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Here Comes Another One, My New Arkansas Garage

dfmastin

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Jan 21, 2017
Messages
52
Hi Folks,
My wife and I are interviewing builders. We had a new architect in Arkansas draw up plans for us based on these inspiration pictures we found on the web. I'll be sharing lots and asking lots of questions. Feel free to ask me/us anything as well!
rt4a6d.jpg

and
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and current home
rbe15d.jpg
 
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Tunajoe

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Jun 10, 2013
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359
Location
Ventura County
Welcome!
Where in Arkansas?
I went to school in Russellville. Graduated from Tech in 1985.
Mother and sister live in Hot Springs Village.
 

CNGsaves

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Joined
Sep 26, 2012
Messages
13,233
Location
KS and OK
Welcome to GJ. Lots of great stuff here and wealth of knowledge GJer's.

Recently visited a large house being built on outskirts of Rogers, AR. Every damn HVAC run was that expandable plastic coil "pipe" ****. Absolutely do NOT let them do that. Design proper ductwork system with metal ducts that are SEALED. Only get one chance to do HVAC ductwork right. ;)

Good luck.
 
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dfmastin

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Jan 21, 2017
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Thanks for the replies TunaJ and CNG!
We're between Conway and Little Rock.
I was raised in Alabama and been here in AR for 16 years or so.
Hot Springs has some interesting history.
Man I wish I could time travel back and see that place in its "HeyDay".
Shesh, plastic pipe "don't" sound good.
Me and my father-in-law are Fine Homebuilding geeks so we'd probably have caught that!
We're probably going with ductless heat pump units. We'll see what we can afford.
Thanks again for the replies. Next step is to get some builders out here and get some bids. Will the dream crash and burn?
 
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dfmastin

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Jan 21, 2017
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Crapolla, do my pics not show? I guess I need an image hosting service.
 

HSpencer

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Nov 28, 2010
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South Central US
dfmastin

Welcome to the forum from a fellow Arkie. NW Arkansas here. Look forward to your future posts!!

Best Regards
Herb
 
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dfmastin

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Jan 21, 2017
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Here are my basic plans...
images on the way
 
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dfmastin

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I've requested bids from four builders. I'll anonymize them as possible and post them as they come in. I have one in already and I'll be interested in what y'all have to say.
 
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dfmastin

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This proposal was prepared from drawings designed for containing approximately 846 square feet of living space with an attached 2-car garage. Total square feet is approximately 1417. The studio/garage is to be located in AR. This contract price is based on the following amenities and allowances.


Exterior:
1. Exposed split faced block foundation
2. Hardie board siding or equal
3. Maintenance free exterior siding/soffit
4. Double pane single hung insulated vinyl low E windows per plans
5. Insulated exterior fiberglass doors per plans
6. Garage door allowance of $2,800.00
7. 30-year composition shingles, architectural style
8. Final yard prep allowance is $700.00
9. Run sewer to existing septic tank
10. Hook water to existing water source

Studio
1. Flooring to be laminate
2. Cabinets to be base cabinets only
3. Cabinet tops to be post form laminate
4. No appliances
5. Stainless steel sink



Stairs
1. Trends and risers to be built with pine framing lumber and finished to match laminate flooring

Utility Room
1. Flooring to be tile
2. Shelves to be paint grade job built

Trim Work
1. All base board to be 4 ¼’ beaded base
2. Casing to be 356
3. Standard window sills
4. Interior doors to be masonite 6 panel or equal
5. All trim to be painted

Bath
1. Flooring to be tile
2. Cabinets to be part of cabinet allowance
3. Vanity tops to be manmade marble
4. Fiberglass tub and shower combo


General Interior Specifications

1. 8 ft. ceilings unless otherwise noted on plans
2. All walls and ceilings to be sheetrock with knock down texture
3. A total of 2 (two) walls colors and 1 (one) trim color may be selected
4. Interior doors to be 6 panel masonite with 356 trim
5. Door hardware to be Design House brand
6. Appliance allowance is $0
7. Total cabinet allowance is $1,700.00
8. Lighting allowance to be $2,000.00 which includes recessed cans, door bells and chimes, vent lights and floods
9. Attic insulation to be R-38 cellulose
10. Wall insulation to be R-13 cellulose
11. Electric 40 gal water heater to be under stairs
12. Price includes 2 through the wall heat pumps, allowance is $3,400.
13. Plumbing allowance to be for Delta chrome fixtures
14. Total cabinet allowance with labor for all cabinets $1,700.00
15. Total finish out hardware $400.00
16. Flooring allowance is $3,700.00
(This will include laminate, tile, all labor, glues, trim pieces, thin set, grout and anything else associated with flooring or tile work).
17. Landscape allowance is $0
18. Allowance for retaining wall is $6,300.00

Allowance items 4-18 that come in under the budgeted amounts will be credited back

Allowance items 4-18 that go over the budgeted amounts will need to be paid at time of install.


Exclusions;
All closing cost, bank fees, construction loan interest, builders risk insurance.



X Inc. is a fully insured company and a registered builder with the state of Arkansas. With this contract we offer a one-year builders warranty, as well as a personal guarantee of customer satisfaction.



The total contract price for this studio/garage is $105,750.00
 
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dfmastin

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I don't think we're placing the garage where this builder imagines such that we shouldn't need the retaining wall although dirt work will still be necessary.
Other than that I should note it seems to me a lose-lose contract from my perspective. It's not exactly a cost plus and it's not exactly a turnkey. I guess it's a turnkey bid with the caveat of if it goes over I pay. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 

MacTexas

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Location
Granbury Texas
I love your screen in porch. My only comment based on personal experience is instead of two garage doors, one door 18' wide.
 
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dfmastin

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I love your screen in porch. My only comment based on personal experience is instead of two garage doors, one door 18' wide.

Thanks MacTexas! Our screen porch is pretty nice. I try to enjoy our house as much as possible and I've had a few amazing lunches on that porch.

Oh! Why one door instead of two?
 
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spudley

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Dec 27, 2016
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Location
Northeast Wisconsin
I have 3-9' doors. My garage is 22' deep. Both are adequate but when I build again, I'll go deeper and use wider doors. Not much room left with cars parked.
Like the design though.
 

MacTexas

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Mar 25, 2005
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Location
Granbury Texas
With a wider door you can put a car where you want it. In other words if you want to put a car in the middle of the garage you can.
 
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dfmastin

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So we have 23' planned and that may not leave much room? That may be ok for us though. The upstairs is really just a big workshop. Several years from now I'm sure I'll wish we had gone deeper as well (lots of opportunity for off color jokes here), but we've cobbled together about all we can afford as is I'm thinking. Thanks for your thoughts Spudly!

I have 3-9' doors. My garage is 22' deep. Both are adequate but when I build again, I'll go deeper and use wider doors. Not much room left with cars parked.
Like the design though.
 
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dfmastin

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Ah, well that makes perfect sense and... nope, the wife has spoken: she likes the look of two doors. I've been married long enough to know we're having two doors! In any case, thanks for the thought. MacTexas!

With a wider door you can put a car where you want it. In other words if you want to put a car in the middle of the garage you can.
 
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dfmastin

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Our second bid came in today.
This builder was uncomfortable letting me have a copy of the bid breakdown such that I don't have a copy, just what I remember.
The total was $104,673 which is about what the first bid came in at, but turns out $104,673 doesn't include the builder fee of 15-20k such that the real total is about 120k and that's a cost plus estimate so in the end it could be anything really. 2k dirt work, 5.5k slab, HVAC 7.5k, 6.75k for cabinets. We do have a stretch of 16'8" cabinets in the studio. Maybe that bid was for top and bottom cabinets where we only want bottom. In any case, the two bids we've received I'd anticipated being the highest. I hope the next two are considerably lower.
 
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dfmastin

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Making good progress. This is two days ago. The roof went on today!

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dfmastin

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Thanks Sean and Xander!
That is a thoughtful and observant question Xander.
On the original plans the windows were three 3x4 windows with no transoms.
I think the architect was just looking to add something special by making the windows taller and adding the transoms.
So the answer is, no good reason, and yes odd, but hopefully a good odd.
Hopefully, it will be a good quirky look making the stairs more interesting and allowing in more light. We'll see. :)
They just put them in a few minutes ago!
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dfmastin

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Hardi Plank siding is just about complete. Below you'll see a pic from a couple of days ago. There's some stuff I'm kinda iffy about like the band board/trim/frieze board. Our house (top of thread) doesn't have one. I hope it's not a water/mold issue. Friday they installed all the insulation. Well, except for the attic insulation. Another worry, no gable vents. It's a tiny attic and it has two whirleys so maybe enough air will move through from roof eaves. I decided to do my own security. ADT wants to add $15 a month to our bill to monitor with the garage. I ran cable for CCTVs today. I have four around the house and really like having them. The new cameras will be IP cameras with POE, but video over wifi. I also added some extra insulation around where fridge and freezer will go (see top of thread) to hopefully quieten them some for a more peaceful studio upstairs. What else? Had a 220v 60 amp outlet installed in garage part. In the slab pic above you can see we installed a storm shelter. I have no idea how we'll ever teach the dogs to enter. Measured my car and there should be six feet to fit a metal storage system with work surface. I hope it's not a pain to drive my car in and not have to worry about the storm shelter. They won't add the concrete ramp until the very end so I'll have to be patient to test it out. Oh, going with wall mounted garage door openers like the LiftMaster 8500. Um, gotta install a dog door (PlexiDoor) into the door leading into the garage part of the garage. Not sure why this is a good idea, but it's something my wife wants. Going with minisplit HVAC. Placing the compressors was a big deal. I noticed two holes under the big windows and just tried to put it out of my mind. I'm constantly worrying and asking questions. A couple hours later I noticed HVAC lines running out the holes and I realize the HVAC guys had decided to put the compressor units on the side of the house where what's left of our back yard remains rather than on the side facing the woods. Wish I'd said something earlier, but at least they fixed it before they'd done any sheathing. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing the minisplit units. Downstairs it's going to be a wall mounted unit in the "utility room" what we'll probably end up calling the pantry. Upstairs they've framed for a ceiling mounted cassette unit. I'd never even heard of such a thing, but after Googling looks like it'll work. Supposed to start sheetrocking middle of the week. Exciting stuff. Let me know if you can think of a question. Also, any thoughts appreciated. I'm thinking about going with Newage Products cabinets. Let me know if you have any experience with these.

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dfmastin

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Sheetrock was delivered today. So many interesting variables...
band board/trim/frieze board
new IP cameras
will fridge/freezer be loud upstairs in studio
will we ever go in storm shelter
will dog hang out in garage via dog door as wife intends
will mini-split HVACs be a good solution
will i have any money left
 
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dfmastin

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After 12 years of not having a garage it's going to be pretty cool. Sometimes when the workers are here I've been tempted to apologize that our cars are in the way because we don't have a garage and then I realize, he, he. Anyway, first sheetrock step completed. This pic is above the garage.

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dfmastin

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What color should we paint the garage part of the garage?
Or just leave it unpainted?
My wife has a gray color scheme planned for the utility/pantry and second floor studio.
 
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