Mog Cabin - 50x30 car condo

farrbar · Sep 15, 2014

I have seen a couple of really cool car condos featured on this site and other car forums. Most of them have been from the Minneapolis AutoMotorplex. If that type of venue existed within 10 minutes of my house I would be "all in". This type of product is finally coming to Chicagoland, but will be more than 40 minutes from my house, so not a viable option to me.

After letting go of the idea of a central clubhouse and being surrounded by other car enthusiasts, I decided to move forward on an industrial space.

The unit I found is a 30x50 in a 12 unit industrial building, less than 10 minutes from my house. It turns out that 4 of the units (i.e. me and the 3 prior units to sell) are now "car guys" and the others are mostly trades (a couple HVAC companies, builders....). Perhaps in a few years car guys will be the majority.

The space has a few immediate needs, but should work out great after I spend then next couple months getting it ready. Overall it is 30x50, 16' clear span, bathroom, office, 1 DID and 2 man doors.

The first issue is that the office was built to partially block the DID :lol_hitti

clearly the prior owner never pulled a vehicle into the warehouse area. So I am shrinking and renovating the office. Will have a couch, tv, desk and beer fridge.

Other work to include paint the warehouse, epoxy the floor and update the bathroom.

I have tried to include a few pictures showing the obstruction of the DID.

farrbar · Sep 15, 2014

oh..... i forgot to include the reason I am calling it the "Mog Cabin".

The most recent addition to the collection is a 1971 Mercedes Unimog. I am going to wait until the work is done to move my other toys in, but I can't keep this thing at home.

MadMechMaster · Sep 15, 2014

I like it!

Not being walking distance would take some getting used to(and finding the time to be away from the house). You can always start a business when you want.

farrbar · Sep 15, 2014

MadMechMaster said:
I like it!

Not being walking distance would take some getting used to(and finding the time to be away from the house). You can always start a business when you want.

Currently my overflow parking is in the city (20 minutes no traffic, an hour+ during rush hour). So this will be a huge improvement.

Given that my house has a small 2 car that has been taken over by bikes, wagons.... this will offer a safer area for my stuff.

farrbar · Sep 16, 2014

So I moved the old wall over about 5.5 feet.

First I had to cut back the drop ceiling in the office. Then cut back the carpet. Then sawzall the nails that power nailed the base plate to the concrete. The wall had 1/2" drywall on both sides, and paneling on the inside (i.e. office side). To make this more manageable I removed the paneling and drywall on the office side. This also gave my access to the existing electric. Here code requires all wiring to be in metal conduit.

Then without hitting the sprinkler head I had to move a 16 foot wall section over about 5.5 feet, square/plumb and then tie into the concrete and adjacent walls. Even with drywall only on one side, this wall was pretty darn heavy.

You can see in the second picture, the white area on the concrete floor is actually glue from the old carpet. This helps gauge what need to be moved.

I still need to move the air return for the office HVAC (now it would pull in warehouse air). Will probably just use a flexible tube for this. Also need to move some electrical and exit sign, install new door (and possibly window) between office and warehouse, then install new office floor and drywall.

Finally, here is a picture showing the height of the Unimog next to a full size Mercedes SUV (i.e. GL).

AndrewnTX · Sep 16, 2014

Cool vehicle and will be a great space when you get it situated!

farrbar · Sep 24, 2014

So today was very productive..... I got the inside warehouse walls painted. Just went with white to help lighten the place up. I will probably go back and add a stripe or two, but want to get murals (if any), and signs figured out first. Figured a nice fresh coat of white would be a good base.

A one man crew started at 7 am and was done by 3:30... glad I outsourced that. Used about 28 gallons of paint.... he applied with a sprayer and then backrolled.

Tomorrow I am getting the floor at my house done, and then next week this garage is getting epoxy (my wife said I could not get the warehouse epoxied until our house was epoxied.... so after years of procrastination tomorrow is the day).

sean Buick 76 · Sep 24, 2014

Great work so far and smart move to hire out the painting!!!

autolex · Sep 24, 2014

This is so cool! I'm interested to see what you do with the Inner warehouse finished space.

farrbar · Sep 24, 2014

autolex said:
This is so cool! I'm interested to see what you do with the Inner warehouse finished space.

In the short term, epoxy the floor and some basic cabinets..... so I can park cars this winter.

In my dreams -> a mural of old gas station. My first job was working at a Philips 66. I want a vintage gas pump. Also, I'd like to take the warehouse side of the office walls and turn them into an exterior facade (old tavern or bank look).

There have been so many great ideas on this board. Strange Days, Don Long..... to name a few. Long time lurker, but in the past have not had much to add to the forum.

farrbar · Sep 24, 2014

Today was another productive day.... (although after today I can't do any more this week).

At my house we got the floor done. The grinded off the old paint (prior owner), then did a base coat, added tons of flakes [dry], vacuumed extra flakes off, then addred a clear flood coat. Took two pros about 7 hours start to finish (with a couple hour drying break in the middle). The pics are before, grinding, after flakes, and then close up of finished product.

Over at the Mog Cabin I decided shrink the office a litte more with regard to depth. Specifically, if you look at the picture with a broom leaning against the office wall, I decided to cut the office back to that point. This will make getting cars in the far back corner easier, and may help increase the car capacity by one. Office will still be 11.5 x 18 when done.

autolex · Sep 25, 2014

farrbar said:
In the short term, epoxy the floor and some basic cabinets..... so I can park cars this winter.
...

Long time lurker, but in the past have not had much to add to the forum.

Same here, Joined 4 years ago and started posting this week! (finally bought a place with a garage, FOUR YEARS Later)

Nice work on the wall demo, seems like it's still more than enough "office" for the most of us

farrbar · Oct 1, 2014

Some more progress..... I installed the door between the office and warehouse. I also installed a window. I put the window up high enough that I could put a bench under the window on the warehouse side.

Tomorrow is a big day, as the warehouse floor is getting epoxied.

dubber · Oct 1, 2014

Another cool car condo, love these. AND you have a Unimog, i'll definitely be watching this!

farrbar · Oct 1, 2014

dubber said:
Another cool car condo, love these. AND you have a Unimog, i'll definitely be watching this!

Thanks! I have been watching your double come together, you have a nice eye for the detail..... and I like your Audi centercaps.

dubber · Oct 1, 2014

farrbar said:
Thanks! I have been watching your double come together, you have a nice eye for the detail..... and I like your Audi centercaps.

Thank you sir. Painting those walls white is such an improvement right out of the gate. Let us know how it went with the floors tomorrow.

pmason0 · Oct 2, 2014

Nice project, I pretty much did the same thing, I have a 30x56 industrial condo. The one thing you were smarter about was to buy one with a bathroom already. It was pretty expensive to put in an ADA bathroom in a commercial property.

farrbar · Oct 2, 2014

pmason0 said:
Nice project, I pretty much did the same thing, I have a 30x56 industrial condo. The one thing you were smarter about was to buy one with a bathroom already. It was pretty expensive to put in an ADA bathroom in a commercial property.

Good point, and a reason why I won't do "any work" to the bathroom

Thankfully the expensive stuff (sprinkler system, fire alarms...) were already done.

farrbar · Oct 2, 2014

Today was a good day..... as planned, I the floors got done. They opened up the crete by grinding. When they did this last week at my house they used a glroified palm sander.... this week they brought in the big gun. They filled all the cracks, then ground the patches down, then epoxied.

I'm please with how it looks. Will probably add a little color to the walls, but want to wait and see once I have some signs & banners up.

Looking forward to taking the weekend off from this project as the floor cures.

bofe954 · Oct 2, 2014

Did you buy or lease? If you bought, is it similar to a regular condo, you buy and then pay an association fee for upkeep? Curious about investment potential of unused commercial property sometimes...

pmason0 · Oct 3, 2014

I'm guessing by all the work he is doing he bought. When I looked at leasing first they passed on the association fees and property taxes to the renter. Why would I pay someone else taxes is what I was thinking.

Farrbar, floor looks nice I wished I put flakes in mine, mine is just gray and it shows marks etc easy.

farrbar · Oct 4, 2014

bofe954 said:
Did you buy or lease? If you bought, is it similar to a regular condo, you buy and then pay an association fee for upkeep? Curious about investment potential of unused commercial property sometimes...

I bought. There us a very reasonable association fee that covers building repair (roof, parking lot...) and insurance for the structure.

I was tempted to try and buy a larger empty space and carve it up, but as Pmason indicated, modifications that need to comply with current codes can be costly, I felt like it was going to eat up my profit. I could have gotten a 15,000 sf building for like half what I paid on a per square foot basis - but carry costs (taxes... Maintenance) would be huge.

farrbar · Oct 5, 2014

dubber said:
Thank you sir. Painting those walls white is such an improvement right out of the gate. Let us know how it went with the floors tomorrow.

Oh snap.... so they did the floors on Thursday and they looked fine at the time. I peaked in thursday night and there were a couple bubbles, but they had said a few might appear and that they would go away. In fact last week when they did the floors at my house it had a couple bubbles when I went to bed and I woke up at they were gone.

So after taking the weekend off..... I went by this afternoon to move the Unimog back inside. Not only did the couple of bubbles not disappear..... now there are hundreds of bubbles - but the floor is dry.

Of course thinking the work was all done payment was made on Friday. I guess I will get a chance to see if the flooring guy is a stand up guy, or if I screwed myself by paying timely.

I found a few posts that that have suggested that this can be fixed by sanding each bubble and then applying coating. Anyone have experience with this?

Other thoughts?

farrbar · Oct 16, 2014

So, the contractor came out and sanded the floor down patched most of the little creators that were formed from the bubbles, applied more expoxy and a clear coat.

Overall, I am pleased with the fix. I think he was responsive with respect to the fix. Certainly I question if it should have ever happened, but I know I have made mistakes before.

I have attached a before and after of the same corner of the garage - you can see the bubbles are gone.

farrbar · Oct 16, 2014

autolex said:
This is so cool! I'm interested to see what you do with the Inner warehouse finished space.

I'm starting to work on the office. Hope to have some pictures this weekend. I did buy the flooring - want with a floating bamboo.

Also, last weekend I got a 4 post lift installed.

dubber · Oct 17, 2014

Awesome to see the contractor did the right thing. Nice job, great results.

madoc1 · Oct 17, 2014

great spot and good work. I have a friend that has a converted industrial bldg. in the chi area. three story-large garage on the ground level w/ a guest apt. upper two floors and roof is the main living area. really nice, with great view from the rooftop deck. would live there in a minute, but only in the summer! lol

jim

farrbar · Oct 17, 2014

madoc1 said:
great spot and good work. I have a friend that has a converted industrial bldg. in the chi area. three story-large garage on the ground level w/ a guest apt. upper two floors and roof is the main living area. really nice, with great view from the rooftop deck. would live there in a minute, but only in the summer! lol

jim

Thanks for the note.... summers in Chicago are great. I have friends in Spicewood on the lake - cool spot.

If I had been starting with raw space I would have built the office as a loft, and removed the first floor office (leaving more floor space for toys). However, there is an HVAC system that is hanging from the rafters above the existing office. As such, I just re-worked with what was there. If the A/C system ever needs to be replace I will consider adding a lofted space, and shrinking the first floor office.

madoc1 · Oct 17, 2014

farrbar said:
Thanks for the note.... summers in Chicago are great. I have friends in Spicewood on the lake - cool spot.

If I had been starting with raw space I would have built the office as a loft, and removed the first floor office (leaving more floor space for toys). However, there is an HVAC system that is hanging from the rafters above the existing office. As such, I just re-worked with what was there. If the A/C system ever needs to be replace I will consider adding a lofted space, and shrinking the first floor office.

I also live by the lake. the one who owns the Chicago place is a she and also owns a local bar down here. she does visit up there a lot tho.

jim

farrbar · Oct 18, 2014

So - in the "office" I demolished the old receptionist window, this added about 6x6 to the office. I have tired to include a before picture from a similar vantage point as the picture looking at the front door.

I also got the floating floor in.

In the little nook to the right of the window (the one that looks into warehouse) I plan to add counter top and beer fridge. On the wall just to the left of that same window I plan to add a tv.

Finally, a friend used to have a selection of rims at his shop, but he no longer sells them - he let me take a couple samples which will serve as table bases for a coffee table.

farrbar · Oct 29, 2014

I have been busy buying stuff.... Friday my cabinets for the shop will get delivered - I went with the New Age stuff via Costco. I still need to paint the office, but hope to get that done while waiting for the cabinet delivery. Then I will buy a couch, and that will be it for a while, I'm running out of time and $$ :willy_nil

I bought some kitchen cabinets for the little office bar, and a beer fridge too!

Also got a desk/chair for the office.

The local TV shop had a 51" Samsung for $377 so I had to buy it. It is only 720P, but it is going in a garage! and will probably just use an attena as the cost of monthly service doesn't make sense.

Finally, I hung a neon sign that I have had for years but never had a place to hang it.

karpesh29 · Oct 29, 2014

Nice build, can't wait to see more! Thats a damn good price on that tv, nicely done!

KTB · Oct 30, 2014

Where'd you get the desk and chair?

frank_c · Oct 30, 2014

farrbar said:
The local TV shop had a 51" Samsung for $377 so I had to buy it. It is only 720P, but it is going in a garage! and will probably just use an attena as the cost of monthly service doesn't make sense.

Antenna and a BluRay player with apps (or even an Amazon Fire TV) and you have plenty of options. I have a 32" Vizio in my garage hooked up to a $25 antenna, and maybe the PS3 or Ouya depending on my mood.

dubber · Oct 30, 2014

Bling Bling, Giovanna wheel coffee table, that's how you know you have made it hehehe. Great progress, keep it up.

farrbar · Oct 30, 2014

karpesh29 said:
Nice build, can't wait to see more! Thats a damn good price on that tv, nicely done!

Thanks... If anyone wants the tv shop info send me a pm. I believe they offer free shipping. Sale runs through Sunday.

farrbar · Oct 30, 2014

KTB said:
Where'd you get the desk and chair?

They are "Pit Stop" brand.

I got them from the carguygarage site. However, now that I look at the list of Alliance vendors, I see them on GarageArt with a better price, not to mention the 10% discount.....

motofool33 · Oct 30, 2014

nice build i think you'll enjoy the space alot.

i8tokyo · Oct 30, 2014

nice place, fellow Chicagoan'ish I am south of the city... you ****, you have a MOG. I want one so bad, and an Exige that I can park underneath. Looks like a great shop, enjoy...

farrbar · Nov 3, 2014

i8tokyo said:
nice place, fellow Chicagoan'ish I am south of the city... you ****, you have a MOG. I want one so bad, and an Exige that I can park underneath. Looks like a great shop, enjoy...

Funny you mention parking the Exige under the Mog..... I had a very early '05 Elise, and after a trip on I-55 (lots of truck traffic) I was afraid they were going to lane change over the top of me. After a while I traded the Elise for an equally sized Beck Spyder. Wish I still owned them both - part of why I'm doing this garage so I can be more reluctant to sell a unique car.

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