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Progress after Day 2 of framing: We decided to use 2x6 framing for the additional insulation and strength. We also modified the truss design to increase headroom in the attic by moving the bottom chord down. According to the new truss design sheet, unfinished headroom has increased from 7'...

Foundation is complete. Lines for water (black) and sewer (white) run underneath footers and driveway, then through basement wall of house to stay below frost line.

One of the reasons we waited so long to replace our old garage was knowing that we would have to essentially destroy our backyard in the process. We enjoyed our old wood burning fire pit, but it had to be removed to make room for the new garage. We came up with this design for a gas fire pit...

Last week it finally dried out enough to start pouring footers. The concrete sub wanted to use a pump truck to reach the back wall, but the trees in our neighborhood are too large for the boom to clear the house and the driveway is too tight to extend the truck's outriggers. Their number one...

We were making such great progress, and then everything came to a halt for a while. Both the power and cable TV companies were reluctant to splice lines underground, but eventually they were convinced that this would be OK as long as we replace the entire lines between the pole and the house...

Looks great! Do you happen to know the Behr color codes you used? I'm planning to use gray as well. The dark one looks like Pencil Point. http://www.behr.com/consumer/colors/paint#

This is an old quote, so forgive me if you've already addressed it. Have you seen the new Toro Recycler with SmartStow? It folds up and stands vertically on its back wheels for storage in a very small footprint. Traditional mowers would leak oil and gas everywhere if you did this. There is...

So let's say you're a landscaper who is building a fire pit. The boss says it has to have a 3' deep frost footing. You start digging the hole only to discover power, cable and telephone lines buried 2' deep. After you've finished your beer and considered the options, do you: A) Settle for a...

The demolition of the old garage is now complete. I was surprised that my contractor removed the structure with only power and hand tools. Step 1: remove the garage door Step 2: cut away the roof in between the rafters Step 3: brace the walls, then cut down the rafters Step 4: knock down...

Good catch - I updated the post above to highlight the error.

Stuart - Thanks for the photo of the 10/12 attic trusses with 24' span. That looks less claustrophobic than I thought, though my attic would be smaller with a 9/12 pitch. I agree with you that matching the pitch of the house would be ideal, but the house pitch is the same as the old garage...

Ben - thanks for bringing this to my attention. I talked to the planning department months ago and thought I understood what they were saying, but called them again today just to make sure. The planning department rep said that walls may be as close as 2' from the property line and that eaves...

Here is the engineering report for the attic trusses. It looks like I’ll have 7’ of headroom for about 3’ of horizontal space, which sounds a little claustrophobic. Increasing the pitch from 9/12 or moving the bottom chord down would improve the situation, but then the structure starts getting...

Over the past few years I have worked through a variety of designs to accomplish as many of my priorities as possible without the garage taking up too much square footage in the backyard or growing so tall that it overwhelms our small urban lot. These were my priorities: 1. Fit two cars for...

For those who are just starting this thread, here are some photos of the new garage as of August 2015: And now back to the original thread... After suffering through eleven South Dakota winters with our unheated, not quite 2-car garage, we finally committed to replacing it with a new...