Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT The Vintage Garage - Bucharest, Romania.

[Bogdan M.]

Update:

Not very much done today because it's Sunday and it was a cold day.
Installed a ridge cap on the roof of the firewood rack, power washed the yard (still not finished) and welded a latch for the door. Not a nice weld, but it will hold.
The coolest thing is that I removed the concrete shaping for the inspection pit and it came out really well - there are very few holes and the wood shaping has held up well enough.
I am satisfied with the result considering it's my first concrete shaping job. Learned a few tips along the way. I should have made it longer and should have added more wood support in two places.
Can't wait to continue tomorrow.

 

[Bogdan M.]

Bog: your first effort at brick and mortar looks great. remember to seal up the sides with drywall mud, caulk or maybe even mortar might work to keep bugs from getting behind your walls or up in your attic.

Thank you!
I will fill in all the holes in the garage. Everything will be repaired prior to painting.

not sure if you have any bugs, but if you have ants buy this cheap powder to put along the edge of the foundation outside and in areas inside if you see the little guys making a path. these drops work pretty good too if you just need to set up a few traps. not saying you do have ants and just in case you have some sort of bugs it pays to do preventative instead of repairs later cause a lot of them are wood eaters.

Thanks! I was close to having problems with ants a few years ago. I bought some firewood and some of the wood was rotten and there were a lot of ants inside. I tried to use vinegar, but they weren't at all bothered by it.
They began exploring the yard and I was afraid they would end up in the attic, so I disposed of all the rotten wood.

remember to try and use your masks when mixing cement, mortar or cutting or breaking it up cause that dust won't do your lungs any favors. ok?

keep up the great work and it's looking better every day now.

cheers

I use a dust mask when working and I also want to buy a full mask to use when cutting with the angle grinder.
I used it quite a lot these days and glasses are not enough. Small metal waste end up in my face and it's quite disturbing.

Thank you!

 

[drivesitfar]

BOG: i wasn't sure the supports for your pit extension would hold and happy to see that they did. it will be a lot better and yes bigger is better if you might have been able to do that, but i bet you'll make this work great.

ask questions if you might have any or just keep taking pictures and posting them if you have time so we can all enjoy your great progress.

good luck!

 

[Bogdan M.]

I continued today to work on the chimney.
It feels like The Shawshank Redemption. Hours and hours of work. Hope I will finish it tomorrow because I am loosing my patience. If someone want to do a whole wall, that's surely a huge project.
I got a temporary lamp so I will be able to remove all the lamps on the ceiling to paint the ceiling and get it ready for the new lamps.
Also organized the renovation supplies.

I had an epiphany: the garage is not that small. The issue is it's full of junk and stuff that has no immediate utility.
So, to fix that, I will get rid of some stuff and I will get a smaller refrigerator.

 

[drivesitfar]

BOG: spiffing up the brick like you are doing might take a bit of time, but i'm betting it will look better and you learned another good SKILL.

very happy to see you wearing a dust mask and hopefully you are wearing some eye protection two cause GOD doesn't give you more then 2.

aren't you happy it didn't snow last week.

good luck finishing up the brickwork and completing the job on the ceiling and lighting!!

 

[Bogdan M.]

BOG: i wasn't sure the supports for your pit extension would hold and happy to see that they did. it will be a lot better and yes bigger is better if you might have been able to do that, but i bet you'll make this work great.

ask questions if you might have any or just keep taking pictures and posting them if you have time so we can all enjoy your great progress.

good luck!

Thank you!

BOG: spiffing up the brick like you are doing might take a bit of time, but i'm betting it will look better and you learned another good SKILL.

very happy to see you wearing a dust mask and hopefully you are wearing some eye protection two cause GOD doesn't give you more then 2.

aren't you happy it didn't snow last week.

good luck finishing up the brickwork and completing the job on the ceiling and lighting!!

It will surely look better. I only hope I will be able to caulk them properly.

Yes, I also wear some Wurth safety glasses.

I am, but it would have been nice to have another week of nice weather.

Thank you!

 

[drivesitfar]

BOG: caulking big gaps can be tricky so make sure you get the debris out of the hole you are caulking before putting in the first bead. for bigger gaps it's maybe best to put in a bead or two as a base and then putting on a final bead if you got a fairly large gap to fill. also don't feel like the lone ranger or alone cause we all hate to caulk and some of us just get better doing it with time sort of like your mortaring and drywalling skills.

sorry your weather changed for the worse, but happy your cement floor is in place and all that outside work got done before it did.

have a great day!!

 

[Bogdan M.]

This is exactly what I experienced today.
Fortunately I bought a quick setting plaster and this makes the job a bit easier.
It snowed again today and for the first time in 8 years I didn't have the time to properly clean the yard. Hope I will be able to do it tomorrow.
The chimney work is almost over. Tomorrow I will finish it so I can procede with the rest of the renovation.
The truth is I really enjoy this renovation. It's very relaxing and quite rewarding because you can see the results of your work almost immediately.
Thank you! I really appreciate it!

Cheers!

 

[Finallygotit]

Fantastic job!

 

[Bogdan M.]

Thank you!

Almost finished the chimney today.
Still have to apply a second clear coat layer tomorrow.
And I also removed all the excess concrete from the pit's steel angle.

 

[nsula_country]

Very nice! Like the exposed brick.

You have came a long way!

CT

 

[Bogdan M.]

Thank you! It certainly feels like it. A huge amount of work. But I believe it's worth it. Although I started to feel a bit retarded today knowing is not my building.
I hope this gamble will pay off.

Today's progress:

 

[drivesitfar]

Bog: hopefully you talked with your landlord (nice older gal) about your lease and she was ok having you stay there for several more years at least. if you feel good about her letting you stay there, but you don't have anything signed you might want to get her to sign something letting you rent for 2, 5 or 10 years or so at the current rate so that if something happens to her health or worse yet she passes the kids or the estate doesn't sell the property with you having no legal paperwork. sorry to bring this up because i'm guessing you are not spending all this money without some good feelings about getting to stay for a few years.

your work is coming along nicely on the fireplace. interesting way to sort of hide the wires, and if it was me i'd mark the drywall with CAUTION or WIRES and maybe hide that writing with one of your cool old signs or some old license plates cause you wouldn't want to accidentally have somebody work in your garage and hit those with a nail or screw.

hope the weather is improving again. is it? and you were able to do your snow removal (exercise).

take care and you are doing GREAT!!

 

[Bogdan M.]

I asked her permission before removing the floor and she said she was happy with me and that I can stay as long as I want. We have a contract and all is well, but nothing is 100% sure unless you are the owner.

Thank you!
It being the wall with the electric meter, I guess someone will pay attention to it because there surely are more wires there. The garage has three-phase electric power, so there's no playing around the meter or the wiring.

No, it actually snowed a lot. I didn't have time to remove all the snow because I went to buy the supplies needed to install the lamps. Upgrading the garage lighting is a major priority.

I will post pics tomorrow with what I bought. I first went to Brico Depot, but they only had cheap stuff. I left without buying anything. I then went to Hornbach. That's a German store chain that sells a lot of high quality stuff, mostly German made.
I bought all the supplies I need and then I took everything to the garage and shoveled some snow. Wait, before going to the garage I went to someone I found on OLX and bought some vintage looking electrical wiring. Yes, I am a bit crazy.

 

[Bogdan M.]

Didn't do much today unfortunately.

I added an outlet for a water heater.
Washing your hands with cold water in the winter is kind of extreme.
This was the best time to do it, but it took quite some time.

 

[drivesitfar]

Bog: you're really getting after all the stuff that's probably been on your TO DO LIST and your making nice progress.

in case you really don't want to hide all the wiring here's an option most of us do if we don't have stud walls to hide our wiring in. we use plastic, metal or even the flexible conduit like you do and just run it on top of the walls so we don't have to do any cutting and patching of the sheetrock after it's installed.

here's a couple pictures and if you google conduits in garage wall mounted you might see others if you might need other ideas to do this in the future. or hang your cool old lights with something like this if the spots on your ceiling don't already have the wiring where you need it.

good luck as always and hoping your weather is warming up cause it tried to snow here yesterday and it's going to be in the 60's this next week here.

cheers

 

[Bogdan M.]

Bog: you're really getting after all the stuff that's probably been on your TO DO LIST and your making nice progress.

Thank you! Yes, I am sticking to the plan. It doesn't matter who we are. What matters is our plan.
Having a plan makes everything faster and more efficient.

in case you really don't want to hide all the wiring here's an option most of us do if we don't have stud walls to hide our wiring in. we use plastic, metal or even the flexible conduit like you do and just run it on top of the walls so we don't have to do any cutting and patching of the sheetrock after it's installed.

It was the only option on that wall.
This renovation is also a life lesson for me. Poor decision making will chase you for years and years. Someday it will catch you.
The right wall is only Styrofoam. The left wall and the back wall are both drywall on metal studs. So burying the wires was the only real option. Drywall would have been faster so I wouldn't have to waste so much time for only one electrical outlet.
Drywall is very cool especially because it's faster to change or add things like outlets.

here's a couple pictures and if you google conduits in garage wall mounted you might see others if you might need other ideas to do this in the future. or hang your cool old lights with something like this if the spots on your ceiling don't already have the wiring where you need it.

This is what I have bought from Hornbach the other day.

Unfortunately, here we don't have that nice metal conduit that seems to be very common in the US. That would be my first choice.
So I had to get the plastic type.

good luck as always and hoping your weather is warming up cause it trie
d to snow here yesterday and it's going to be in the 60's this next week here.
cheers

Thanks! It's getting warmer here also. Anyway, nothing can stop me now. I waited a lot to do this renovation, so I will finish it.
The garage is my dream project, but it has also been a major burden to not be able to make it as I want it. So I will be very relaxed from now on.

Today's progress:

Dad came and helped me with snow removal.

 

[Sects1986]

Just wow! What an amazing transformation you did there man. I'm sure you're neighbor will surely love what you did.

 

[drivesitfar]

Bog: nice work on the electrical!! keep up the progress and looks like as the snow melts you'll be ready for business again too.

Kudos to your dad for shoveling all that snow cause that's even a bit excessive for me to to call just good exercise.

 

[Bogdan M.]

Just wow! What an amazing transformation you did there man. I'm sure you're neighbor will surely love what you did.

Thank you!

Bog: nice work on the electrical!! keep up the progress and looks like as the snow melts you'll be ready for business again too.

Kudos to your dad for shoveling all that snow cause that's even a bit excessive for me to to call just good exercise.

Thanks! Yes, the weather is improving.
He only shoveled snow for 45 minutes. And that's still a lot. He wanted to help, but it's not very safe to shovel snow after a certain age.

Today's update:

I continued to skim coat the walls.
I also removed the ceiling lamps.

 

[dla]

The garage renovation is looking great! I bet your clients will be impressed as well!

 

[Bogdan M.]

Update:

Slow progress, but getting closer to installing the lamps and painting the walls and ceiling. Can't wait!

 

[Bogdan M.]

The garage renovation is looking great! I bet your clients will be impressed as well!

Thanks!

 

[drivesitfar]

Bog: during the winter most of the drywallers here use a lot of heat and usually do several light coats to get the walls and ceilings smooth as they like. yours is coming along very nicely and I bet the vintage lights will look amazing.

you are coming to the finish line on this phase of your project so keep up the great work and i know you'll be smiling some day in the very near future.

good luck!!!

 

[Bogdan M.]

Thanks!
I am not very good at this, but I tried to apply the same technique.
Today I worked with the doors open because we had some nice weather, which also helps with the skim coat curing.
I only have to work a bit more on one wall portion and then I can proceed with painting the ceiling and installing the lights. I'm very enthusiastic about finally being able to hang them - can't wait actually.

 

[drivesitfar]

Bog: keep at it cause you're making great progress and it's looking better all the time. I'm looking forward to seeing it painted and with your new lights so good luck with that.

your picture out the door looked like all the snow was gone too so guessing when you finish your spiffing up in your garage your clients will be able to get to you without all that snow on the roads.

cheers and have a great weekend!!

 

[Bogdan M.]

Thank you, drives!

Yes, all the snow is gone.
Today was a nice day because I purchased the lift. Next week they will deliver it and then install it.
Last two days update:

The ceiling is not looking as it should, so tomorrow I will apply another coat of paint because I want an even color.

 

[sawduststeve]

Evening Bogdan

All your hard work is really looking great now, kept at it , it's nearly done.

It'll be a shame to get it dirty

Steve

 

[Bogdan M.]

Thanks!

Today was a very productive day and I had to work almost non stop.

I poured some concrete at the base of the chimney, then I sanded the walls.
Applied a final coat on the ceiling and then installed the lamps, including the wiring. This worked 90% OK. One lamp flickers and I don't know why. I will try to fix it tomorrow.
Then I cleaned the floor with some help from a friend.

The contractors came and painted the floor.
They used a paint that is normally used for road signs.
I think it looks really nice.

Now I have to finish the walls.

Please give me an opinion. Blue walls or grey walls?

 

[booch]

Bogdan... dude. That's looking amazing! The brickwork on the chimney came out great, and I am very happy you have it exposed.

For the wall color, I like the blue over the grey, just to kind of break up the floor and wall. I'm not sure how it'll go with the green cabinets, though. Grey matches everything, which is nice... I'm not much help lol

 

[Bob Heine]

Bogdan, I like the grey. To me it makes the room look bigger.

 

[drivesitfar]

BOG: how about grey walls with maybe a 12 inch blue stipe about 3-4 feet from the floor? Your vintage signs should add a lot of cole to the room as your collection of quality items grow. Even all white could work that might reflect light better if your vintage lights need some help with that.

Looking good and looks like a nice place to work.

 

[Kasal]

I vote for the blue color, I think it will better match the gray floor.

 

[Bogdan M.]

Bogdan... dude. That's looking amazing! The brickwork on the chimney came out great, and I am very happy you have it exposed.

For the wall color, I like the blue over the grey, just to kind of break up the floor and wall. I'm not sure how it'll go with the green cabinets, though. Grey matches everything, which is nice... I'm not much help lol

Thank you!
It was a lot of work to patch up the chimney, but everybody loves it. It's an eye catcher.

I thought about that too. Green cabinets and blue walls doesn't really work.
Thanks for the feedback!

Bogdan, I like the grey. To me it makes the room look bigger.

Thank you!

BOG: how about grey walls with maybe a 12 inch blue stipe about 3-4 feet from the floor? Your vintage signs should add a lot of cole to the room as your collection of quality items grow. Even all white could work that might reflect light better if your vintage lights need some help with that.

Looking good and looks like a nice place to work.

That sounds like a good idea. I will paint the walls grey and then I will add a stripe in Photoshop and see how it looks.
I decided to remove a lot of stuff and put it in storage or sell it.
No more Coca Cola stuff and I will also remove the military stuff, except the ammo cases.
The Coca Cola stuff would fit great in a home garage, so maybe I will have one someday and display them there.
I want to have a cleaner and more organized look. It's all part of the minimalist state of mind I want to reach.

All white is very nice, but it only looks OK for a few months.

I vote for the blue color, I think it will better match the gray floor.

Thank you!

Not very much done today.
I have installed the glass globes on the lamps and also primed the walls for painting, so that's the next step.

I realized on the way home that I totally forgot each lamp also has a ceramic socket that I didn't install. That also acts like a reflector, so the lamps will be more efficient when I will install them.

 

[Bogdan M.]

Update:

I finished painting the walls. It's not exactly what I wanted. I would prefer that dark grey - it's freshly applied paint.
Tomorrow I have to start working on cars, so the renovation will be put on hold.
The plan is to bring the back of the shop at the same state as the rest and then work on all the touch ups - cutting the edges of the ceiling and walls,
painting next to the electrical plugs, apply a final coat on the walls etc.

There's a lot of work to be done.

 

[Bob Heine]

Bogdan, it looks great and I do like the grey.

It wasn't that long ago (5 years?) you were turning a mess into a working auto repair shop.

 

[Bogdan M.]

Thank you, Bob! I like it too. But, as I said, I would have prefered a darker grey on the walls. I hope I will be able to correct this.

It all started in 2011.

Today was a very special day.
I continued cleaning up the mess the renovation made. Dust everywhere and chaos.
I organized things a bit, donated the blue rack, but kept the pegboards. I will hang them on the back wall. I want a clean space, so this means sacrificing some things.
I had some light work on some cars, but I didn't have time to go and buy the wood for the pit. My parents helped me with that. I gave them the measurements and they took care of everything. I only had to pick up the wood.
The special part of this day was that the lift was delivered.
I let someone use my engine hoist, so I had to carry the lift by hand with the help of the driver and a friend. It was brutal. The good thing is that it's placed safely on the floor and we managed to put it there without scratching it.
Tuesday is the big day - that's when it will be installed.

I know that you are celebrating Easter in the US, so Happy Easter!

 

[Bogdan M.]

Update:

The lift was installed today.
The Easter is on Sunday, so no work until Tuesday.
Can't wait to use it.

 

[Bogdan M.]

2011-present

 

[LaneRover]

That looks great! I like your solution off extending the pit so that you can work on two at a time.