My little hideout in Finland

Kroggers · Jun 20, 2011

Hi all, what a wonderful forum you have here...

I was not sure if I should first post in the "Introduce Yourself here" section and then here, or just jump straight in - and here I am, and will do a quick intro to start with

I followed your Moderator Jack Olsen here from another forum that he posts on and where I have been a regular for many years - thank you Jack :thumbup:

We recently signed the contract for our soon to be new home and will be getting the keys in early August. Whilst I can not claim full control of the space (need to give the family some storage as well), the house comes with an 85m2 basemen containing a garage. I will be attempting to fit in my two cars (with the help of a lift) into the garage parts and the remaining sections will be workshop, storage, and man cave space :beer:

So, to start with here are the two babies that will be sharing the garage space...

If you want to see more about the cars and the Boxster racing in particular, then you can follow on the FaceBook page here - http://www.facebook.com/CoolCavaRacing

Whilst we have not got the key to the house yet, I have started to plan the details and look at price for stuff that I would like. I have decided that I will try to be realistic on stuff to put in the garage, and as such will try to do this as an IKEA garage

There will be a lot of stupid questions along the way, so I hope you will all be gentle with me and help me along the way :lol_hitti

One of the first things we will have to do is get the entrance to the garage all dug up and done again - as you can see from the pictures, my cars are rather low, and the current entrance down to the garage (it is a basement, so under ground level) is to steep for the cars!!!

But here are some pictures from when we went to look at the house (all the stuff in there is from the current owner!), and a quick drawing I did in Visio as an initial plan on how I would like to lay things out...

Jeff Ivers · Jun 20, 2011

Congratulations on your acquisition. If your drawings are to scale, I can't see you being able to drive the cars into the garage and park them at that angle. It looks like the righthand car has no clearance to the support column on the right and I can't see you being able to curve the car enough when backing out to clear the door and the left car. Is the garage wide enough for side by side parking? If so, have you considered repositioning the door to go into the mechanical room instead of where it is at and then back the left car in so you have room to exit the drivers door and pull the right car in, but not all the way, reserving the area in front of it for storage?

Kroggers · Jun 20, 2011

Yes Jeff, it is going to be tight in the garage - but one way or another I will have to make it work. All the walls are supporting ones, so can not be moved, and the actual garage door we can not afford to change or alter for now.

The Visio diagram is a bit wrong, as I plan to use a lift to put the car that is at the back up and put the front of the other car under it and to one side (hope this makes sense!). Also based on my calculations and some playing with the two cars in a car park with some measuring, they will fit next to each other - but you can not get in or out of a car that way

I also will be happy to use some dolies (is that what they are called?) to be able to move one of the cars around a bit easier.

Another thing that might be relevant, but not sure if it actually is - one car is LHD and the other is RHD...

The actual numbers say that the two cars will fit in there, but it will not be a simple drive in and out process! It is not my dream man cave - for that I would have to move over to America or away from where we want to live, but it is a perfect house for the family and our life situation, so the garage will have to have some compromise!

But this will be my space and I will have a lot of fun - even if it will be tight

Kroggers · Jun 21, 2011

OK, moving on - I have now ordered my lift for the garage. After some searching and reading I decided that here in Europe this lift offered best safety and cost for my needs...

Next thing that I am looking into is the floor. At the moment the floor is painted, and I am not sure what it is painted with. I would like to put down the RaceDeck stuff and have had a play on their web site with different options and patterns - But with me based in Finland it is going to end up rather expensive on the shipping etc making the RaceDeck a very expensive option. I did get a contact to a company here in Europe that imports the RaceDeck, but they are based in Holland making again the shipping costs quite high

osu69 · Jun 21, 2011

Check the ground clearance on the lift. I had a similar lift and needed ramps on either side at least 1.5" high to allow my low clearance cars to clear the lift.

I used 2X10X14' framing lumber laid flat on the floor with 45° angles cut on the approach ends. It worked well with a straight-in approach from the garage door but the arrangement precluded any maueuvering inside the garage stall.

You may be able to get only two of the three items (911, Boxster, lift) in the garage at one time.

Good Luck.

Dennis Cavallino · Jun 21, 2011

Is it the IKEA forum, where you met Jack??

Welcome! I like the small places @ GJ, but yours is still even bigger than mine. I like this thread already.

Grtz, the other cool Cava

Kroggers · Jun 21, 2011

osu69 said:
Check the ground clearance on the lift. I had a similar lift and needed ramps on either side at least 1.5" high to allow my low clearance cars to clear the lift.

I used 2X10X14' framing lumber laid flat on the floor with 45° angles cut on the approach ends. It worked well with a straight-in approach from the garage door but the arrangement precluded any maueuvering inside the garage stall.

You may be able to get only two of the three items (911, Boxster, lift) in the garage at one time.

Good Luck.

Good info on the ground clearance, the Boxster is so low I can not even get a low-profile racing jack under there without driving onto some small blocks!!!

I like the wood ramps - I will have to do the same, thank you for the good idea

OK, so I have been taking notice about what you all have to say about the space and started to get a bit woried that the cars would not fit even if one was up in the air on a lift and the numbers sugest they should :headscrat

I talked again today with the builder that is going to be digging up the entrance to the garage to make it possible to get the cars down the hill to see if he had any good ideas that would work with all my restrictions - and here is his recommendations on what we should do - I think this is a good working solution, and he even suggested we could turn the extra roof into a small balcony type thing :thumbup:

Kroggers · Jun 21, 2011

Dennis Cavallino said:
Is it the IKEA forum, where you met Jack??

Welcome! I like the small places @ GJ, but yours is still even bigger than mine. I like this thread already.

Grtz, the other cool Cava

Is there even an IKEA forum?

Jack Olsen · Jun 22, 2011

If there is, I haven't found it.

(Although, strangely, today my garage was featured on Jalopnik as "The Amazing DIY Ikea Dream Garage." I'm not sure where they found the Ikea or the dreams in my garage. It's mostly green paint and car parts.

For yours, I like the extension idea. That initial picture of the cars very close together made me nervous. Sooner or later, with cars that close, there's going to be a scrape.

Welcome to the Garage Journal, Kroggers.

Kroggers · Jun 22, 2011

Thank you for the welcome Jack

Nice article - a good read. I must admit that IKEA used to have a bad reputation over here for having furniture fit for students and low income people only (what is the feel for IKEA over in the US?), but I have found a lot of the stuff to be really good and plan to use as much IKEA stuff as possible in the garage.

I will try to do as you have done as well, and seek out as many good bargains as possible - that is half the fun, is it not

Did some more playing in Visio last night, and discovered that the small extension will actually make some large changes to the space - this is now my current plan. What do you who have done this before think - anything here that looks like it will not work or could be done better?

osu69 · Jun 22, 2011

Kroggers, that will work. Big improvement. Next item to check: height clearance.

Kroggers · Jun 23, 2011

osu69 said:
Kroggers, that will work. Big improvement. Next item to check: height clearance.

Thank you... On the height clearance, as you can see in the pictures at the start of the thread - the garage is in the basement and the height is not great.

I will have to go back an measure, but it is not great clearance!

I have hit some new (and unexpected to me) issues - turns out that building the extension will require planing permission as it alters the external look of the house. I have also been told that the alterations to the drive way might require approval as well - more cost and issues

The other thing that needs to be checked is if the extension might not make the access to the garage impossible with the cars! The drive way runs parallel to the house and turns sharp right into the garage down a slope. And as this is at the edge of the property, we do not have much space to expand.

I have spoken to the builder and we will go back and take some more detailed measurements early next week to see if it will actually work or not.

ghnl · Jun 23, 2011

Will you have enough width to open the doors of the second car? Any chance of making the extension to the rear? That might give you a little more width and help with the approach to the garage door...

PDACPA · Jun 23, 2011

Welcome Kroggers. Love the red 911 :beer:

Kroggers · Jun 23, 2011

ghnl said:
Will you have enough width to open the doors of the second car? Any chance of making the extension to the rear? That might give you a little more width and help with the approach to the garage door...

There is a chance that it will be a bit tight to get the door open, and maybe it will have to be a case of rolling the car in and out of the garage - but this is the best I can do within the costs and options I have. There is no way to extend on the other side - it is under ground and to close to the property border!

PDACPA said:
Welcome Kroggers. Love the red 911

Thank you

ghnl · Jun 23, 2011

Kroggers said:
There is no way to extend on the other side - it is under ground and to close to the property border!

Perfect - then your neighbors won't notice it...!

Kroggers · Jun 23, 2011

ghnl said:
Perfect - then your neighbors won't notice it...!

That is true, and trust me I have considered it - but the budget will not stretch that far. Extending at the front by the door is easy and cheap as there is already the space there in theory without having to dig a lot...

I think extending the garage door section is a good compromise to give more space at a price that is affordable - and gives me something that is better than the starting point

osu69 · Jun 23, 2011

Rain water (and I suppose snow melt) drainage will be an issue if you extend the basement. It appears from the picture that the basement slab is lower than the driveway leading to it. Possible there is already drain tile in place?

Kroggers · Jun 23, 2011

Yes, drainage is part of the plan and already included. The basement and garage is below ground level and the driveway slopes down to the garage - this is one of the things that has to be changed, the entrance is to step for the cars to manage.

There is already french drains round the house, and the current garage has a drain in front of the door - the builder will ensure that when the door is moved out, the same is done and hopefully better. He has pointed out that the current drain in front of the garage door is a bit to small for his comfort, and has suggested a larger one is used when we do the conversions.

But why do you think the problem will be larger if we extend the garage than it is now, or am I misunderstanding your post?

Kroggers · Jun 27, 2011

Not a good start to the week - Just been told that I will need full planning permission to build the extension to the garage, and the estimated costs and time to go threw the official process makes it a no starter

So I will have to go back to the drawing board and think about this again with my builder friend...

Kroggers · Jun 27, 2011

I might have found some good news :bounce:

The problems from this morning forced me to go back and look at my Visio drawing in more detail to see how to solve the two car space issue - and it looks like I might have got some things out of scale at some point in time (like the car models in the Visio are to big), and this also made me question if the size I have for the parking space might not be to scale either!!!

I have attached a copy of the original architectural drawing that I used to generate the visio drawing - I am no good at this stuff, so can not work out what the actual size of the parking space is in the architectural drawing. In my Visio file it has come out as 4850mm x 8650mm - can someone with the correct skills confirm if this is correct or not?

Also, the actual size of the cars (based on so,e Google searching is)
Boxster 4343mm x 1781mm
911sc 4290mm x 1650mm

Once I altered the cars in Visio to this size, I actually found that the garage will fit both cars - even side-by-side!

But as I said, now I am questioning the size of the garage (parking) space in the Visio picture - can someone please help me to confirm what the physical size is based on the original architect drawing please

Sureshot · Jul 24, 2011

You can also put one car in forward and one backward can't you?? Or both backward for the improved manouverability?

Looking again I see you do have one backwards. So to settle it I will take one of the cars off your hands and even pay the freight to take it away.

rockchucker · Jul 24, 2011

Mitten Menne!

Hey nice place! My g/f is Finnish and we just visited there last year. Very cool place you live in!

Good luck with the build!

rsa · Jul 24, 2011

Kroggers said:
I might have found some good news

Measure twice, cut once.

Kroggers said:
I have attached a copy of the original architectural drawing that I used to generate the visio drawing - I am no good at this stuff, so can not work out what the actual size of the parking space is in the architectural drawing. In my Visio file it has come out as 4850mm x 8650mm - can someone with the correct skills confirm if this is correct or not?

Per the architectural drawings, the interior length is 9030mm - (340mm * 2) = 8350mm. I don't see enough information to calculate the interior width but I estimate your garage interior wall at 196mm. Rounding it up to 200mm makes your width 4830mm. You'll have to deduct any finishing materials added to the foundation walls. In English units, you've got yourself about a 27' 5" x 15' 10" space to work with. I'm not sure what's best.

Side-by-side you have 1400mm (55") room to spare. And how are you going to get them side by side? Off the top of my head I'd say bring one car into the garage, put it on wheel dollies, turn it 90º (there's just enough room), and push it to the back of the garage. Leaves plenty or room for the other car.

Kroggers said:
Also, the actual size of the cars (based on so,e Google searching is) Boxster 4343mm x 1781mm, 911sc 4290mm x 1650mm

Measure twice, cut once.

Don't forget to include the width of the mirrors!

Edit: I wouldn't be offended if someone checked my math.

rsa · Jul 25, 2011

Too hard, I know...

Kroggers said:
There is no way to extend on the other side - it is under ground and to close to the property border!

May we revisit that?

What about a small, floor-level cubbyhole at the rear of the garage? Make it just large enough into which to poke the snout of one of them. Then you'd have ample room to park the other behind it.

Kroggers · Jul 25, 2011

Not long now - we get the key on the 15th, and with some luck the builders will start on the driveway on the 16th. At the same time I will get the walls in the garage painted and start getting ready to get the cars in. Until the driveway has been completed, I can not get the cars in to test for space!

To save on cost, I have decided to do one room at a time (as and when money and time permits) - I would rather do the job properly the first time round, rather than having to do something twice. But this will mean that I have to take a bit longer for each part.

@ rsa - thank you for looking at the numbers for me, looks like my new calculations came out rather close to yours which is nice. Purely mathematically, there is enough space in there for the two cars - but I will have to have see what the best configuration ends up as once I can drive them in and test things out. There will also be a scissor lift in there, which in some way could help with space, as I can lift up one car on it and park the other partially under it!?!

I had considered extending or building onto the rear exterior wall as you suggest, but with the costs are just to high. We would have to dig out the dirt and then also consider the fact that it is a bearing wall - I do not even want to think about how much all that would cost!!!

@ Rockchucker - Watch out

I was told when I started to date my wife that every Finnish woman will eventually want to go home - and here I now am living in Finland...

Kroggers · Aug 4, 2011

1.5 weeks to go, and the fun will start

My friend Toni who is the builder that will do the new drive way for us has confirmed that they will start on the 16th, and we have agreed on some nice stones for the new drive and the new wall etc.

After some planning and moving stuff round on the outside of the house - this is the end design that we have opted for (sorry for the bad Visio artistic drawing!). And a picture of the house from the main road to hopefully explain what we will be changing.

Whilst Toni starts digging the new drive, I will get in and paint the garage. The main garage part (where the cars will be) I plan to have as empty as possible to give as much space as I can for the cars. So minimal workbench space and storage racks.

I will paint the walls white, but was wondering about putting up something like stainless steel or aluminium plate for the bottom 1/4 part of the wall - has anyone done this before?

BoostAddiction · Aug 4, 2011

Why do you have a permanent ladder and what looks like walkway to go up to the roof? I've never seen that before.

Kroggers · Aug 4, 2011

That is normal over here - it is to give better access for maintenance and removing snow in the winter...

jsmithcds · Aug 4, 2011

Kroggers said:
1.5 weeks to go, and the fun will start

My friend Toni who is the builder that will do the new drive way for us has confirmed that they will start on the 16th, and we have agreed on some nice stones for the new drive and the new wall etc.

After some planning and moving stuff round on the outside of the house - this is the end design that we have opted for (sorry for the bad Visio artistic drawing!). And a picture of the house from the main road to hopefully explain what we will be changing.

Whilst Toni starts digging the new drive, I will get in and paint the garage. The main garage part (where the cars will be) I plan to have as empty as possible to give as much space as I can for the cars. So minimal workbench space and storage racks.

I will paint the walls white, but was wondering about putting up something like stainless steel or aluminium plate for the bottom 1/4 part of the wall - has anyone done this before?

Kroggers,

I put a product called Acrovyn as a wainscot on my wall. It is an .060 sheet of plastic. Looks great and takes a ton of abuse. Comes in any color you can imagine. I am sure they have an equivalent across the pond. That is what I used on the pics you saw over on the Pelican board.

Kroggers · Aug 4, 2011

jsmithcds said:
Kroggers,

I put a product called Acrovyn as a wainscot on my wall. It is an .060 sheet of plastic. Looks great and takes a ton of abuse. Comes in any color you can imagine. I am sure they have an equivalent across the pond. That is what I used on the pics you saw over on the Pelican board.

Cool, thank you - I will look into this.

Kroggers · Aug 4, 2011

Just did a quick google - looks like you can get Acrovyn in Scandinavia - http://www.c-sgroup.se/

Kroggers · Aug 8, 2011

getting really excited - one week to go until we get the keys to our new house and I can start sorting out the garage etc

Had a nice score today. I found an advert on a local site just after it was posted for a compressor, tyre machine and wheel balancing machine (sorry for the bad pictures - these were the ones from the advert). He was after a quick sale, so I made my offer for it all and he accepted

I will also be going out this evening to get the paint for the walls. As most do I will pain the walls white. But I wan to do so something extra! I have seen many that do the wall in two colours with the bottom part in red or something. I was thinking rather than having it like this, I would to the back wall in the garage red and leave the other three white. Anyone else done something like this?

Kroggers · Aug 16, 2011

Work has started - both outside and in the man cave :bounce:

On the outside of the house, we have marked out ready for the digging that will start tomorrow and cut down one small tree that was in the way...

On the inside, I today cleaned out some of the stuff that had not been taken by the last owner and painted the main garage section.

I was wanting to do the walls in white and red, but looking for something different - I like the two tone walls that most do with the separating line in the middle, but felt like trying to do the garage white with a red accent wall. I like how it has turned out, and will follow the idea threw into the other rooms as well I think...

MG30 · Aug 16, 2011

Very good thread. Here in Europe the hauses are diferent from the USA. Mine in Portugal is very similar to yours, the diference is that i bought my back neigbour bulding.

Good luck to the moving.

flybefree · Aug 16, 2011

Kroggers: Cool cars, can't wait so what you do with the space...yes Ikea has the same reputation in the states...I go there for the food...the coffee is excellent!

Shaun

Jim Richards · Aug 17, 2011

You're not wasting any time getting started, Kroggers. Fantastic!

Kroggers · Aug 17, 2011

MG30 said:
Very good thread. Here in Europe the hauses are diferent from the USA. Mine in Portugal is very similar to yours, the diference is that i bought my back neigbour bulding.

Good luck to the moving.

That is so true, what I would not give to have one of those large garage set-up's that all you lucky Americans have - maybe one day!!!

flybefree said:
Kroggers: Cool cars, can't wait so what you do with the space...yes Ikea has the same reputation in the states...I go there for the food...the coffee is excellent!

Shaun

Thank you Shaun, those two cars are my pride and joy... We also go to IKEA for the food, but mainly due to the fact that it is good and really cheap

Jim Richards said:
You're not wasting any time getting started, Kroggers. Fantastic!

I can't - I had a rental contract on garage space for the cars, and as soon as we had a confirmed completion date on the house I gave my notice on the rental - I need to have the cars out by the middle of next month!

So, today was a good and fun day. My friend Toni turned up with the digger and got stuck in. The kids thought it was really cool, and even got a chance to play "bob the builder"

Whilst Toni was digging and not calling for my help I got most of the painting done in the basement - until the paint ran out, I will pick up some more tomorrow morning.

Here are some pictures from the day.

hh76 · Aug 17, 2011

not to be the safety police, but those kids really should be seat belted in when they are operating the excavator.

Kroggers · Aug 18, 2011

Another good day, both for Toni and for me

Whilst Toni and his team were digging and fixing outside, I managed to get another room in the basement painted and one of the rooms in the main house...

We did hit some interesting issues along the way - or should I say, Toni hit some issues and decided to announce them as problems = $$$. The house was built 1990, and some of the things that have been done are maybe not what would be done today. One of these things is the drainage that had been used to stop water coming into the garage was not very good. End result is additional work to the project and an extra sump pump!

Here are the pictures from today's work

My little hideout in Finland

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