West Side Story

Skeetobite · Apr 23, 2014

We found a property with 12 garages (4 sets of 3). We call them North, South, East and West. When I want to mess with my son, I tell him to go get my hammer from the garage :thumbup:

There are 2, 3 car attached garages on the house. These are East and West. The previous owner was a car collector, which is a hobby I plan to embrace.

Last month I had all 6 doors in the attached garages high lifted and am now shifting my focus to finishing the West Garage.

West side garages:

Before lifting the doors: (note the poly hinges)

After lifting the doors:

50,000 cycle springs
Steel hinges
new track and guide wheels
LiftMaster 8500
Internet Gateway

Exterior WiFi: (serves fire pit and detached garages)

This is where I plan to install cabinets:

The irrigation controller will be difficult to move because it controls 35 zones. That's a lot of rewiring. I think I'll just open the back of a cabinet and leave it in place.

There's a radiant tube heater in the third stall. This will be moved to the center of the garage against the back wall.

One problem I have for this garage is the length of my vehicle:

Last year I had the slab replaced and extended for a proper half court and the ability to pull up and back straight into the stalls.

The Suburban is 18.5' long and 6' 2" tall, so I can't have any cabinets behind it or the heater directly above it. So my daughter's SHO will go in the center stall and the Suburban in the last stall. The first stall is for the poker table :pimpflash

I REALLY want to use black RaceDeck free flow for the floor, but this garage faces West and the afternoon sun already buckles the beat up old SwissTrax flooring that's in there. I normally park the golf cart on the SwissTrax and when I open the door, the floor buckles under the cart. It's a PITA and I hate it.

Here's what I'm planning so far:

New flooring - type undecided
New cabinets - considering "NewAge" or Gladiator
Cable/Internet hardwired
Audio System
Relocate furnace and conceal gas line inside walls and attic
Motorized screen door - first stall
Recessed lighting - LED
Track lighting - Halogen
12' Steel attic ladder

Thoughts, feedback and guidance always appreciated!

dubber · Apr 23, 2014

I have a feeling this will become my new favorite thread. Can't wait to see new updates. I really love what a difference adding those liftmaster openers can make.

I'm not sure that Free Flow tiles would have the same buckling issue as a solid tile. I've never experienced it personally and where i am we get temps from -40 celcius in the winter to +40 celcius in the summer.

NKlamerus · Apr 23, 2014

Yeah I'm sub'd for sure. I really can't wait to see more pictures!

Is that a 2015 sub??

Skeetobite · Apr 23, 2014

Thanks guys. Yep, that's the 2015 Suburban. My third Suburban since 2007. This one is incredible. Pics don't do it justice at all.

Jay Sco · Apr 23, 2014

Wow! I'll be following this as well.

msgross · Apr 23, 2014

nice space... and vehicles.

Zeke · Apr 23, 2014

They're selling 2015 cars in April? What's with that?

Anyway, hella nice garage...s. The do over on the overhead doors made a huge difference in aesthetics. You've got so much floor space that I'd convert one into a sports court. Must be cold up there in the winter to play much outside. How about some street hockey?

BTW, love the title of the thread.

coykiam · Apr 23, 2014

my jaw just dropped when it said "12 car garage..."

I'm still dreaming of 2 for me instead of 1....can't wait to see the progress and nice suburban!

ZRX61 · Apr 23, 2014

Are ya saying the original builder collected cars.. but only made the garages 20ft deep??

Skeetobite · Apr 23, 2014

The attached garages are around 1,000 sq. feet each and are about 22' deep. By the time I add cabinets and then wedge the Suburban in there, I have no room to get by. My wife's explorer and daughters SHO fit fine.

The detached garages are 1,500 sq. feet -or- 30' x 50' each. The attached garages have 12'+ ceilings while the detached have 10' ceilings. They're all finished and heated, but all of them need a do over. So there's like 5,000 sq. feet of heated garage space. It's crazy, the kids rollerblade, target practice with their air rifles and hang out in them in the winter.

Total heated space on the property is 11,000 sq. feet +/- and... wait for it... on propane. We're converting to natural gas in June. Another crazy thing he did. I burned a ton of propane this winter... never again-

Skeetobite · Apr 23, 2014

Having all of the seams in the drywall cut out and redone. Seems pretty typical that the drywall work in garages gets little attention to detail. Doing ceiling paint on the... um... ceiling. And then prime the walls. I'll paint them myself when I pick a final color scheme.

dubber · Apr 23, 2014

Good call outsourcing the ceiling painting. PITA!

Skeetobite · Apr 23, 2014

Just had these guys paint the foyer, no way I could get up there to do it.

Pretty slow, but very meticulous. They will be doing the heavy lifting on the drywall and ceilings in all of the garages. Found them on Angie's List, which has been a great resource for stuff like this.

bazzateer · Apr 24, 2014

12 garage spaces? By UK standards then that'll be about 20 cars' worth! YOU ****!!!

vonhef · Apr 24, 2014

Wow... thats alot of garage.

volleyball · Apr 24, 2014

Could you spare a bay or 2 for a poor guy ?

tncumminsguy · Apr 24, 2014

I think every garage should have it's own paint scheme, that would be awesome!

Are any of the detached garages large enough for a lift? I would make one of them the "dirty" garage for work and projects

Skeetobite · Apr 24, 2014

tncumminsguy said:
I think every garage should have it's own paint scheme, that would be awesome!

Are any of the detached garages large enough for a lift? I would make one of them the "dirty" garage for work and projects

That's exactly what I'm thinking as well. Right now I'm planning to make the East Garage the "dirty" garage. It has high ceilings, hot and cold softened water, HVAC.

dubber · Apr 25, 2014

Skeetobite said:
That's exactly what I'm thinking as well. Right now I'm planning to make the East Garage the "dirty" garage. It has high ceilings, hot and cold softened water, HVAC.

That sounds like a perfect spot for the shop, the rest can be for show!

Joe13 · Apr 25, 2014

I think we need photos of all the garages and maybe a ariel showing how they situate on the property! You seem to have stumbled onto my dream property. i would be happy with just one of the detached 30x50s.

Skeetobite · Apr 25, 2014

Here's a Google Maps arial shot looking East. The garage doors you can see on the house are for the garage in this thread. I extended the slab 50% wider for this garage last year. Unfortunately a number of the trees were blighted so we took them out.

The drive is lined with Bradford Pear trees. This shot is from last Spring, but we should have the blooms by next week or so:

North garage: this is where my secret lab, lawn equipment and future wood shop are located: (South garage is identical, but mirrored)

dubber · Apr 25, 2014

Wow, thanks for posting that pic for perspective. I'm sure many of us were trying to wrap our heads around it

So the two buildings on the bottom are also garages that the PO used to store cars? No connecting driveway though?

Skeetobite · Apr 25, 2014

dubber said:
Wow, thanks for posting that pic for perspective. I'm sure many of us were trying to wrap our heads around it

So the two buildings on the bottom are also garages that the PO used to store cars? No connecting driveway though?

Yep, those are the detached garages. They're finished and heated, but no A/C (yet) Weird that he never finished the driveways to them. However he did lose the house, so I'm thinking he ran out of cash and access to other people's money before he could finish.

Skeetobite · Apr 25, 2014

I'll add more shots as I find them or take them

Skeetobite · Apr 25, 2014

Garage on the East side:

West side slab demo:

Neither of the detached garages had anything to step on outside the man door. You just stepped down into mud. I added a small patio to each one (working on the south garage):

Late last Summer. A little of the South garage in view:

Dakota00 · Apr 25, 2014

Gorgeous!! Man I would kill to have a property like that!! How many sq.ft is the house?

Keep the pics coming!

Skeetobite · Apr 25, 2014

Thanks Dakota00. The house is a little over 6,000 Sq. Ft. That includes the finished basement at 2,100 Sq. Ft. though. Add in the attached garages and we're slightly over 8,000 Sq. Ft.

Joe13 · Apr 25, 2014

Jesus!!! I humbly bow to you. that is amazing. and thank you so much for the pictures. Gives us younger guys a reason to invent the next snuggie, or whatever will secure our futures. :lol:

Skeetobite · Apr 25, 2014

This is the first snow we saw after moving from Florida. I took a winter and summer pic to help plan landscape lighting. I always felt like landscape lighting should point upward, not down from the soffits!

Sorry, it's a grainy cell phone pic.

tncumminsguy · Apr 25, 2014

Very cool set-up, if it was me I would make one of the detached garages your "dirty" garage for car stuff. That way if your up working late you won't wake the family up. But the 10' ceilings will make it a challenge to fit a good 2-post lift

warmpancakes · Apr 25, 2014

Where is se mich. Looks like shelby twp

Skeetobite · Apr 25, 2014

Shelby Twp. is one hour due East via M-59. I had my city/state, but got creeped out when someone found it on Google Maps and commented on the golf course by name ;-)

warmpancakes · Apr 25, 2014

I'm 8 miles south of 59 off 23 so I'm close

Skeetobite · Apr 28, 2014

Ceiling finished and all walls repaired & primed:

I'm looking for some ideas and input on lighting from the pros. I'm considering a combination of recessed LED (2,700K) and flexible halogen track lighting. This is the showcase garage and will not require the lighting I plan for the "dirty" garage and shop.

The garage isn't very deep at all. Wracking my brain to figure out why a car collector went shallow on the garage depth. There's no room for cabinets behind a full size SUV. I may need to park this one somewhere else.

The exterior lighting is a mess. All of the down lights in the soffit are 60w incandescent bulbs. Wasps build nests behind the bulbs and they burn out with the quickness :sad:

These will be retrofit with sealed LED fixtures. The "security" lights are all rotted, busted or burned out. They don't match either; there's a mix of halogen, florescent and MH (pink light - Yuck). Haven't decided on the replacement for these yet. The down lights will pretty much kill the budget.

I really like this heater. This will be moved to the rear center of the garage next week and we'll hide the supply line in the wall and attic. I like it because it gives a nice even heat throughout the garage. No wind, no filters to change and is appears to be more efficient than the standard furnaces in the other garages,

Late last year we added a nice fire pit by the West garage. The next week it snowed so we never got to use it.

Gives a great view of the golf course also:

As mentioned in a prior post, there are 6 furnaces and 2, 75 gal. water heaters - all burning propane. That will change in june :thumbup:

Apparently the neighbors have been trying for years, decades really, to get NG piped to their houses. They received quotes ranging from $8,000 to $22,000 to have the main extended and the connections made. For some reason nobody thought to combine their efforts. I negotiated with the local NG provider to extend the gas main 3/4 of a mile and got everyone hooked up for just $3,200 per house (7 out of 11 new NG users will be connected this year). Done deal. The average payback is about 2.5 years after connections and conversions. Mine will pay for itself next winter!

I plan to tie the detached buildings in on a separate meter and will do this when we move on to renovate them.

ZRX61 · Apr 28, 2014

Planning for new driveway to the remote garages?

Skeetobite · Apr 28, 2014

ZRX61 said:
Planning for new driveway to the remote garages?

Yeah, I would like that. Probably not this year though. What I would really like to do is a drive through stall in one of the south garage bays. This would give me a nice wash bay. We have about 2 miles of dirt road before our driveway and the cars can be a mess often.

GRN96WS6 · Apr 28, 2014

Damn nice setup, still unsure why he had those two garages with no drive access to them being a car collector, how odd.

dubber · Apr 29, 2014

Nice work helping out the neighbours with the NG line. Always preferential to have them in your favor

Agreed with the comment above, as previously mentioned, still confused by this. Then again with the narrow depth's of all of the garages, maybe he collected old MINI's and they never left the garage lol...

Skeetobite · Apr 29, 2014

Apparently he only parked the daily drivers in the East garage and on the driveway. The West garage was set up for his son, who was attempting to become a pro golfer. It had an elevated putting green and a camera/computer/Lighting system to measure his swing when driving. Incredibly, he left all of this equipment here when they bailed. I disassembled it and stored the gear in the North garage for now.

The golf course gossip was that he kept American Muscle and an F40 Ferrari in the detached garages but rarely drove them due to the dirt road. My BIL lives one mile away on the same road and saw the Ferrari often, but never saw any classic muscle. I'm thinking he never had more than 3 collectibles at a time.

The detached garages are huge. Plenty of room for cars, cabinets, etc. Not very high ceilings though. He obviously just drove the cars across the grass, which is very flat, smooth and firm in front of the South garage.

I don't plan on getting any cars I'm not willing to drive regularly.

Here's a Realtor's shot of the West Garage:

volleyball · Apr 29, 2014

Why do you need a big workbench for the showroom garage? Room for the vehicles and enough room to walk around. And if you are not talking mid 60's and newer, most vehicles are not that long.

I tried that NG pipeline thing but never could get everyone or even most onboard as you have to put in a gas item immediately. What hurts is a major pieline is at the end of the street and the pumphouse is less than a mile away.

West Side Story

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