have a 4 wire feeder. I assume the neutrals are not bonded? Code for separated buildings and sub-panels is a little different depending on location - some of that changed after the 2008 NEC. Make sure you know what is required locally.

Some guys in the know (thread over in electrical) convinced me that the rod is a good idea for lightening protection, and I've got the two rods about 60% in (and the bulging right bicep to show for it).

Inspector passed the panel in 2012 without rods so I could probably pass without, but I'd rather do it right even if it exceeds code requirements.

Neutrals are not bonded as they're bonded in the main panel.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[pgray007]

I'm glad I found your build, its right up my alley. I also zwift in the winter. I need to step it up this winter with a smart trainer. I will probably go with a Kickr as well, if funds allow.

Not that I want to think about trainer time right now, I'm still in denial that summer is basically over. Later this fall I want to re-do my pain cave, last year I was riding in the basement in a sea of moving boxes with my laptop on one of them. This year I am definitely upgrading the space in the basement, or moving my trainer to the new shop I just built.

Looking forward to seeing your final product.

I love the KICKR, and they recently had a sale that might still be on. REI also sells them so you can snag the 20% off when they run their sales every few months, although Wahoo finally has some competition in the space.

I actually ride mine more or less year round so I can get a ride in while it's still dark, or to do a structured workout. I'm kind of torn between Zwift and Trainer Road. Zwift is neat and pretty, but I really saw results with the TR programs and liked that it was all laid out.

We're still in the midst of summer down here, with 90+ forecast all week after a short respite thanks to the hurricane. I'm looking forward to fall!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[pgray007]

Well, the panel is finally "done right" based on some great feedback in the electrical forum. I added earth ground and a main disconnect, and cleaned things up a bit:

Thanks to the recent hurricane-driven rains, the ground was relatively soft, and I was able to pound the two 8-foot grounding rods in with a small sledge in about an hour. Not terribly difficult but my right bicep was feeling a bit "Popeye-ish" towards the end of rod #2.

Grounding wire exiting the building. I still need to get silly with some silicon before it rains:

Low voltage is about 60% done, although I managed to run out of CAT5E network cable, so completing LV will have to wait until Friday. I did get some nice cable clamps at Big Orange so trying to keep things neat. You can also see the 1x2 strips to protect the romex running in the attic. It's "nice" working up here on a hot day since I get to sweat out the evil as it's pushing about 110 up here:

Out of the frame to the right is where there will eventually be a drop-down movie screen. Here's the network and power for the projector, as well as high and low voltage smoke detectors, the latter connected to the alarm to call in the boys in the red truck should someone be smoking in the boys room. I still need to add some bracing for the projector mount.

The "utility room" is getting wired up nicely. There's only a couple more network drops in the upstairs room, and then a few to add downstairs.

Today should be mostly focused on wiring up alarm sensors, assuming I don't run out of security wire. I also have my electrical inspection scheduled for tomorrow, so hopefully we'll pass with flying colors so the insulation guys can do their thing.

 

[Dan_RN]

Looking good!

 

[pgray007]

The last couple of weeks have been all about wiring. My rules of wiring are:

#1: Use your years of experience to make a reasonable estimate of wire needs, then add 20% just in case.
#2: Since you don't actually have years of experience, invariably buy just enough wire to be about 7 feet short for each circuit. That way you can make at least 9 trips to Lowes for something that would have taken a single trip if you actually planned, measured, and estimated properly.

I probably bought about 6 100' coils of Romex, and would have been better served with some larger quantities. The same played out with network and speaker wire; on the latter I was about 2 feet short on the last of 7 speaker runs. So close! Luckily with Lowes about 2 miles down the road, and Amazon Prime always available, I was able to fill in the gaps.

My electrical inspection passed with flying colors, with nary a criticism from the inspector. I wrapped up low voltage over the course of the next week.

The alarm can quickly filling up:

Last week was a bit of a bust garage-wsie, with the weekend spent on my first attempt at in Olympic distance (1500m swim/28mi bike/10K run) triathlon:

My swim stunk. Major cramping and apparently my navigation might have been better executed by Stevie Wonder, but I survived and had a decent bike and run. Hopefully an improved pain cave will make for some better results next time.

A cold that's been visiting our family caught up with me post-race, so progress slowed a bit, causing the final low-voltage stuff to take about twice as long as I'd hoped. I did finally finish up... Here's the "main artery" in the upstairs room, with network, video, and speaker wires running into the room behind the knee wall, which will eventually house theater components and some networking gear:

And here's the miles of copper, ready for action:

 

[pgray007]

Last night was an 11th hour scramble to clean out the garage and prep for insulation, drywall, paint, and flooring, assuming I can complete those tasks before I get kicked out of the "main" garage.

We started with this:

Started making some headway during the day...

And at about 10:30PM on Sunday ended with this:

Huzzah!


Upstairs got the same treatment, which was a bit easier since there wasn't much beyond some old motorcycle clothing and the tools related to constructions activities (it's a bit dark up there since I only put blubs in 3 of the 7 cans for temporary lighting):

Insulation guys are at work as we speak, and both the upstairs and downstairs will be fully insulated as both will be conditioned with a two-zone Daiken Mini-split.

So the detached, aka my garage, looks great. The "rest of the family" garage however, not so hot. I guess I can use this in my audition tape for Hoarders:

Like all projects, I'm also finding some additional work. The entry to the upstairs gets full sun most of the day, and the treads on the stairs probably expand and contract on a daily basis, working loose the nails that hold them on, so the treads are a bit loose despite hammering in the nails regularly. I could probably replace with screws, but I'm not sure if that will split the wood since it needs to expand/contract somewhere. I'll look for some additional thoughts, but am open to ideas if anyone has a good one:

 

[Vette60]

Hey.

I've enjoyed catching up on your thread - really nice, neat work. Your detached garage is coming together nicely.

Have you given any more thoughts to your automation project? Lighting Control - I am biased since I work for Lutron. I think that we have some nice gear that works well and is fairly easy to integrate with other stuff - whether Nest or Sonos, etc.

Will continue to follow along.

R.

 

[pgray007]

Hey.

I've enjoyed catching up on your thread - really nice, neat work. Your detached garage is coming together nicely.

Have you given any more thoughts to your automation project? Lighting Control - I am biased since I work for Lutron. I think that we have some nice gear that works well and is fairly easy to integrate with other stuff - whether Nest or Sonos, etc.

Will continue to follow along.

R.

Cool that you work for Lutron as our main house (I feel like such a $ick when I say "the main house" like I'm some 1890's landed aristocrat, but I digress) uses HAI stuff, which I believe you guys bought. We have an Omnipro automation panel and the HAI/Lutron UPB lighting automation on about 90% of the switches.

I've been fairly happy with the HAI UPB lighting, although it misses a command about 8% of the time, and the "out of the box" integration to things like Sonos, Amazon Alexa, IFTTT, etc., is a bit behind the times. These negatives are also a bit of a positive since it seems like it was designed with an industrial controls mindset: closed, old interface technology, etc., but it "just works" versus some of the new Silicon Valley stuff that has all the cool bells and whistles, but stops working when someone forgets to actually test the firmware that's automagically pushed out.

For the detached, I'm looking to step the automation up a notch, but haven't settled on a technology. UPB and HAI/Lutron are the devil I know, but it seems like the world is moving towards ZWave. I used ZWave in my last house (with Lutron stuff as well, forget the subbrand) but I was probably 3 years too early to the party and the first gen stuff (circa ~2008) really stunk, so I've stayed away from ZWave in the new (circa 2010) house.

I'm 95% sure for security I'll put an HAI extension in that big white can so I can just setup new areas for the alarm sensors and integrate with the main house. For lighting, I'm still split between the HAI flavor of UPB, or going with a ZWave or even Insteon solution. I'll likely add a controller on top of the Omnipro that will allow integration with the movie stuff, so I can do the gee-wiz press one button, close the shades, drop the screen, power on the amps/projector, etc. I'd also like to integrate some of the disparate automation products I have, like Sonos, Plex, Amazon Echo, IFTT, etc.

For my "real job" I have a tangential relationship to this stuff, since part of my consulting work is around connected home/intelligent city, so I justify all this nonsense as a "lab." If you have any cool new Lutron stuff coming out that would help I'm all ears, since I haven't really made up my mind on much of the automation piece.

 

[pgray007]

The last 24 hours have definitely been my daughter's favorite part of the build...

"Daddy, your garage is PINK!!!!!!!"

I had a local company come out for the insulation that also did the work in our house. I figured by the time I got the tools (that I'd likely never use again), figured out how to do the work, and got done scratching after playing with fiberglass, it would be November. For a cool grand, a couple of dudes knocked out the upstairs and downstairs in about 4.5 hours, with R-19 in the walls, R-30 in the exposed ceiling, and R-30 to be blown into the attic once the sheetrock is up.

The upstairs also looks "pretty in pink:"

This morning, insulation inspection came and went uneventfully. The building department here is really on the ball. They've been super-helpful whenever I've called with questions, you can book inspections online (I setup insulation yesterday at about 3PM, and the guy was here at 9AM today), and they'll update status from their car, so about 5 minutes after the inspector leaves I get an email that I passed, along with the traditional paper form.

I'm now doing some final pre-sheetrock activities, mainly adding a few light fixtures in the garage (I know, I know, should have done before the pink stuff and I'll pay with some extra itching, but I just couldn't get it done after being down most of last week), and setting the shower pan.

A local drywall installer quoted what I thought was a surprisingly low $440 for rock, mud, tape, skim, and prime, although perhaps that's fair market. All I know is I would demand more than $440 for all that work!

Assuming we get walls up, primed, and painted, the next major job is flooring in the garage. I'm currently leaning towards porcelain tile, after being inspired by some of the threads here, although I'm hoping that's not embarking on a 10 week project. I'll tile the shower surround, bathroom, and probably a backsplash, so at least it's a transferrable skill. DIY materials + install seems to be about on par with a high-quality epoxy, which would be my second choice.

Depending on temps, flooring may be preempted by the mini-split install, since fall has yet to arrive here in SC, although I'm sure dropping a couple grand on an AC will promptly trigger temperate weather, so perhaps I can start a fundraising campaign with all the people complaining about the hot weather down here...

 

[pgray007]

Also thought I'd note that one of the best additions to the garage I've made has been the tall white box you see next to the slop sink in the picture above. It's a "hard wired" (meaning plumbed into the water line) water filter/cooler like you'd find at the gym. There are reconditioned ones all over fleabay, and for a buck shy of $100 I have unlimited ice cold water (or hot water if I ever decide to have a tea party in the garage) on demand. This has been huge, whether I'm riding the bike or working on a project, it's so nice to have a cold glass of H2O without having to go in the house, especially when all dirty/sweaty.

 

[madoc1]

Looking good!

just checking in to mark your intestesting thread.

jim

 

[pgray007]

Well I continue to lean towards tile for the floor. Here are our samples. Any thoughts?

 

[TomcoPDR]

I'd vote for left (the mixed granite feel)... the bamboo imo over played from the 2005-2010 year for home reno... mixed granite gives it that industrial feel in the garage. imo

 

[pgray007]

All votes lead to the tile on the left. I like that it's got a bit of texture to it, so it seems to offer a bit more traction, and it's also rectified and a "through tile" design rather than just a design laid atop the tile. It's also a bit speedier than the other tile, but I'm thinking it's worth $2-400 for something I like that makes the place functional.

Speaking of tile, I had my first experience with this set today. I completely botched the first batch I made. It was more crepe/pancake batter than peanut butter consistency. I guess the price of a bag is the price of that lesson.

After a run to Lowe's for a reload, it was time to set the shower pan.

Insert shower here:


I artfully spread the mortar. There must be some trick to scraping out the last few scoops, but if there is I didn't find it and got a bit of mortar on my gloves and tools, but ultimately ended up with a functional mortar bed:


I was initially a bit low, so I pulled up the pan and added some more. Let's just say I "meant to do that" and ended up with some nice back buttering of my pan.

A bit of repositioning, followed by my usual amount of profuse sweating that occurs whenever I attempt a new task, and the pan was set:


I put the final drain pieces in place, making sure to send messages to my similarly juvenile friends with various jokes about the caulk ring, then threw a few gallons of water down the drain to make sure everything worked:


The level showed level, the drain drained, and as usual, about 25 minutes of productive work was coupled with 75 of mistakes and extra trips to Lowe's.

The exciting news is that drywall should start next week, immediately followed by paining. That means I need to finish framing a chase for the drain pipe, get up some cement board for the shower, and put in a conduit for future low voltage electric in the upstairs. That should get the place to start looking "real," and hopefully have the pain cave back in operation before Halloween, and perhaps cabinets and all the "fun stuff" around Thanksgiving!


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[wasfast]

"The level showed level, the drain drained, and as usual, about 25 minutes of productive work was coupled with 75 of mistakes and extra trips to Lowe's"

So you mean it went perfectly then? Sounds about right for most of us!

 

[SiGmA_X]

I like the grey tile, too.

"The level showed level, the drain drained, and as usual, about 25 minutes of productive work was coupled with 75 of mistakes and extra trips to Lowe's"

So you mean it went perfectly then? Sounds about right for most of us!

Agreed!

 

[pgray007]

I apologize for the horrible spelling in my previous post, thanks to the ducking autocorrect feature on the iPhone. So much for trying to post via phone...

Things are starting to pickup, since drywall is scheduled for Monday and there are still a half dozen random tasks to be completed before the rock gets done.

Job one was to channel my inner Chevy so I could frame up a Chase for the drain pipe coming down from the upstairs bath:

I think I'm going to try and rig up some large access panel for the end, both to get to the cleanout, but also since I could use the space to the right to store longer, lighter items. I'll probably throw some ply into the bottom so I don't risk punching holes in the drywall:

In yet another chapter of the "two steps forward, one step back" annals, I probably need to relocate the framing on the left since it won't fit the prefab access panel I got from lowes so I can get to the PEX manifold, unless someone has a creative idea for a DIY access panel. I need about 14" of clearance and left about 9" since I framed before I sources the panel. D'oh.

I also did some rework on my electrical. I'd run 12/2 ROMEX for a 20A hot water heater, assuming I'd use an RV-style unit. I rethought this plan a bit, since the 30A units seem to be more "standard" and available in a lot more configurations. Swapping out the 12/2 for 10/2 was time consuming and a bit itchy due to relocating fiberglass, but it's done.

I also figured I'd add a welder/EV/plasma cutter/who knows outlet since I was in the panel and was suffering from a bad case of "what wire should I add before drywall goes up." I'm going to use a NEMA 14-50 outlet since that's what most of the EV chargers use and seemed to be the most "future proof." That 6/3 wire isn't the easiest stuff to work with though!

That's some thick romex!:

I also started putting up cement board for the shower, since I'm going to tile it for reasons I still haven't figured out. It seemed like a good idea at the time...

First up was a pre-fab shampoo niche and 6 mil sheet for water avoidance. They're highway robbers on those niches, which are nothing more than some plastic and don't even include screws, but it probably saved me 2 hours of goofing around with cement board:

Next up was the hardie. It's pretty heavy stuff and supposedly the dust is nasty. On their videos you just "score and snap" but on the advice of the interwebs I used a masonry drill bit and diamond jigsaw bit designed for tile and it cut the hardie like butter. It's always amazing how things start to look "real" once the walls start going in:

I've got the next piece all set, but never anchored my shower valve since I wasn't sure what backer/tile I'd use. I was a bit spent after pulling wire and schlepping 50 lb sheets of hardie up and down the stairs to measure, test, rinse, and repeat, so that will have to wait for tomorrow. Once that sheet is in I'll throw another half sheet on top of each side, put in tape, and probably do the thinset on the tape after the drywallers get done since I still have to take out the sink and drop down the garage door tracks.

 

[pgray007]

So this just happened...

 

[tweidman]

Oh my.... what happened?

 

[rebelmyers1]

Holy hell


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