Above 1200 Sq/FT Jeff's Mountain Side Shop (Portland)

[sponaugle]

Update 85 [ May 2020 ]

I am able to start testing some of the fiber drops. I have single mode fibers from the server room to the network closets ( 2 pairs each, plus a 12 pair bundle each way), plus some multimode fibers. I also ran some fiber to my office desk area so my primary PC and my iMac can be directly on 10gig. The 6 monitor wall area has dedicated fiber as well.

I hooked up some optics real quick and had no issue running 10Gig between the switches and the core, so it looks good.

As far as termination - I ran both pre-terminated fiber as well as bare fiber, so on network boot up it will be easy to use the pre-terminated stuff, and as I get things setup I will terminate some of the bigger bundles. I have a fusion splicer for doing the terms, although at these distances I could use a mechanical splice without any problems. I have lots of db to play with. The fiber on the driveway will require termination as it is a 12 pair armored bundle.

The sink in the laundry room is installed now with the countertop. We were able to use the same material we used for the master bath surround, since the bathtub leaves a large leftover piece.

Door hardware has arrived.

The weather has been very cooperative, and the dry weather is really helpful for getting the deck coating installed. There are two layers installed now, and two more to go. The glass is also on order and should be here soon. 1/2 inch thick laminated glass.

First Keystone installed…. only 499 left to go! Actually I don’t think I will need to terminate that many of them yet.

 

[marantzer]

Great build! I’m the farthest thing from a networking expert, so apologize if it’s a dumb question, but it appears you’re Ubiquiti setup includes a UDM-Pro and a stand alone security gateway. Are those redundant? If not I may need to modify my setup

 

[sponaugle]

Great build! I’m the farthest thing from a networking expert, so apologize if it’s a dumb question, but it appears you’re Ubiquiti setup includes a UDM-Pro and a stand alone security gateway. Are those redundant? If not I may need to modify my setup

Yea, I have the UDM Pro, and the security gateway is just a backup since the UDM Pro is pretty new and the firmware has been a bit buggy. The UDM Pro can do everything for the internet side routing and firewall as well as be the manager for all of the other Ubiquity gear.

 

[sponaugle]

Update 86 [ May 2020 ]

The gravel is compacted around the gate post area, and we are ready for the long driveway pour. This is the last of three asphalt installation. It is the biggest in terms of volume, but the easiest since it is a long driveway.

It looks fantastic.. I really like the way the driveway curves amongst the trees.

The gate tie in and road tie in was successful. It is a smooth transition and looks a lot better than it did last week!

 

[iced98lx]

Great looking network stack. I love UniFi's switches and wireless gear but they haven't been able to peel my pfsense box out of my network yet. I though the Dream Machine pro would but then they launched the stand alone NVR for Protect and I'd certainly go that way if I eventually go protect. That is a very impressive home network setup!

 

[sponaugle]

Great looking network stack. I love UniFi's switches and wireless gear but they haven't been able to peel my pfsense box out of my network yet. I though the Dream Machine pro would but then they launched the stand alone NVR for Protect and I'd certainly go that way if I eventually go protect. That is a very impressive home network setup!

The Dream Machine has been an interesting device so far. I use it just for internet firewall. I use a Juniper EX4500 chassis for the core 10g L3 routing.

The UDM Pro does L3, and it is reasonably quick, but not nearly enough SFP+ ports.

Jeff

 

[sponaugle]

Update 87 [ May 2020 ]

Carpet has arrive and is getting installed upstairs. This is a good sign that we are getting close!

The server room is also getting better. I have RGB now.

With the paving done we also scheduled the gate to be installed. It is a custom gate made to fit the location.

The glass sheets for the deck railing also arrived and are getting installed. Those 1/2 thick sheets are surprisingly heavy.

Light fixture over the dining room table installed. Kind of a cool linear fixture.

The kitchen is looking almost done. One of the dishwashers needs a cabinet face and trim, but it is certainly looking closer to move in.

The master bath is almost complete too.. mirrors installed.

The Master bedroom is carpeted and just needs some cabinet door fabrics.

And the great room and fireplace are done. We still need the floor plugs.

The gate install is complete, except for the gooseneck for the access pad. We are going to pour a concrete pad for that.

 

[Ronin22]

Thanx for all these updates! They are making my afternoons at work far more bearable!

Everything is absolutely gorgeous, but that driveway... man! I'd be going up and down that driveway all the time lol! You can do your own homekhana lol!

See? The universe is wise. I said I wanted this house the other day. If this was my house, I'd already be wrapped around a tree in that driveway

 

[sponaugle]

Thanx for all these updates! They are making my afternoons at work far more bearable!

Everything is absolutely gorgeous, but that driveway... man! I'd be going up and down that driveway all the time lol! You can do your own homekhana lol!

See? The universe is wise. I said I wanted this house the other day. If this was my house, I'd already be wrapped around a tree in that driveway

I was successful in doing a 0-60 test in my Tesla in the driveway. 3.0 seconds. Not bad!

 

[sponaugle]

Update 88 [ May 2020 ]

A critical day for the shop - The lifts are being installed. Given this is the garagejournal, the most important part is the shop!

I currently have a Challenger CL10V3, which is a well built US made lift with 10,000 lb capacity. I looked at a bunch of different options but decided to go with 2x of the same model and brand. I like the operation and design, and the quality is a good match for my needs.

 

[wannabelikemike]

Awesome!

 

[Ralf11]

6 wall mounted monitors... ?? do you run a hedge fund?

re: fire - I'm surprised you're in a city limits, but try to get the fire dept. out to do a defensible space check. I'm about 4 hrs. south of you and they will do an entire checkover here (tho I'm well inside the city limits). One biggie is that the driveway has to have room for their truck to get there (quickly) - several "forest-hideaway" homes have burned b/c of this, and not just this year either.

My bet is they will tell you to get rid of any conifers within 200 ft. of the house. Not sure re the aspens? or alders? Deciduous trees should be less likely to burn.

You are smart to take photos of the kid and house together - they will both get older, so capturing this moment is important.

 

[sponaugle]

6 wall mounted monitors... ?? do you run a hedge fund?

re: fire - I'm surprised you're in a city limits, but try to get the fire dept. out to do a defensible space check. I'm about 4 hrs. south of you and they will do an entire checkover here (tho I'm well inside the city limits). One biggie is that the driveway has to have room for their truck to get there (quickly) - several "forest-hideaway" homes have burned b/c of this, and not just this year either.

My bet is they will tell you to get rid of any conifers within 200 ft. of the house. Not sure re the aspens? or alders? Deciduous trees should be less likely to burn.

You are smart to take photos of the kid and house together - they will both get older, so capturing this moment is important.

When I did permitting the fire department came out and had a pretty big list of things I had to do.. The driveway had to have two pullouts for fire trucks to pass, I had to do a full sprinkler system in the house, and I had to use non combustable material for outside surfaces. (Thus the hardiplank and asphalt roof).

I'm also fortunate the fire trucks are about 5500 ft down the road.

The tree removal for fire protection is an interesting question.. I had to plant over 200 trees just because I removed 7 of them, so it would be battle for sure. Portland's tree code is written by very incompetent people.

Jeff

 

[sponaugle]

Update 89 [ May 2020 ]

The Fire riser parts for the sprinkler system came in and are ready to be installed.

Some drone shots of how things look now

 

[Ralf11]

I had no idea you were in the PDX city limits - I thought you were on the east side somewhere on the lower slopes of Mt. Hood.

I dunno about the Portland tree codes, but I'd do what the firefighters say (after your last city inspection...)

 

[sponaugle]

I had no idea you were in the PDX city limits - I thought you were on the east side somewhere on the lower slopes of Mt. Hood.

I dunno about the Portland tree codes, but I'd do what the firefighters say (after your last city inspection...)

Yea, I'm in the west hills in Forest Park... so the fire risk is really if Forest Park goes up in flames. Agree on the trees! Besides, tree have accidents sometimes.

 

[Ralf11]

I figured it out after I saw the Columbia in the backgnd of one of your pics.

I lived in portland for a few months and rented an apt. at the east end of it - I used to hear Bob Packwood driving his old diesel Benz paston the way to his house late at night.

For people unfamiliar with PDX, Forest Park is one of the largest urban forests in the US. It was originally undeveloped due to the slippery, unbuildable soils.

 

[sponaugle]

I figured it out after I saw the Columbia in the backgnd of one of your pics.

I lived in portland for a few months and rented an apt. at the east end of it - I used to hear Bob Packwood driving his old diesel Benz paston the way to his house late at night.

For people unfamiliar with PDX, Forest Park is one of the largest urban forests in the US. It was originally undeveloped due to the slippery, unbuildable soils.

Cool. Yea I felt pretty lucky to find such a large lot inside the city and forest park. You can see my lot lines in purple on this map.

 

[thammel]

This build is incredible! You are so blessed! Now, I am going to divulge my total ignorance...why in the world do you need a server room and so much fiber, etc.? Are you running a business from home? If not, can you summarize what this enables and what sort of things you control? I mean I have a total of 2 switches - a 16 port and a 4 port. These feed internet to streaming TVs and to various locations for direct wired internet connections. I don't even have a smart thermostat!! But then I am a 70 year old retired engineer. It all looks super cool, though!! Your location is ideal and the garage space is awesome!

 

[sponaugle]

Update 90 [ June 2020 ]

Audrey’s Bathroom is looking good. The wall opposite of the tile wall is a light pink, but it is hard to tell even if you are in the room.

We did some more hydroseeding of the exposed area to reduce the risk of dirt washing away.

The Master Bath Glass was installed. Looks great!

The vault now has a door and the cedar walls and trim are all tidy. The only thing left to do is the flooring.

Carpet in the Guest Suite is done, which is the last of the carpets.

 

[sponaugle]

This build is incredible! You are so blessed! Now, I am going to divulge my total ignorance...why in the world do you need a server room and so much fiber, etc.? Are you running a business from home? If not, can you summarize what this enables and what sort of things you control? I mean I have a total of 2 switches - a 16 port and a 4 port. These feed internet to streaming TVs and to various locations for direct wired internet connections. I don't even have a smart thermostat!! But then I am a 70 year old retired engineer. It all looks super cool, though!! Your location is ideal and the garage space is awesome!

That is a question my wife used to ask, but now just accepts. . The reasons are a mix of things. I'm an electrical engineer, software engineer, and network engineer, and my career has been successful in part because I take my expertise as a requirement.. and that means lots and lots of experiments, failures, mistakes, and some occasional success. I have a Hadoop cluster, a cassandra cluster, some Kafka nodes, Kubernetes, video and audio storage, a set of systems trying for the world record calculation of Pi, and lots of spare capacity.

With that in mind, my thought process was - first I wanted enough room to grow as different computation technology comes along. second I am doing a ton of home automation including some cool AI stuff that uses video and radio feeds from sensors all over the house, and that stuff needs computation resources. third it is cool. fourth it had some good engineering challenges, and if that isn't reason enough, I don't know what is!

The reason for the excess of fiber and wire is simple. Fiber and wire are cheap cheap cheap to install now, and expensive to install later. With the advent of faster and faster wifi on things like 60ghz, you will start to see wifi APs in every room.. and if those APs can do 2gb/s, they need a 2gb/s backhaul.

 

[sponaugle]

Update 91 [ June 2020 ]

Time to start moving stuff in!

First time putting the GTR in the new shop!

Both GTRs look good!

My little Kei truck is perfect for taking the trash cans down to the road.

The last deck coating layer is getting close to install.

I brought over the first three cars for the lower garage! It fits three wide, which is awesome, so I can do 6 cars. In my original plan I wanted to stack cars here, but we hit the total allowed building height limit so we couldn’t make this any taller.

And then we had 5. I’ll probably keep it at 5, plus 4 in the upper garage, plus 4 in the lower shop. So a 13 car house it is. I can live with that!

And now the 08 STI has a home. It needs an engine, as that has been sitting there waiting to get completed.. so I better get this house stuff done.

I had some custom number plates made for the gate. The color and style ended up matching really well.

And I got at least a few computers moved over to my office.

 

[mercracing]

Looks amazing Jeff!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Boosted1]

I'm loving the garage updates.
Nice variety of cars you have there.
I'm guessing once you buy a car, you keep it?
Oh yeah house, yard and drive all look great too.

 

[Ronin22]

Wow! Didn't expect that many cars!
Care to give some background and more pics of each of them?

 

[SamYoung]

Wow! Didn't expect that many cars!
Care to give some background and more pics of each of them?

x2

I've only really heard details on the R35 and the shinny billet Subie motor awaiting its home, but I'm guessing none of these are stock.

 

[SamYoung]

Are the linear light fixture over the dining room table and the spherical one in the great room from the same collection? Do you have any details on manufacturer/model for either of them? Really like the look of both. Never thought of using LED ribbons (I'm assuming) in a fixture like that. They always seem to get used for edge and back lighting.

 

[iced98lx]

I enjoy your tastes in cars Jeff, great little collection you've got going!

The Integra + Bugeyed WRX's, some sort of forced induction on the GTO and a Kei truck because "It looked fun" I suspect! The GTR's are beautiful as well.

I wish more new home builders would consider your statement on wiring. I just talked to a tract builder who has started "up charging" for any sort of networking because "everything is just wireless anyway". Sad for his customers.

 

[jeepxj]

where is the HPWC for the tesla?

 

[sponaugle]

Update 92 [ June 2020 ]

It is time to start installing the floor tiles in the shop.

For the house audio I decided to use a system from HTD (Home Theater Direct), as they have a 12 zone system that supports device integration (Alexa, etc), programmatic control from home automation (Homeseer in my case), and a door and gate solution that can allow remote answering.

The server room is getting farther along now too. I have some of the disk arrays racked, some of the servers installed, and the 10G switching fabric for storage setup.

The gas line was connected to the fire pit and it didn’t explode, so that is good.

I moved the HTD gear into the rack and put the speaker wire termination panels in.

 

[sponaugle]

Looks amazing Jeff!

Thanks!

I'm loving the garage updates.
Nice variety of cars you have there.
I'm guessing once you buy a car, you keep it?
Oh yeah house, yard and drive all look great too.

Yea, that has generally been my philosophy, at least in the more recent years. It is especially true once you start modifying them as you don't get much value when you sell them... and I like em!

Wow! Didn't expect that many cars!
Care to give some background and more pics of each of them?

Yep, I'll do a separate car post here in just a bit. I have just a few more updates to assemble to get us caught up.

As far as what cars I have, here is a quick list:

2006 GTO (Twin Turbo)
2002 WRX (Flat-6 Turbo)
2002 WRX (Flat-4 Turbo)
2008 STI (Flat-4 Turbo)
1995 Integra GSR (100% stock)
2014 Nissan GTR R35 (1130wph)
1991 Nissan R32 Skyline
1993 Suzuki Carry (Kei)
2013 BMW 550x
2005 Mercedes SL-500
2021 Suburban Z71
2021 BMW X5 x45E
???? Factory Five 818
2020 Tesla Model 3 Performance

x2

I've only really heard details on the R35 and the shinny billet Subie motor awaiting its home, but I'm guessing none of these are stock.

What is this stock you speak of?

Are the linear light fixture over the dining room table and the spherical one in the great room from the same collection? Do you have any details on manufacturer/model for either of them? Really like the look of both. Never thought of using LED ribbons (I'm assuming) in a fixture like that. They always seem to get used for edge and back lighting.

I was just looking to see where Kristin got them from. I believe they are both Feiss. Here is a link to the globe one. I'll track down the linear one.

https://www.lowelightingcenter.com/...HQkOxw6UuN2vM3hjWVyEnPF4SUo4#itemDetailFinish

I enjoy your tastes in cars Jeff, great little collection you've got going!

The Integra + Bugeyed WRX's, some sort of forced induction on the GTO and a Kei truck because "It looked fun" I suspect! The GTR's are beautiful as well.

I wish more new home builders would consider your statement on wiring. I just talked to a tract builder who has started "up charging" for any sort of networking because "everything is just wireless anyway". Sad for his customers.

Indeed, especially since wireless only works because the APs are wired! At a minimum they should run a cat6 into a ceiling location in each room so you could have a ceiling mount AP.

where is the HPWC for the tesla?

Coming soon!

 

[sponaugle]

Update 93 [ June 2020 ]

Down in the shop I brought over the cabinets from my old shop which fit well and still look reasonably good.

I packed up most of my old shop in these yellow lid bins, and those have started the trip over. They people at home depot gave me a weird look when I said I wanted 100 of those bins.

We also brought over our old deck furniture, which fit in better than I thought it would! This is such a great space to hang out, especially with the trees all around. It feels very private and relaxing.

With the great room furniture setup the room looks great.

My office is passable now. I still have a couple of machines I need to move downstairs but the setup is good enough for me to get work done.

Yea, that is a lot of screens.

More boxes from the other shop! About 20 more to go.

The storage room has the floor finished now. Many of the yellow lid bins will end up in here.

The reloading bench has made the trip. It still needs to get setup, but it fits.

 

[Ronin22]

Dear God!

 

[Fast914]

Jeff, I have been following along for ages and am so glad you are back. What an amazing house and I cannot wait to see the 818!

We renovated in 2014 and the Electrical Contractor could not understand why I wanted so much Cat 6 wire in a Century old home...but what better time when the walls are apart.

It goes without saying that your whole home and property are gorgeous and way beyond any capacity I will ever have but what I like most are the ideas you have created for both my wife and I. Truly, thank you for such great detail at every step of the way. Best Regards, Grant

 

[jeepxj]

I'm kinda surprised the RGB in the racks isn't addressable and controlled by jarvis.

 

[sponaugle]

I'm kinda surprised the RGB in the racks isn't addressable and controlled by jarvis.

Good minds think alike.. I was working on having the RGB lights indicate network traffic... You are going to like the driveway lights!

 

[sponaugle]

Update 94 [ June 2020 ]

Perhaps the most important room in the house, the shop is now usable. The floor is mostly done, the tools are in, the lifts are in, and it is ready for some work.

I decided to use Gallowtech panels for the vault. They are a really good system that can hold lots of cool stuff. You should check them out.

We had this indoor play structure in the old house but it was in a different configuration. I did some work with the parts we had and came up with this new configuration and Audrey loves it. It is a great thing to have on those rainy days.

I spent a little time getting things setup on the reloading bench. I have a cabinet on the other wall for storing powder, bullets, primers, and brass, but this will work for my needs.

I put the big ‘K’ above the vault door. That K was from the first building sign for the company I cofounded back in 2001.

 

[quadrcr87]

Awesome work on the design. Its really interesting seeing everything get put into place as you move in. I checked out that Gallowtech site and they have seemingly endless options for gun room organizing!

 

[zmotorsports]

WOW!!

This entire build is on a completely different level.

 

[Ralf11]

To cap it off, you need a bird feeder and a Porsche...