Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT Sunset Ridge Shop Build

[rzims]

Hello All,
I was torn on whether to put up my build prior to, so you could follow along, or afterwards, so I could post it in a more timely fashion....In the end, I decided you all should go along with me as I worked through the journey.
So, here goes....sorry if its a long-winded post, I'm trying to build the backstory

3 Years ago, my fiancee and I purchased a home on 6 acres in the Northern California foothills. Our goal was to update/renovate the house and eventually retire up there. We were both 57 at the time and decided 62 would be our goal. Both for finishing the renovation and building my dream shop.
The house was in pretty decent shape, but had an unfinished basement and was dated in the finishes. The property although on the side of a hill, had a flat area cleared just below the house that would be perfect for the shop.
In the past 3 years, we've been working on finishing the basement, adding a patio, clearing the land and various other projects that I'll bore you to death with while I work through the process of building my dream shop.

At this point, I've designed and purchased a metal building, secured a concrete guy for the pad and this week, will be submitting plans to the county to begin the permitting process....so climb in, buckle up and prepare for what I hope is the least exciting roller coaster ride you'll ever endure

The house when we bought it

The unfinished basement

 

[rzims]

When we bought the house, we liked the layout and the potential to turn the basement into a bar/pool room. The challenge was, how to access the space since the only way was to walk around the house on the outside and enter from the basement door.
I'm not a contractor, more of a generally handy person that has done some home renovation and has access to people that actually know stuff.
So, when trying to work up the nerve to cut a big-assed hole in my floor for a stairway, I decided I should probably reach out to someone who knows stuff. Thankfully, my fiancee's cousin, who is a general contractor, is one of those people that knows stuff.
We talked on the phone and he and his wife decided to come up and spend a 3 day weekend with us to help me get started.
First order of business was to decide where, then go downstairs and build a support wall. I really didn't like the idea that my upstairs could fall into my downstairs and wanted to do everything possible to avoid that.
I didn't get great pictures, in the beginning, but got better as the project moved along.
Here's a pic of the big-assed hole in my floor and you can see the support wall another view then came the stairs and finally the door and although, it doesn't yet look like a bar, there were a lot of beers consumed in the space during the weekend.

As for the New Shop - plans have been submitted to the county for permitting as of this morning....this is what it will look like when complete...

 

[rzims]

Today's update - well, I submitted my plans electronically yesterday and have yet to get my approval.... Shocked that the county takes longer than 20 hours to do a full plan review and approval

So, as I wait very (not) patiently, I thought I'd share the ongoing basement renovation updates. This is a project that is mostly complete so I can provide updates on a more regular basis....I know it's not technically garage related, but its where I have to keep the beer for now so it's almost like a garage

After cutting a big-assed hole in my floor and learning to building stringers and stairs I now needed a bathroom (the beer is down there so you can understand the need)
This actually turned out to be a pretty straight forward project as the sewer/drain lines were already in place just covered with duct tape under a skim coat of concrete.
Plumbing was also way easier than I expected since the pex lines for the upstairs bathroom was in the unfinished ceiling area.

The bathroom went pretty smoothly, now on to sheetrock...I hate sheetrock
One cool note about the bathroom. Our bay area house was built in the 20s and when we did a renovation I saved all the old redwood siding. The siding has now been used as a barn door and a wall on the bathroom as well as the stair risers

 

[Chrisb62]

Out of curiosity, how did you know the sewer/drain lines were under a skim coat of concrete?
Visually able to tell or something else?
Good luck on a short approval time.............

 

[rzims]

Out of curiosity, how did you know the sewer/drain lines were under a skim coat of concrete?
Visually able to tell or something else?
Good luck on a short approval time.............

I found an old set of the builders drawings that showed a sewer line heading towards the corner. The plumber at work said, "just tap around lightly with a hammer, sometimes they skim coat over a taped up pipe" and sure enough....

 

[Chrisb62]

Pictured you running around with a dowsing rod....or you were clairvoyant.

Or you knew the previous owner. Hanging around for more updates.

 

[rzims]

Ok, so beginning of day 3 and I've actually already heard back from the County. Evidently I didn't upload the site plan, although I know I scanned it so I just sent that in. (no way am I accepting responsibility for the mistake...this is America its my right to blame others)

In the meantime, I'll continue to bore you with the basement and the property....
A little history, we bought the property because we're at the top of a ridgeline. To the east, we can see the sierras and in the morning, we sit outside with our coffee and watch the sunrise. To the west, we sit on the front porch or out by the firepit with an adult beverage and watch the sunset. Hence the name Sunset Ridge.

The area is known for the local gold mining back in the 1840s and we actually have an old hydraulic mine at the bottom of our property. We call it "The Pit" since it's just a large open area surrounded by steep walls where they hosed away the soil in search of gold.
With the area having such a rich mining heritage, we've decided to name the new basement The Mineshaft. The goal being it would be dark and heavy and reminiscent of old time bars and saloons.

So, on with the story....once the bathroom was completed, we began the work of building out the room.
First step, after finishing drywall, installing lighting, sealing the concrete floor and painting everything, was a bar. I picked up a slab of redwood, sanded and clear coated it and viola! we have a bar and a really cool bar mirror that my kids got me. They developed a logo and had it put on the mirror which is very cool!
We also found a retro looking fridge which worked out really well.
on a completely different note, some of the neighbors stopped by the other morning...

 

[rzims]

Today's update, on the new barn I've now paid my fees and am awaiting approval of the plans. Once that's done, I can get them to the concrete contractor and get that scheduled. The metal building company is also waiting on the permit to begin fabrication. Hopefully it goes fairly quickly as the concrete guy's schedule is starting to fill up....

So, in the meantime, back to the Mineshaft... Now that we have a place to store our beer and another place to set them once they're opened, it's time to get some other stuff done. I've always wanted a really cool pool table. So we searched and we shopped and we finally found a place that had one that met our budget and would build it with the colors we wanted, deliver it and set it up.
I've also got a pretty large collection of beer tackers from various breweries we've visited. In our previous home, several of these were on my garage walls, the majority of them though were in a box waiting for the perfect place to hang them.
And since I was going to have a pool table and it was almost 8 feet away from the bar I had put in, I figured I probably needed an additional place to rest my beer in between shots....the wife had an idea from a pub in Ireland and requested a "drink rail" with a footrest.

Decorating and building out the bar has actually been a really fun project. Building the downstairs for me was rewarding, but it was also pretty stressful. Having never done anything this involved, and being a bit of a perfectionist, I tend to stress over the final outcome instead of enjoying the process. It's one of the things I'm working on and I'm really trying to enjoy the growth through the process instead of worrying so much about what people will think of the finished product.

One thing that did come up during this process was the fact that an unfair percentage of the bar's design was geared around beer and whiskey.....my wife prefers wine so she wanted some representation...after thinking about it a bit, I realized we had all the wasted space under the stairs which would make a great wine storage area....I ordered a metal gate on etsy, took some lumber and "aged it" and viola! we now have the "Wine Shaft" in the Mineshaft...happy wife, happy life!!

 

[MacTexas]

This looks like a good project to follow.

 

[borgdog]

Ha! Wine Shaft is sweet.

 

[Chrisb62]

Decorating and building out the bar has actually been a really fun project. Building the downstairs for me was rewarding, but it was also pretty stressful. Having never done anything this involved, and being a bit of a perfectionist, I tend to stress over the final outcome instead of enjoying the process. It's one of the things I'm working on and I'm really trying to enjoy the growth through the process instead of worrying so much about what people will think of the finished product.

I believe this forum was created for the purpose of sharing information about how to's, how not to's... for learning of different ways and ideas. Not to mention good old fashion ribbing and general tom foolery so nothing to PROVE to anybody. If a obvious safety hazard was seen, we as a group should point it out but it is still up to you to build anything, anyway, YOU want.

I like what you are doing.......

 

[Jayman17]

I like the Mineshaft room, looks like a fun place to hang out and shoot pool on that nice table you have.

Jay

 

[rzims]

I believe this forum was created for the purpose of sharing information about how to's, how not to's... for learning of different ways and ideas. Not to mention good old fashion ribbing and general tom foolery so nothing to PROVE to anybody. If a obvious safety hazard was seen, we as a group should point it out but it is still up to you to build anything, anyway, YOU want.

I like what you are doing......

Thanks! It's fun being here and I've learned a ton from following other builds. My brother in law and my wife's cousin are actual contractors, so when they come to visit its like a full on inspection

Stay tuned....more mediocre work by unqualified persons to follow....

 

[rzims]

This looks like a good project to follow.

Thank you for checking out my build....

 

[rzims]

Well, according to the county website, my permit is still "in review" so you'll have to settle for more updates on the Mineshaft....

You may have noticed it in other pictures, but one of my favorite things in this room is the re-use of our old redwood siding. Bringing a little of the old house with us to the new house if you will..
In addition to using it on the risers of the stairs, I built a barn door for the bathroom and used it as siding on the wall with the dartboard. Speaking of the dartboard, we enlisted all of our friends in this project. It was a huge sacrifice for them I'm sure, but they all did their part in emptying wine bottles and saving the corks for us. I had seen this idea at a craft fair and figured I could probably force myself to drink more wine for the cause. I also used more of the redwood for the frame.


The other issue we needed to deal with was heating the basement. We're on propane up here and although I am going to add some duct work so we have hvac, I really wanted a wood-burning stove. After all, I have several acres of pine, oak and cedar so I have a ready made supply of firewood.
In keeping with the "old bar" them, I didn't just want a stove sitting on concrete in front of a sheetrock wall, so we found some veneer brick and did our best to make it look like it had been there since the old days.
Still a lot to do as the wife wants french doors leading outside, more electrical work, duct work, and eventually a tongue and groove wood ceiling over the sheetrock there now...but it's definitely coming along.

 

[rzims]

According to the county website, my project is still "in review" which isn't surprising since it's only been 10 days from the date I first uploaded the application.

At this point we're starting to wrap up the Mineshaft. Still have a few larger projects that will probably wait until after July when we're up there full time.
Originally, we thought we'd work until 65 then move up, but after going through the pandemic and a few family challenges with both of our extended families, we've moved it forward to this year. We're both 60 and have enough in our retirement accounts to pull the trigger now, so we're going to go ahead and do that. Neither one of us can imagine not doing something so our goal is to get involved in some of the local community projects up there. There are a couple pretty active groups helping both the seniors as well as the veterans in the area and we're looking in to those....we'll see what develops.

In the meantime, here's the update on the Mineshaft...
Inside, I've finally gotten all the electrical run so now the lights over the pool table work and the television has power and is mounted.

On the outside of the Mineshaft, the "boss" wanted a patio. I voted for gravel since all I would have to do is have the truck dump it and I could spread it with the tractor.....um, nope.
She had a vision for flagstone which meant the truck would dump and I would spread baserock, then I would compact it with the plate compactor, then I would get to dump and spread sand and then I would get to hand lay flagstone, then I would get to wheelbarrow, spread and compact decomposed granite to fill.......easy enough right? ugh....moving, setting and tamping flagstone is the opposite of easy...and not fun either...
We spent a 3 day weekend knocking it out though and I'm pretty sure my grandson has decided college is a much better idea than a career as a laborer



All in all it came out nicely and "management" is thrilled which is always good for the "workers"...

 

[rzims]

Well, still waiting on plan approval, but had to finish cleaning up the pad area for the concrete guy.
Had a bunch of branches and debris still to move down to the pit and since I don't have a grabber bucket, I used a debris bag. A little more labor, but worked like a charm.

Once I had everything moved and cleaned up, I spent some time using the box to grade and level the pad area. Only problem is, some dummy left the laser at work so it's only eye-ball level which I think will be fine. The forms will be set level so there are some areas that may need a little extra baserock but it looks pretty good by my eye...sorry, not the best pictures...

 

[rzims]

It's Friday and it looks like my permit is approved. After I go pay the fire protection district their fees. So, by end of day, I should have a permit in hand. Tomorrow I'm meeting with the concrete contractor to finalize pricing and schedules.
After paying the County for the permit and inspection fees, the fire district, deposit on the building and engineering for plans I'm finally ready to actually see something happen other than pretty pictures....

Hopefully things go well from here, will bring you all along with me on the journey....

 

[ZRX61]

We have a Sunset Ridge apartment complex here. It features a few times a week in crime reports etc. Everyone refers to it as Suspect Ridge.

 

[readhead]

Looks like you are doing a tube steel building. Did the building company ask that the slab be poured larger than the building?
If so you will be chasing leaks forever. Let them know that the concrete will be the same size as the building and to provide sheeting and trim for that condition.
Are they installing closures at the corners, eaves and ridge?
Don’t assume that it’s included.
You have a great looking place and the new building will only make it better.

 

[rzims]

Looks like you are doing a tube steel building. Did the building company ask that the slab be poured larger than the building?
If so you will be chasing leaks forever. Let them know that the concrete will be the same size as the building and to provide sheeting and trim for that condition.
Are they installing closures at the corners, eaves and ridge?
Don’t assume that it’s included.
You have a great looking place and the new building will only make it better.

yes, its a tube steel building. The plans they sent and the discussion I've had with the concrete guy is that the slab will be the same size as the building. Evidently, the siding/trim actually hang down over the edge of the slab slightly to provide run off.
Yes, closures at corners and eaves and color matched screws.....I had no idea I had to specify those things. Thankfully, the sales guy was really helpful...

 

[rzims]

It's been a few weeks, but we're moving forward again. Concrete guy has been slammed so wasn't able to start right away but he's there now.
The challenge is, I'm back in the bay area for work for another week so we're doing all this remotely. I met him onsite on Monday and we did the layout, but not being there every day is driving me crazy. (yes, I freely admit I have major control issues)
Spoke with him this morning. They've finished digging the deepened footings and by end of day will have all the forms in place. Monday they'll install vapor barrier and rebar then call for an inspection.
The wife will be up there tomorrow, and she'll report on the "hole in the ground that is causing a hole in our savings" as she refers to it
Once the pad is poured the metal building company is 3 weeks out which should also allow the concrete to cure.
More to come...

 

[rzims]

Well it's getting exciting now.....forms are in, inspection was done this morning and now we're pouring concrete. Metal building company will begin fabrication tomorrow and should take 2-3 weeks which will allow the concrete to cure.
On different note, I got to spend some time last weekend with my kids and grandson.

 

[rzims]

Progress has been slow, but life has been busy. This will be my last week of full time employment as we move to the hills full time. I'm lining up some part time work for once we move up, but with the bay area house sold and everything paid off, our income needs should drop pretty significantly.

Concrete slab is in and done, fabrication on the metal building has started. They wouldn't start the fabrication until the slab was in and approved. Not sure why or if this is just a delay to cover their backlog, but as of this morning, we are in-process on the building itself...

We spent the weekend moving stuff up to the hills and making runs to habitat for humanity to donate other furniture. Still cleaning out the garage in the bay area. I've always had a challenge with getting rid of stuff I might someday need, so there's a lot of random miscellaneous stuff in bins and boxes. Trying to purge before moving. No sense moving stuff that really should be thrown away..

Here's the slab....32x30 seemed a lot bigger on paper

 

[rzims]

Hello all,
Well, it's been a long time since I've posted. I tell people I'm not retired....just tired...
Moving up here full time has been an amazing experience, but with the list of projects, I've been really busy.
Both the front and back decks were the original Trex and had failed pretty dramatically. They were basically disintegrating, and every time we swept the deck we would end up with a pile of dust/sand from the deck. That project took me off the barn project for a couple of weeks.

The barn shell is complete and I've started the wiring on the inside. I still have to have my electrician buddy come over and pull power from the house to the barn, but I figured I could do all the inside wiring to the panel ahead of time and since the weather has turned wet and cold, this will be a good indoor project.
I bought some high bay lights for the barn and have started with the layout and installation of those.

In addition, the Head Designer/Minister of Finance/Chief Operating Officer has decided she would like some sort of "architectural detail" over the window and door.
Today I took some old rough sawn redwood and began building those. I actually bought an extra sheet of the metal siding so that will go on the top of the wood frame.

Well, that's the latest update so far....will be posting more as the electrical starts to come together. Once I have the romex all in for the wiring, the plan is to do rigid foam insulation and plywood on the walls.
I also need to get a trench and pipe in the ground for the electrical line from the house....then I can start bringing in rock to bring things up to grade and solve my puddling/mud issues. Honestly, that will probably wait till Spring...

 

[rzims]

Once again it's been a while between posts, life continues to be busier than planned.
I've almost finished interior wiring and am looking for interior wall ideas.
I'm thinking of rigid foam insulation and 19/32 plywood. Would probably only go up 8' for entire interior.
Sq tubing is about 30" o.c. so I'll have to use horizontal furring straps to attach plywood...1x4 for horizontals??
Any other ideas for walls other than plywood? Goal is to attach wall signs, beer signs, etc

 

[rmack898]

Any other ideas for walls other than plywood? Goal is to attach wall signs, beer signs, etc

Nice shop.

I went back to your first post and I didn't see an intended purpose for the shop. The intended use might dictate wall materials (metal working vs. wood working).

I used pre-painted metal liner panels. They can present difficulties when hanging heavy things on the walls but they were economical compared to anything other than drywall.

I'll be following along.

 

[rzims]

Nice shop.

I went back to your first post and I didn't see an intended purpose for the shop. The intended use might dictate wall materials (metal working vs. wood working).

I used pre-painted metal liner panels. They can present difficulties when hanging heavy things on the walls but they were economical compared to anything other than drywall.

I'll be following along.

Good point, I guess that definitely would help.
I do want to learn to weld, but that will be a small portion of the use of the building.
Mainly woodworking, vehicle/equipment maintenance and repair, puttering, beer drinking...general fiddle farting around....

 

[rzims]

I still don't have power to the building, but today I installed some high bay lights in the main bay.
I wired it using MC cable over to the light switch. I'll run cable from the switch to where the panel is going to be, but for now I made a romex pigtail with a plug.
That way I can run an extension cord from the back patio on the house to the shop and at least have lights out there so I can continue to work into the afternoon.
I hate that it's dark by 4:45 every day now.

 

[rzims]

I've started putting up the OSB on the inside walls. My metal ribs are 36" o.c. and not 48" which required that I do furring strips horizontally.
I did 3 rows, bottom, middle, top and have been screwing the OSB to them. The only pain is that every hole needs to be pre-drilled.
I also forgot that I'm not in my 30s anymore so dealing with full sheets of 23/32 t/g OSB is a turning in to a pretty good workout

 

[rzims]

Made some progress over the last couple of weeks. One wall has sheeting and paint. Got my workbench, cabinets and tool box in place.
Still have boxes of stuff to put away and lots of organizing to do.
Did get the lights for this part of the building done and received a load of tongue and groove pine that is milled here by a local guy that will be for the ceiling in the basement.

 

[rzims]

Haven't done too much in the shop lately. Still working on organizing and finishing the interior.
It's been a crazy winter here in the foothills. One of the reasons we bought in the foothills and not up in Tahoe was because we didn't want to deal with snow on a regular basis....3 feet of snow and no power for 9 days.....ugh.

 

[mdim]

Winter has been pretty nuts. I'm down in Mariposa County and still waiting to get the siding on my building. Darn weather has not been cooperating. Good to finally see my pond full after a few years but definitely not ideal for construction work. Cool project, congrats on making it happen!

 

[rzims]

Winter has been pretty nuts. I'm down in Mariposa County and still waiting to get the siding on my building. Darn weather has not been cooperating. Good to finally see my pond full after a few years but definitely not ideal for construction work. Cool project, congrats on making it happen!

yeah, I'm definitely ready for Spring. We're about a half mile down a gravel road and we were house bound for a few days. My neighbors and I all had our little tractors out trying to clear a way out to the paved (and sometimes plowed) road. Took us a couple of days. I also learned not to park the tractor next to the barn because when you get that much snow and it keeps sliding off the barn, it will bury your tractor...

 

[rzims]

When we designed the shop, I knew I wanted as much overall "shop" space as possible, but also knew we wanted an area for bike storage and a small workout room.
The shop is 32x30, with the main large bay and the east side open, but I had them wall off the west side and put in a man door so that could be a separate space that wouldn't be exposed to the dust and dirt of the main work area.

This side, which is 8x 30, would primarily be for bike, kayak, ski storage, but with room for the spin bike and some exercise equipment.
You can't really tell from the pictures, but I spent the day putting up leftover foil/foam insulation stuff and wiring in some outlets. Today the goal will be to get some beadboard up on the wall. After that it will get caulk and paint and then I can finish organizing things.
The original plan was to get foam board insulation, but the budget couldn't really support that and the guys left me with several partial rolls of the insulation so I used those instead.

 

[rzims]

My wife's cousin and her husband came up for the weekend, (He's the one that was a carpenter and helped with stairway for downstairs) so we spent a few hours yesterday hanging bead board. Have a couple more sheets to go and then caulk and paint.

 

[rzims]

Progress continues on the storage side of the shop. Also started the T/G pine that will be on

the wall where my desk sits.

 

[Xti04]

Walls look awesome! Im trying to decide how to do my walls but my metal studs are 5ft OC. Makes for a stretch unless I buy 5x8 sheets which while available are more expensive. Did you add any extra insulation behind the plywood?

 

[rzims]

Walls look awesome! Im trying to decide how to do my walls but my metal studs are 5ft OC. Makes for a stretch unless I buy 5x8 sheets which while available are more expensive. Did you add any extra insulation behind the plywood?

I added the leftover bubble stuff from the ceiling, but nothing else. My metal studs are 3' on center which works for this plywood. You could always run horizontal lumber at top middle bottom to attach the plywood. The challenge I had was that with 3' oc I had to "waste" 1' from every sheet. (of course we know it will sit in the shop until I find a use for it)

 

[rzims]

A few updates inside and outside of the garage. The bike storage/workout side of the building got some paint, put up t/g in the desk area along with a desk and chair I found on marketplace.
In back of the barn, where I store and split firewood, I began building a baserock pad to help keep the mud down in the winter. This was 8 tons of rock. Still need about 10 more tons.