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Above 1200 Sq/FT New Shop and House at the Lake! (4000ft2?)

Wokspaces above 1200 squarefeet.

kberjian

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 1, 2016
Messages
255
Location
Calgary
I have been absent from this forum for a while as I had finished the build of the shop at my current home and didn't have anything worthwhile to share. Here is the old shop 3000ft2 Hot Rod Shop

I was fortunate to be able to buy 7 acres beside a lake. The land is ~300' wide and long going from the lake up to the highway. There is about 200' of elevation gain with three flat shelfs on the way. The property was heavily treed up until 2021 when a forest fire came through and burnt right down to the lake, it took all the trees, the old cabin that was there and even a piece of the dock. The owner at the time was quite old and ended up passing away shortly after. The burnt trees were all fallen and logged with a bunch of it milled and left behind covered in tarps. Fast forward 4 years and the family put the property up for sale and I bought it. The lot was untouched that 4 years and had become over grown with tall weeds and the nicely milled wood was rotting and weathered.
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I drove out with my trailer, rented a skid steer and chainsaw for a week, and went to work! I wanted to clean up the water front area (80' deep by 300' wide) to get it ready for a camper being placed there this summer.
I loaded one load of wood on my trailer to take home and then used the skid steer with forks to try to move the rest up to the back of the lot away from the waterfront. It was 30ish loads and I had to cut many of the pieces in half to be able to get them up the narrow road. I used the chainsaw to section a bunch of fallen trees and move them out of the way as well. I used the bucket to cut off the weeds off the top and also used some of the material to smooth out the access road ramp down to this area. Also found a bunch of landscaping blocks buried in the wood piles too. So many fun little surprises! It was 5 hard days of work to get it all cleared up.
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My family came out for the weekend and they had a great time pulling weeds, swimming, fishing and just exploring the land. Can't wait to do it more with them in years to come. I put some non-pressure treated wood down to get access back out to the dock. Out of picture attachment capacity so continuing in the next post!
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kberjian

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 1, 2016
Messages
255
Location
Calgary
Also was having fun and built a small deck out of the 4x6 rough cut wood. Makes for a nice place to get out of the sun and take a look around! Overall it was a good bit of progress and I am excited to keep going.

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Big picture plan is to build a house down at the water (4500ft2 or so) and a new shop that is 4000ft2 with a cold storage on the side sometime in the next 2-3 years. Permitting here takes a long time due to the riparian, slope, enviro assessments that are needed to get your permits approved. Here is the location of the buildings and the style we are planning for the house at the water.
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Aladinsane07

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 13, 2020
Messages
69
Location
MN
This should be pretty epic. Congrats on the purchase. Any idea yet of what amount of the work you're going to tackle vs. shop out to contractors?
 
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kberjian

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 1, 2016
Messages
255
Location
Calgary
This should be pretty epic. Congrats on the purchase. Any idea yet of what amount of the work you're going to tackle vs. shop out to contractors?
I think I will let the pros do the house so my wife doesn't judge my work too harshly. For the shop I will have them put up the walls and concrete floor then do everything else myself inside, same as my last one. I found the journey to be half the fun so want to do it again. Retirement needs things to keep me busy.
 
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kberjian

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 1, 2016
Messages
255
Location
Calgary
We wanted to be able to enjoy the lake before we built a house so we wanted a camper that had space for us and our 4 kids to be comfortable for a few weeks at a time out there. I tried looking at some newer trailers but didn't want to spend 50k like most wanted for something that comfortably sleeps 6. I ended up finding this Heartland Cyclone 3210 toy hauler at an auction because of some front end cladding damage and took it home for 3k. It has a generator built in, big queen bed at the front, a queen over the toy hauler, and a big toy hauler room at the back. The AC blows cold in all areas which is key with how hot it gets out at the lake. I was pretty pleased to find that everything works from the central vac, water heater, fridge, power inverter, 6 batteries, and I didn't even find any water damage in the walls or floor. I worked with my boys to build out the toy hauler with 4 bunk beds as well, each bed has a shelf, light and fan for enhanced teenager comfort. Since I can't get line power onto the lot until I start building the house I needed to figure out an offgrid solution. I decided to go heavy on solar and will use the 1600W of solar panels charging the 6ea 6V batteries in the trailer with a 3000W inverter. I ended up just plugging the campers shore power plug straight to the inverter and that allows us to just start the generator if we run low on battery and it will not backfeed into the inverter. From my trials I am getting 1000W in from solar and the AC draws 900-1100W when running. Overall it should work well enough for 90% of the time. Even got a Starlink mini to bring with us to ensure the kids texts can keep flowing.

The trailer weighs 11,000lbs so it is a beast but it will only get moved once down to the lake and the it will stay there for a long long time.
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kberjian

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Joined
Jun 1, 2016
Messages
255
Location
Calgary
Great project OP….

you ever had lakefront property before?

Mine was over grown and took me 4-5 years to get it the way I wanted…I love your new home design.

Here is a teaser for you to look forward to…
That is exactly what I want! love the landscaping. Scenery looks pretty similar!
 

tarmy

Well-known member
Joined
May 28, 2014
Messages
4,670
Location
Nor Cal
That is exactly what I want! love the landscaping. Scenery looks pretty similar!
The part of your story that hit me…is the fire.

5 years ago we were surrounded by the Dixie fire….the only thing not burnt for 30 miles in every direction is in that pic. We were lucky…and our immediate area is nice…but fire can ruin things.

plant trees now, as soon as you can. By the time you finish building they will be looking good and instantly help get things looking the way you want.
 
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