Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT The Delta Garage - 24x40 in North Carolina

[gearhead1960]

Ryan,

Great build. I have watched with interest as in the next 5-6 years my wife and I intend to relocated into the
Raleigh area, assuming my son and DIL are still in the area (Cary). I intend to have a very similar set-up you have built. I guess time will tell what I can afford when the time comes. Coming from NOVA, I will likely be paying cash for the majority of what we find, as I got into the Real Estate market many years ago, before it got crazy expensive. Likely will bring with me north of 1/2M in equity when we make the move.

Maybe it was addressed somewhere in your thread, but not to be redundant, want to ask why you did not run concrete from the driveway around the side to the external entrance to the upper level? Seems to me, that would have made it much easier and safer for an older person to access that door. Perhaps you have plans to address that, but don't recall reading about that.....

Hope the baby is doing well and expect this is taking all your time these days.....

 

[Gerald O]

I'd wager Ryan's planning some kind of walkway there, but not ready for it yet.
Quite a few years before age is a concern I imagine, though staying outta the mud is something everyone can appreciate.

I'm an old geezer neighbor but haven't stopped by to check it out yet. Waiting to have a cool car ready to show up in...

 

[rmckee]

Ryan,

Great build. I have watched with interest as in the next 5-6 years my wife and I intend to relocated into the
Raleigh area, assuming my son and DIL are still in the area (Cary). I intend to have a very similar set-up you have built. I guess time will tell what I can afford when the time comes. Coming from NOVA, I will likely be paying cash for the majority of what we find, as I got into the Real Estate market many years ago, before it got crazy expensive. Likely will bring with me north of 1/2M in equity when we make the move.

Maybe it was addressed somewhere in your thread, but not to be redundant, want to ask why you did not run concrete from the driveway around the side to the external entrance to the upper level? Seems to me, that would have made it much easier and safer for an older person to access that door. Perhaps you have plans to address that, but don't recall reading about that.....

Hope the baby is doing well and expect this is taking all your time these days.....

Thanks, @gearhead1960! Making it in just under a year to reply here... Preemptive welcome to the Raleigh area, if you and your wife do migrate down here.

I didn't really discuss it earlier, but the reason for not extending the concrete from the driveway to the side entry door is that we don't entirely know what the hardscaping of our backyard will be in the long run. There's been debate of a pool, some kind of pergola, some large format 3x3' concrete slabs with grass between them for a terrace kind of thing, etc. My wife will guide that, but we didn't want anything too permanent at this point, especially where I'm really the only person going out to the garage and that entry isn't heavily used yet.

You were exactly right, kiddo and work were a driving occupants of my time since I last posted 15 months ago.....!

I'd wager Ryan's planning some kind of walkway there, but not ready for it yet.
Quite a few years before age is a concern I imagine, though staying outta the mud is something everyone can appreciate.

I'm an old geezer neighbor but haven't stopped by to check it out yet. Waiting to have a cool car ready to show up in...

I always wave when I drive by, @Gerald O! With the endless construction on Capital and in WF proper, I spend most of my mind-clearing drives heading up your way and towards Creedmoor and points north. You're always welcome!

 

[rmckee]

Progress Updates (or lack thereof)

Okay y'all... it's been over a year since I've posted anything on here.

That's a result of having the most amazing little lady to chase around the house, a crazy work schedule followed by losing my job unexpectedly in May and spending my summer looking for a new one. It's a tough job market for anyone in biotech or marketing! I'm incredibly grateful to still own a business that my wife now leads where I was able to call some old clients and get back on the road full time. This fall included 40,000 miles of flying around the country, quality time with the family on the weekends, and leaving again. It's a life I'm super familiar with after 15+ years of traveling non-stop, but something I thought I had escaped from a bit when we moved to NC. But we do what we gotta do!

Alas, progress on the garage has been a bit spaced out and slow moving. I'm able to work on things at night with a glass or two of bourbon and some music, but my photo taking has absolutely been lacking so I'll be working on that haha. The lack of surplus funds while job hunting has made advancements more limited to little tinker things I can chip away at.

But we have some catching up to do, so here we go! I apologize in advance, but some photos will be iPhone instead of dSLR just due to what was around at the time!

 

[rmckee]

Sienna's First Car Wash

Super cool moment for me as a dad. Sienna has an electric Porsche and zips around the driveway in it (usually chasing the dog), and is enamored with the revving engine sound effects it has.

My wife captured what’s probably one of my favorite photos to-date with Little Miss, the two of us just washing the car together. This little girl loves our time in the garage, loves standing on drivers seats with her hands on the wheel pretending to drive, loves car shows, and turns her attention towards loud engines, grinning ear to ear as they go by.

Over the summer I had the chance to let her help wash a car with me for the first time. It was one of those moments that I witnessed almost in the third person, soaking in the experience.

Maybe this will be something she becomes passionate about (I hope!), and maybe it’s just a one-off occurrence that she found the wheel brush and foam cannon to be the most enamoring objects she’ll ever lay eyes on. Either way, I’ll have this photo as a bit of a time capsule into this amazing time in this incredible little girl’s life.

 

[rmckee]

House Roof Replacement & Landscape Work

Three years after buying the property, we finally had the roof of the main house replaced over the summer. After getting a handful of quotes (and being harassed by a storm-chaser roof repair guy) we picked an awesome local company, Wilson & Sons Roofing, who came in with a super competitive bid and a real family business attitude. They removed and replaced 50 squares in two days, a real feat given that our entire roof is made up of 12/12 pitches, and added a surplus amount of ice shield compared to other vendor quotes. We went with a Certain-Teed architectural that matched the GAF shingles on the garage closely enough, and went a shade darker than the house was originally done in at the wife’s request. Thankfully she knew this was her plan before we shingled the garage so it's all aesthetically cohesive.

Our existing roof was original to the house and had seen some decent hail damage. Getting it replaced had been on our list of things to do since our home inspection pre-purchase back in 2020, and this summer seemed like a decent time to do it. Total cost (including solar panel removal and reinstallation) came in right around $25k which was shocking but I guess that’s what you get with big roofs and steep pitches. $5k of it was for the solar part alone, double what we’d been told to expect when we originally had the panels put on. In hind sight, probably should have done the shingles before the panels went on, but it is what it is!

Where we have no house to either side of us but a huge field on the north of our property, it really has cleaned up the aesthetic when people drive down our street to see the new roof. We also finally tore out the old mulch beds and cut in new ones with some nice dark mulch. Combined with the seeding efforts of last fall, the removal of the 30+ trees we’ve done from when we bought the place, painting the house, and adding the garage, it really became quite a beautiful property this year.

 

[rmckee]

Garage Bay Lighting Upgrades

So, if you remember the earlier photos, there’s no shortage of shop/task lighting in the garage.



In addition to the 12x 8-foot LED fixtures I installed back in April of 2022, I wanted to add some softer dimmable lighting for nights drinking beers with neighbors or just hanging out in there without needing my retinas burned out. I’m a huge proponent of warm, recessed and dimmable lighting, which led me to want to put in some 3000º Kelvin spot light fixtures in the downstairs part of the garage.

To make this easier in the new construction state of the build, I ordered some rough-in brackets for wafer recessed lights that are easily screwed into the I-Joists to ensure the drywall is later cut out at exactly the right points for the fixtures to be placed. These brackets are $4 a piece, making them a great deal to ensure they’re placed correctly when the time comes. I bought a total of 30 of them for the upstairs living area and the garage space, and have put them all to work at this point.

For some architectural effect I specifically placed the recessed lights 12” off the walls. With their 35º beam pattern it makes for a nice scalloped effect on the walls versus just general overhead lighting. I had initially intended to just do two on each long wall of the space, but after some deliberation ended up adding one over each garage bay door, and two along the back wall where workbenches and the slop sink will be. The 4” gimballed lights were $90 for a 12-pack on Amazon from a company I’ve used previously, and will likely be the same units I install upstairs in the garage for the general lighting up there.

The total effect is really pleasing both on the eyes and from an aesthetic standpoint inside. Someday there will be drywall up and I can place some photos in the beam patterns to highlight them. I also ended up adding two of these 4” fixtures down the center aisle of the garage on a separate switch to eliminate shadowing when the outer wall lights are on, or just to be used alone for some dimmer lighting in the garage.













*In looking at the above photo, apparently I did this before the garage was painted... time sure has flown by!

 

[jbrentd]

Good to see you back on GJ Ryan! You guys have really done an excellent job on the house/property. And the shop lighting is great! My shop lighting is a little lacking in certain spots and I need to figure that out eventually.

I would not have the self control to keep from moving tools/equipment/stuff over to the new space.

 

[west_perf]

Ryan, glad you're back in the saddle with the updates. I appreciate the detail that you put into everything from the wiring to the house paint. I am starting to plan a repaint project for next month and deciding what color I want to go with, I might go lighter like you did, but we will not be doing dark trim, as all the other houses around here now have that. The Porsche is awesome and that pic with your daughter is classic.

I'm a multi-year Diamond, and do my best to attend the Road Warrior training programs at ATL when they're available, doing the pilot safety training with ditches, water evacuations, slide deployment, etc. Not sure if you've ever taken part in those programs but they are absolutely awesome if you're a DL enthusiast.

Speaking of Delta, I did have plans to attend one of these events back in 2010 but it didn't work out due to work constraints. I'm a multi-year DL Plat, sadly my status is kettle nowawdays. I did jump on an opportunity to fly D1 on the A350 between DTW-ATL a couple weeks ago and that was a very nice ride. Being based in MCO, it was always a treat to get to the gate and have a 772 sub to ATL (and a sure upgrade) - luckily we have a fair amount of A333/763/764 to ATL/MSP over the winter months and I always book these when possible. I do have one of the Amex DL Reserve cards made from the 747 and I have a picture of that exact 747 at MSP prior to boarding it as well "back in the day".

Best of luck, enjoy "life on the road". Here's a pic from my office, I thought you might enjoy it. (Got that 747 painting for $3 at a flea market).

 

[murd]

That's a great idea with the separate kinds of lighting. I'm going to work that into my build when I get to that point.

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

Glad to see you back here and updating again. Sorry to hear about the job. Crazy world out there right now.

The time frame with the kiddos does go fast. That is a great shot you have for an amazing memory.

The new roof looks great and immediately update the look like you said. I just chose Certain-Teed shingles for my project this week.

The recessed lighting is looking good and I am sure is much more pleasing to hang out with it than the 8 work lights. Do you still plan to do the full amount you had drawn up in the original lighting plan which I think was 16 or have you decided to dial that back now?

 

[Purist]

Sienna's First Car Wash

Super cool moment for me as a dad. Sienna has an electric Porsche and zips around the driveway in it (usually chasing the dog), and is enamored with the revving engine sound effects it has.

My wife captured what’s probably one of my favorite photos to-date with Little Miss, the two of us just washing the car together. This little girl loves our time in the garage, loves standing on drivers seats with her hands on the wheel pretending to drive, loves car shows, and turns her attention towards loud engines, grinning ear to ear as they go by.

Over the summer I had the chance to let her help wash a car with me for the first time. It was one of those moments that I witnessed almost in the third person, soaking in the experience.

Maybe this will be something she becomes passionate about (I hope!), and maybe it’s just a one-off occurrence that she found the wheel brush and foam cannon to be the most enamoring objects she’ll ever lay eyes on. Either way, I’ll have this photo as a bit of a time capsule into this amazing time in this incredible little girl’s life.

That's what it's all about, man!!

 

[dmittz]

Thanks for the update, the garage lookks great!

 

[rmckee]

That's a great idea with the separate kinds of lighting. I'm going to work that into my build when I get to that point.

Thanks! Highly worth doing, in my opinion. Great to have options and totally changes the vibe at night in there.

Glad to see you back here and updating again. Sorry to hear about the job. Crazy world out there right now.

The time frame with the kiddos does go fast. That is a great shot you have for an amazing memory.

The new roof looks great and immediately update the look like you said. I just chose Certain-Teed shingles for my project this week.

The recessed lighting is looking good and I am sure is much more pleasing to hang out with it than the 8 work lights. Do you still plan to do the full amount you had drawn up in the original lighting plan which I think was 16 or have you decided to dial that back now?

Appreciate it @cccoltsicehockey. Job stuff was a cluster and a half but I've moved on. Wife is supportive as heck and as someone who loves flying, it's not the worst thing to be bouncing around the world in planes again.

Great question about how the lighting turned out. I'm going to do a separate post underneath here with the details on how that worked out just so it's captured for the long run.

Ryan, glad you're back in the saddle with the updates. I appreciate the detail that you put into everything from the wiring to the house paint. I am starting to plan a repaint project for next month and deciding what color I want to go with, I might go lighter like you did, but we will not be doing dark trim, as all the other houses around here now have that. The Porsche is awesome and that pic with your daughter is classic.



Speaking of Delta, I did have plans to attend one of these events back in 2010 but it didn't work out due to work constraints. I'm a multi-year DL Plat, sadly my status is kettle nowawdays. I did jump on an opportunity to fly D1 on the A350 between DTW-ATL a couple weeks ago and that was a very nice ride. Being based in MCO, it was always a treat to get to the gate and have a 772 sub to ATL (and a sure upgrade) - luckily we have a fair amount of A333/763/764 to ATL/MSP over the winter months and I always book these when possible. I do have one of the Amex DL Reserve cards made from the 747 and I have a picture of that exact 747 at MSP prior to boarding it as well "back in the day".

Best of luck, enjoy "life on the road". Here's a pic from my office, I thought you might enjoy it. (Got that 747 painting for $3 at a flea market).

Thanks @west_perf! I tend to go overboard with details both physically and in recounting them, but having written many a Jeep build thread and then chronicling many adventures on my travel blog, I've always found it helpful both for readers on the web (as well as myself at later points) to have more thorough accounts of how and why thing were done. Easy to reference again in the future!

I fell to Platinum this year after forever of Diamond, and am heading out on a D1 mileage run to South Korea (A359 on the way out and A339neo on the way back) a few days after Christmas for an overnight just to lock DM in through 2027. This whole restructuring of the loyalty program has been a cluster in my opinion. My 747 AMEX is stored in my safe for a keepsake and I continue to swipe the purple one. Love the display -- is that a Maddog or a B717? Tough to tell from the scale models. Always nice to share a conversation with another AV geek

 

[rmckee]

Finalized Lighting Plot

@cccoltsicehockey asked a great question about how the lighting worked out, and I realized I never addressed how it was finalized. I laugh a little bit when I say finalized, given that my neighbor is always asking "how much more Romex are you running?" There always seems somewhere new to want light or another outlet.

Total fixtures:

• 13x 8-foot LED Barrina (Amazon) tube fixtures in 3 zones
  • Every other row alternating Zones 1 and 2, switched on 3-ways at each man-door
  • Single 8-foot over where the workbenches will go, switched by the back window where the worktop space will be
• 8x 4" recessed gimbal wafers around the perimeter, switched on 3-ways at each man-door
• 2x 4" recessed gimbal wafers down the center aisle, switched at the breezeway entry only (due to being tied into spare line in the 14/3 romex that I put up for the ceiling fan if I ever want one). I like these guys being on their own.

The only lights I haven't yet figured out areas additional switch I have by the workbench space. I might use that for some RGBW LED strip lighting recessed in the drywall in the ceiling, but haven't nailed down that plan yet. Thankfully the ceiling is still open so there's still some time.

My original lighting plot when it was first designing looked like this:



…but as I discovered when initially mocking that up in the garage, the shadows were bad and the overall distribution of light wasn’t great. Moving fixtures 90º to run perpendicular to the length of the building helped that immensely, and I placed junction boxes down each side of the garage so that I can swap to other fixture types in the future without having to cut into the ceiling or wire jumpers. Almost two years in, the Barrina lights are still kicking **** so I can’t imagine replacing them until necessary (at which point I very well may just put the same thing back up).

Finalized plot (I'm pretty happy to say finalized at this point because I've lived with it for over a year now) ended up being this:

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

The new lighting still looks great and seems very functional. Shadows is honestly the thing I am struggling with in my build. I need to buy some of the lights before they finish wiring to make sure things will work as envisioned.

 

[fouckhest]

The new lighting still looks great and seems very functional. Shadows is honestly the thing I am struggling with in my build. I need to buy some of the lights before they finish wiring to make sure things will work as envisioned.

Don't mean to thread jack, but re: shadows, I used this tool and it has proved to have great results, I don't have any shadows other than an ~1ft all the way around the top edge of the walls

Visual Interior Tool

www.visual-3d.com

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

Don't mean to thread jack, but re: shadows, I used this tool and it has proved to have great results, I don't have any shadows other than an ~1ft all the way around the top edge of the walls

Visual Interior Tool

www.visual-3d.com

Oh, nice. Thank you. Will give this a go. I am worried about trying to calculate the ceiling since it is sloped.

 

[fouckhest]

Oh, nice. Thank you. Will give this a go. I am worried about trying to calculate the ceiling since it is sloped.

yeah that could be a challenge, there may be other tools out there, or if you hung the lights it might eliminate the question of how the light is broadcasting

 

[west_perf]

Love the display -- is that a Maddog or a B717? Tough to tell from the scale models. Always nice to share a conversation with another AV geek

It's a MD-88. It's 18" in person, the largest model I have.
Appropriate considering that I've flown on the MD-82/83/88 series more than any other jet. Miss them dearly.

You'll understand the disappointment I had yesterday getting to the gate for MCO-SLC flight, only to find the A321 that I booked was now a 739! We were in FC so it was OK but the bigger the better, regarding planes. Enjoy your MR, I haven't done one of those in years and miss them dearly.

 

[rmckee]

It's a MD-88. It's 18" in person, the largest model I have.
Appropriate considering that I've flown on the MD-82/83/88 series more than any other jet. Miss them dearly.

You'll understand the disappointment I had yesterday getting to the gate for MCO-SLC flight, only to find the A321 that I booked was now a 739! We were in FC so it was OK but the bigger the better, regarding planes. Enjoy your MR, I haven't done one of those in years and miss them dearly.

That's a fantastic size! My only model at this point is a 1:150 B75-2, my favorite aircraft. It sits in my office on my vintage hi-fi gear. Maybe someday when the upstairs of this garage project is finished I can have a nice display/collection like you do.

That would be one heck of a disappointment. I cringe whenever RDU swaps a 738/9 in for what was supposed to be a 752 or 321 on the ATL hop. Even 01h01 flight time is too much for me in any 73x variant lmao.

I'll report back on the South Korea run. It's been years (I used to frequent Shanghai every November for the same reasons) but my 10 year visa disappeared when my car was broken into in SFO back in 2019 so the China-specific runs ended. Always was great pricing for up front since so few people were on those flights!

 

[rmckee]

Insulation Part 1 of ...

So with the changes to our garage budget over the last year, but wanting to make progress in smaller but more frequent phases, I decided that I'd change up how I insulated the walls downstairs in the garage. I'm sort of locked into a spray foam on the roof deck due to the closed roof ridge, but in talking with my GC neighbor Dane he suggested I look at Rockwool for the downstairs walls as it won't be living space, but cutting down on emitted noise and having a less flammable material there (just in case that ever happens) would be helpful. I'd also have the benefit of doing it myself and having it not be traditional fiberglass that I really try to avoid.

In looking at the Rockwool options for 2x6 walls there were far fewer variants than for 2x4, but I found an R23 option that was reasonably priced. Back in the early fall when I first locked in on this it was $77 a bag from Lowes. I had a few substantial Lowes gift cards, so that made it easy to be a primary candidate for a place to purchase from.

About 6 weeks ago I checked in to place an order, and saw that the price went up to $98 PER BAG! Needing 36 bags to do the downstairs walls, this was a substantial jump of nearly $800+ tax.

The other night I checked randomly before bed and saw that the price had miraculously dropped to $58 per, with an additional 10% off bringing it down to $53 per bag, plus tax. Total out the door with delivery was $2,134 (versus $3,600 for the same exact order a few weeks ago).

With the 30% federal rebate on projects like this I'll get close to $600 back for our FY23 taxes, add in the gift cards used and the total out of pocket will be about $800. By locking this in before 01JAN24, I'll be able to do another portion of the project next year and get another stab at the same insulation credit with the Inflation Reduction Act.... and then the same 30% for my mini-split installation.

The Rockwool itself is super back ordered, but it's actually great because I'll have until mid-February to get my plumbing rough inspection done so I can move forward with putting this in.

Merry Christmas, y'all! I won't necessarily be warm in the garage this winter but summer will be cooler!

 

[Uofime]

Bump

Hope you’re hanging in there. Always hard when you don’t see the progress that you want at the pace you want!

 

[rmckee]

Downstairs Rockwool Installation


Truth be told I’m 18 months late writing this update, but cataloging what progress has been made hasn’t been top priority. I receive messages here and on Reddit about the build pretty regularly, especially from people in the Raleigh area who want garages of their own, so I figured I’d try and get things back up to speed.

In the time since I last wrote, I have passed both electrical and plumbing rough inspections, and have my mechanical rough outlying.

When we left off, I had ordered the Rockwool insulation at a great rate from Lowes. Between the bulk-discounts and federal Inflation Reduction Act rebates for energy efficiency, the total cost of the project came down to about $600 for about 1,500 sq feet with R23 insulation. Lowes delivered it for $99, and the biggest pain was getting the cars all moved around… thankfully one of my local Porsche club friends took the 981 to his garage, my neighbor down the street took the Wrangler, and we shoved the OBS into the attached garage while the daily drivers sat in the driveway.

This garage’s size never ceases to impress me when it’s empty… and even with 6 pallets of insulation, we had plenty of room.




Prior to getting started I took some time to get high-res photos of each wall, and took videos of the entire downstairs to ensure I had behind-the-wall records of electrical, low voltage, plumbing, etc. in case it’s needed in the future.

Having never installed Rockwool before, I went by the recommendation of the Internet and ordered long sleeve shirts, Rockwool’s specialty (picture large bread knife) cutting tools, and gloves. My neighbor Dane jumped in for the first day, where we knocked out the south wall and most of the rear wall in about 6 hours. The 16” stud bays were EASY – and the only cutting required was the bottom most batt to trim the cinderblock footer out of the height. The “challenge” was the studs under the shed dormer part. By the engineer’s design this area had doubled up 2x6s, so to play by the Rockwool rules we trimmed down that 1.5” off the 16” width of the batt.

Photos!!












A few months before this project I dealt with 20-30º outdoor temps that caused mid-30 garage temps. Indoor temps the summer before could easily reach the mid 90s. In the 18 months since this installation, the difference has been quite obvious. Without air conditioning running (another update for a little bit later!) the garage bays will settle in at about 80º, and winter temps linger in the mid-40s without heat running. Once HVAC is on, it’s easy to hit 70º in the winter and 60s in the summer… and this is without the ceiling being insulated yet!

The ceiling insulation will be done in tandem with the entirety of upstairs – and I’m really still leaning towards open cell spray foam for that… I sort of broke the order of code work here by getting insulation in early, but staying temperature-controlled downstairs was something I could knock out myself, so I did.

More updates to come!

 

[Trapps]

Welcome back!

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

Welcome back! Glad to see this project was still moving along.

 

[gearhead1960]

Nice to see an update. Welcome back!

 

[zanyad]

Updates!

 

[Cdubu52]

Welcome back Ryan. Happy to see some progress.

 

[loganb]

Hooray!

 

[robb1887]

I missed a while of these updates, but hope you're back on track after the job loss. The kiddos in the shop space and enjoying it is definitely a plus. I'm not sure where you're at with insulation but if you decide to do more rockwool (I did the same), I'd highly suggest getting an electric kitchen carving knife. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BNQXXT2F?tag=atomicindus08-20) I used one for my entire install for the R15 in the walls and the R30 in the upstairs.

 

[Nolift911]

Great shop progress!