Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT The Garage at The Place in The Valley (Garage Condo 45x23x20)

TurboEuro88 · Sep 25, 2016

At least it sounds like you can at least make progress from here. Losing the shower doesn't sound ideal, but it appears to be a means to an end that you ultimately want - moving in.

Best of luck with things going forward and hopefully the county can rule in your favor. Looking forward to future updates once things start progressing!

Greg_STL · Sep 25, 2016

A video of the Supercar Sunday event was posted on Facebook. It is not the best (shot vertical) but it does give a nice walk though of the facility.

<Video Link>

shortykorte · Sep 26, 2016

I'm glad to hear there is some progress. As mentioned in my earlier post, I had to do the ADA size but was exempted from the other items since my use was personal.
Great thing about mezzanines are they are very accessible for any updates that appear out of nowhere. wink-wink, nod-nod. :dunno:

Greg_STL · Sep 29, 2016

We now officially own the unit! We did a virtual closing with the title company and transferred the money from the bank. The management company sent us the user ids and passwords to get access to the ip cameras. I had to download an ap to my phone but I can now see real time video from all the security cameras. The managers have a big packet that is getting mailed to us. I'm also stopping by tomorrow to pick up my keys, the garage door opener, RFID tags to get and out of the gate, and some codes for the doors and gates. It is kinda a mixed blessing to not have to meet in person to do the closing. It is easier to schedule but it doesn't feel real yet without the keys....

cangusfarm · Sep 29, 2016

Congratulations! Can't wait to see the shop set up.

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TomcoPDR · Sep 30, 2016

Congrats Greg_STL, what a great feeling this must be.

jay8s · Sep 30, 2016

Congrats!!! Can't wait to see how things progress from here. I hope the County gets its act together and makes the right decision.

I feel there will be many trips between the house and The Place this weekend. I know I would be sucking battery on my phone just watching the video feed.

pmason0 · Sep 30, 2016

Congrats, looking forward to how the build out progresses.

Greg_STL · Oct 1, 2016

I picked up the keys, access codes (gate/clubhouse), and garage door remote from the developer Friday afternoon. I made a quick run into the unit to make sure the keys, codes and remotes worked but ran back to the house for dinner.

So, after dinner my wife, daughter and I went down to The Place and checked out the unit and hung out in the club house. The first order of business was to get the phones all hooked into the wifi. Next, I wanted to get the thermostat registered and set up online. It's an ecobee3 and it hooks into the wifi and can be accessed from anywhere with my phone.

I spent too much time trying to figure it all out. I was messing with the actual thermostat, the iphone ap, and the webpage interface on my ipad - all at the same time. The ventilator is hooked up to the ecobee as well as the HVAC system. I kept trying to get just the ventilator to turn on but all I could hear was the main fan for the HVAC unit running. Both are 20 ft up and the HVAC fan is larger and noisier. I think I tracked down in the end that it is supposed to kick both on at the same time (at least that is how it is designed to work). The ecobee has home, sleep, and away settings plus real time smart adjustments using a motion sensor. There are tons of adjustments to minimum run times (min/hr) for the fan and ventilator to keep the air moving and fresh. It pulls the local weather from the web and can use that to determine when or how to heat. The web interface spits out all sorts of history reports. I'm sure I'm going to play with it way too much.

I've also been playing with the IP cameras. I have them set up on my iPhone and iPad. I tried to take a IP selfie of my car but I forgot to give the security camera ap access to my photos. I took this one when I got home just to have something to post.

I also tried to program the homelink in my car for the garage door opener. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) it is a rolling code version and I need to hit a button up on the opener. I don't have a ladder at the unit yet so that wasn't going to happen. I don't think I ever posted a picture of the new opener with the chain attached for emergency opening. You can barely see the chain in this view but it is there.

We spent the evening hanging out in the clubhouse. It's got its own set of growth pains. The TVs all had an error message on them because the bills got mixed up in the transition from the developers to the property management company. The cleaners "cleaned off" the dusting of wax beads on the shuffle board so the pucks don't slide. The pinball machine was unplugged but I found out that was just because some of the other users thought it was just too loud. Nothing major and bit funny really....

The good part was that we got to meet one set of our neighbors. They were hanging out with another couple in the clubhouse mainly playing on the GoldenTee video game. My wife, daughter, and I took over the pool table and shot a couple games (and played some pinball). Apparently, one of the other owners is a part owner of 4 Hands Brewery and the fridge was completely full of 4 Hands beer. One of the cabinets was completely full of beer to put in the fridge if the fridge ran dry. I'm sure that this was just a one time deal welcome gift to the other owners but it was a nice surprise.

54earl · Oct 2, 2016

Just read all 21 pages. Congratulations, hope the bathroom battle ends in your favor.

55cadillacking · Oct 2, 2016

"Look at all this damn dust!" LOL

Sounds like a new dawn is rising for you guys!

Greg_STL · Oct 2, 2016

Bi-Annual STL PCA Car Show was today. The weather was not great but we drove down during a small breakout of sunshine to see some of the cars.

My wife was taking pictures with the SLR and me with my iPhone. The cell phone pics still look surprisingly good. The full Flickr album is linked below:

2016 STL PCA Car Show Flickr Album

I also spent more time messing with the ecobee thermostat today. I some how managed to put it on hold with the HVAC fan and the ventilator running continuously for 24 hours. I thought a minimum of 0 min/hr run-time meant that nothing would run but somehow it means that it runs continuously. :dunno:

I think a found a bug in their programming but who knows.

Audicon · Oct 3, 2016

The Holy Grail right here.

Greg_STL said:
.

shortykorte · Oct 3, 2016

Congrats!!!

Look forward to seeing you make it your space.

Sweet cars. I even know the significance of the 959. :thumbup:

Greg_STL · Oct 3, 2016

Stepped out of my unit tonight, looked west, and saw the Moon and Venus setting just after the sun went down. This picture looks nice but just doesn't capture how nice it really looked in person.

Still messing with the ecobee. It appears very finicky when programming over the web (and across town). I also had the "free cooling" mode on and that wasn't really working with the tiny vent fan that is in the unit. I also tracked down why the time wouldn't set. The installer filled out all the information on the location but the country. Because country wasn't filled in, it didn't know what time zones to present in the time menu and I couldn't pick America/Chicago (also known as Central Time).

I also dropped off some shuffleboard powder and played a game with my daughter. She killed me.... Now if the cleaners will just leave the "dust" alone this week.

Greg_STL · Oct 3, 2016

Wow, I almost forgot to post the most important thing that happened today!!!

The lawyers all got together and got some additional clarifications from the county. "They agreed that the ADA did not apply to units that are under 3,000 square feet so long as they are intended for less than 50 occupants in a unit." I put that in quotes because those were our lawyers exact words. So, my unit is just a tad over 1000 sq.ft. and I have no plans to have 50 people in my unit at any one time so I should be in the clear. My original plans will be officially submitted very soon and I should be good to go with the shower and everything as planned. Who would have thought, saner minds prevailed!!!!

JettaGetUpandGo · Oct 3, 2016

Greg_STL said:
Wow, I almost forgot to post the most important thing that happened today!!!

The lawyers all got together and got some additional clarifications from the county. "They agreed that the ADA did not apply to units that are under 3,000 square feet so long as they are intended for less than 50 occupants in a unit." I put that in quotes because those were our lawyers exact words. So, my unit is just a tad over 1000 sq.ft. and I have no plans to have 50 people in my unit at any one time so I should be in the clear. My original plans will be officially submitted very soon and I should be good to go with the shower and everything as planned. Who would have thought, saner minds prevailed!!!!

Congratulations! That's great news!

TomcoPDR · Oct 3, 2016

Greg_STL said:
Wow, I almost forgot to post the most important thing that happened today!!!

The lawyers all got together and got some additional clarifications from the county. "They agreed that the ADA did not apply to units that are under 3,000 square feet so long as they are intended for less than 50 occupants in a unit." I put that in quotes because those were our lawyers exact words. So, my unit is just a tad over 1000 sq.ft. and I have no plans to have 50 people in my unit at any one time so I should be in the clear. My original plans will be officially submitted very soon and I should be good to go with the shower and everything as planned. Who would have thought, saner minds prevailed!!!!

Congrats, nicely done. :pimpflash

snapon12 · Oct 3, 2016

That's very cool, that you got around the Ada! Enjoy your pad

149 r/c worx team driver

jay8s · Oct 4, 2016

FREAKING SWEET!!!!! I have had my faith restored in the County. Let the complete buildout commence!!!

Congrats Greg!!!

Slycox · Oct 4, 2016

Awesome news! Can't wait to see what you do with the place!

Audicon · Oct 4, 2016

Great news. Looking forward to seeing more fitting out in the unit.

TurboEuro88 · Oct 4, 2016

Great news to hear. Nice to know there are some reasonable people out there still!

slik560 · Oct 4, 2016

WHEW!!! that's a relief. In the end, any issue always seems to circle back to the lawyers. Maybe you can stage a garage-warming event for your GJ friends that live within range when it's all settled.....but only invite 47.

Gotta keep it under 51!

kjdhawkhill · Oct 4, 2016

Glad to hear that you get your plans, as requested. Hopefully the management company and developer learned to mind their Ps and Qs on the front end with the county. Congrats on the closing and good luck filling it up with awesome vehicles and toys.

Hilltopmasonry · Oct 4, 2016

Greg_STL said:
Wow, I almost forgot to post the most important thing that happened today!!!

The lawyers all got together and got some additional clarifications from the county. "They agreed that the ADA did not apply to units that are under 3,000 square feet so long as they are intended for less than 50 occupants in a unit." I put that in quotes because those were our lawyers exact words. So, my unit is just a tad over 1000 sq.ft. and I have no plans to have 50 people in my unit at any one time so I should be in the clear. My original plans will be officially submitted very soon and I should be good to go with the shower and everything as planned. Who would have thought, saner minds prevailed!!!!

Thats great to hear! You have put alot of time, passion, and money making this your dream place and i am really glad that in the end it is going to be exactly what you wanted! With all of your updates that you have given us i can tell that this place is a really big deal for you and i am glad that in the end it was worth all of you effort

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

AZpilot · Oct 5, 2016

Great news. All you need now is roof access to watch the airshow.

kered · Oct 5, 2016

That's fantastic news :beer:

You must be so relieved to have that worry lifted. You can relax now & concentrate on enjoying your garage condo to it's full now :thumbup:

djones1a · Oct 5, 2016

Good deal!

Greg_STL · Oct 5, 2016

Wow. Thanks for all the support. I talked to the architect today and he is going to submit the plans as they were before. I've been a little hesitant to celebrate yet because everything has gone sideways several times and I don't want to jinx it.....

Here is a screen shot of the ecobee web control panel. It is pretty cool I can monitor everything from home. You can see current temperature and humidity of the unit and what the heat and cool set points are set too. If you click into the Systems tile you can see if anything is currently running (including just the fans). Even better, you can follow the Home IQ tile and get a system status page that gives a history plot of when things have been running and what the temp/humidity data has been.

Here is a screen shot of the system monitor when I had it on "free cooling" and the HVAC fan was set to 20 min/hr minimum run time. The temp was pretty constant but I didn't really want the fans to be running that much. You can see the set points joggle while I was playing with it and took it out of hold away.

This is a shot from today. It was warmer out so the internal temperature got higher but since I had the cooling set to a high number (82F), the HVAC never kicked on. The internal temp is pretty constant compared to the external temp and I'm guessing that is do to all the thermal mass of all the concrete in the building...

I got a note back from ecobee support and they suggested I continue to use the hold feature. The smart away feature only lets the temperature vary by enough that it can quickly recover if the motion sensor realizes you are back home. My plan over the winter is to kick it out of hold before I take my 15 minute drive down to the garage. I'll figure out eventually if I need to give it more than that 15 minutes but at least it will have a head start on me walking in the garage door.

PhoenixRising · Oct 12, 2016

I'm glad everything worked out! Any updates? I'm living vicariously through you

Greg_STL · Oct 12, 2016

Ha. No updates - not really. Last I heard the architect was going to submit the plans but I haven't heard anything back yet. I'll have to call tomorrow.

Greg_STL · Oct 17, 2016

Used the google street view app to take a photo sphere of the inside of the clubhouse. I tried to link several ways with no luck. Sorry for the wasted space post.

Edit: I figured I would post the distorted picture. With the right software to view, you can hold your phone up and and pan around to view it un-distorted.

It is funky how the lights disconnected from their cables.

SiGmA_X · Oct 17, 2016

Greg_STL said:
Wow, I almost forgot to post the most important thing that happened today!!!

The lawyers all got together and got some additional clarifications from the county. "They agreed that the ADA did not apply to units that are under 3,000 square feet so long as they are intended for less than 50 occupants in a unit." I put that in quotes because those were our lawyers exact words. So, my unit is just a tad over 1000 sq.ft. and I have no plans to have 50 people in my unit at any one time so I should be in the clear. My original plans will be officially submitted very soon and I should be good to go with the shower and everything as planned. Who would have thought, saner minds prevailed!!!!

Best news ever! Congrats!

2 things:
1) I am super jealous of your Ecobee! I want one, but I am not really interested in having insecure devices on my network, even with vLans and such... But they're so ******** cool!!
2) You can't program HomeLink from the wall mounted button? That's how my 8500 works, but I know your commercial version is a bit different.

Greg_STL · Oct 19, 2016

@SiGmA_X (& Everyone else...)

1. So yeah the ecobee is cool. I am worried about the security as well but at this point it is just my HVAC. There are unique codes that you can only get physically when at the thermostat. There is exposure but not crazy levels. Right now the convenience out weighs the risk of someone high jacking just my heat and cooling.

2. Homelink should be easy to program. I have the pdf that shows the button I need to push on the opener unit. I just need a ladder to get up to push the button. I have just been trying really hard not to fill the unit up with stuff before the mezzanine gets built and the floors get done. And that is the rub....

I have some bad news..... I e-mailed the contractor and asked why we hadn't submitted for permits yet. He said I needed to contact the developers (and cc'd them with his response). The developers responded right away - the permits are up in the air again. Apparently, the two sides left their first meeting thinking they had an agreement. But upon further review, they each heard what they wanted to hear. The developers said they are still working things so I'm on hold again. I just had to laugh ...

I've been trying to have fun by using the clubhouse. My wife, daughters, and I have been going down to the valley and picking up takeout and eating at the clubhouse and playing pool on Fridays. I had a my work team over for a happy hour one Thursday evening. I figured I might as well enjoy the clubhouse.......

Greg_STL · Oct 19, 2016

So here is a cool feature of the ecobee. You can down load data from the website with all of your thermostat data in 5 minute increments. It has over 20 columns of data with the modes, set temperatures, actual temps, outdoor temps, humidity, and even if the motion sensor thinks you are home.

I plotted the temp set points, outdoor, and indoor temperature vs time below. I plotted this day because it was the day I had my work group over for happy hour. I opened my unit garage door so that people could walk over from the club hose to check out the unit. So from ~4pm to around 8:30pm, the heat was turn off and the door was open. At 8:30, the garage had really cooled off so it used the heat pump and then the electric heat to recover.

Here is a week of data to show how little the temp swings in the garage even with the larger swings in outdoor temperature. Seems reasonably insulated - if you keep the door shut!

eba3317 · Oct 21, 2016

Just finished reading the whole thread. Great job with all the pictures of the build process. Very cool to see it from start to where it is now. Wish I had a garage that big!

Good luck with the permit process. I will be following along to see how your unit ends up

Dennx · Oct 21, 2016

Greg_STL said:
Wow. Thanks for all the support. I talked to the architect today and he is going to submit the plans as they were before. I've been a little hesitant to celebrate yet because everything has gone sideways several times and I don't want to jinx it.....

Here is a screen shot of the ecobee web control panel. It is pretty cool I can monitor everything from home. You can see current temperature and humidity of the unit and what the heat and cool set points are set too. If you click into the Systems tile you can see if anything is currently running (including just the fans). Even better, you can follow the Home IQ tile and get a system status page that gives a history plot of when things have been running and what the temp/humidity data has been.

Here is a screen shot of the system monitor when I had it on "free cooling" and the HVAC fan was set to 20 min/hr minimum run time. The temp was pretty constant but I didn't really want the fans to be running that much. You can see the set points joggle while I was playing with it and took it out of hold away.

This is a shot from today. It was warmer out so the internal temperature got higher but since I had the cooling set to a high number (82F), the HVAC never kicked on. The internal temp is pretty constant compared to the external temp and I'm guessing that is do to all the thermal mass of all the concrete in the building...

I got a note back from ecobee support and they suggested I continue to use the hold feature. The smart away feature only lets the temperature vary by enough that it can quickly recover if the motion sensor realizes you are back home. My plan over the winter is to kick it out of hold before I take my 15 minute drive down to the garage. I'll figure out eventually if I need to give it more than that 15 minutes but at least it will have a head start on me walking in the garage door.

Very cool. Any opinion on ecobee vs. nest? I'm definitely installing a smart thermostat but not sure which one yet. The new man cave looks fantastic by the way. :thumbup:

Greg_STL · Oct 21, 2016

I looked at the Nest but I was put off by the "automagic" learning process. It is supposed to learn your routines but I wasn't sure I was going to have routines at the garage. The Ecobee has more exposure for the user to adjust settings. I also plan to use multiple sensors in my garage. I'll have one up on my mezzanine that I may set as the primary when I'm there. I would also like to have one sensor low and one high that I could use to turn on a ceiling fan if the temps got too far apart. I'll need some more automation hardware/software to do that but having the sensors is the first step.

Greg_STL · Oct 30, 2016

Still no news on the permit front. We decided to just go ahead and park in the garage while we wait. I was planning on not putting anything in the unit until it was finished but with no construction it was just sitting empty. We own it now so we might as well use it.....

Given the potential for Halloween mischief, we decided to park two vehicles down at The Place for the week to keep vehicles off our residential street. The weather is awesome this week, so we are keeping the Porsche and TTS in the home garage. Here is a picture of the ceremonial first parking.... (sorry - slow news day). The EOS looks tiny.

Also took a security camera selfie as I was driving away....

Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT The Garage at The Place in The Valley (Garage Condo 45x23x20)

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