jeremy_cherokee
Well-known member
I'm going to start my personal build thread here soon, however, my dad finally got to build his dream shop and I thought I'd share.
A little background. My dad and I, I'm pretty sure, were born with gasoline in our veins. We're always finding projects, whether it be on a car, our houses, or anything in between. We live about 20 minutes from each other now so that we're far enough to have some space but close enough our kids to get to spend a lot of time with papa and nana. My parents have had a bad tenancy to move around (Just in the last 20 years ... they lived in a small town near us for 7 years, moved to another house within that town for 5 years, then moved to another town for 2 years, another town for 2 years, and now I think they have FINALLY found a place to settle down. They've had some really neat houses when they were moving around but they were HUGE houses and they just don't need that space anymore. So, around November last year they moved in to an older home that better fits them, sits on about an acre, and had room for the one thing my dad hasn't had in at least 5 years (since their second house in the first town) ... a shop.
The house they moved into needed some updating. The people who built it in 1960 (I think) had not changed a single thing in the 50+ years they lived there. It was all in great shape, but was definitely showing its age. So, last year he did new hard wood flooring, put in an office and a bedroom downstairs, put new tile in the entry way and basement, and painted every room of the house. Then this year we learned that the PO wasn't necessarily truthful about "never having water damage" and we got the pleasure of installing a tile system outside right before the shop started. Here's a picture of the "in progress" tile system - we were able to use an excavator for most of it but the old man was too worried about the utilities and hand dug this huge section by himself (Telling the old man he can't do something is about as useful as telling one of my two year olds to stay inside because I'm tired):
And a couple other pics. We all know he was having more fun than work in the little excavator.
Then my kids got to help papa use the tractor (didn't get a good pic of my daughter but little man is always ready to ride the tractor):
Shop Specs: The shop will be a 28x30 post frame built by QSI with 12' walls, scissor trusts (thank you Garage Journal for helping me convince him of that), a single 10'x12' door, a passenger door, and 2 windows. We'll dig out a hole for the hoist that we can hopefully install later this year (I need struts on my car and man would a hoist be nice for that) and he dug out a drain. The inside will have matching metal wainscoting along the bottom 4', will be insulated, and have sheetrock along the top 8' of wall. We're still debating how to handle the roof.
Finally, getting that all out of the way, we got to see some progress. When my dad got the quotes for dirt, they originally quoted him $9,000 for dirt (they said $100/load and "at least 80-90 loads"). That seemed a little ridiculous so he asked around and found the guy that the original quoter hires out. Then we found out that that guy contracts out another guy - the actual person doing the work. So we got ahold of him and ended up getting it down to around 48 loads at $45/load. So, yeah, that first guy was WAY off. here's a few weeks ago when all the dirt (it took longer than we originally thought but was done in time):
Once the dirt showed up we called QSI and within a couple days we had all the supplies:
A little background. My dad and I, I'm pretty sure, were born with gasoline in our veins. We're always finding projects, whether it be on a car, our houses, or anything in between. We live about 20 minutes from each other now so that we're far enough to have some space but close enough our kids to get to spend a lot of time with papa and nana. My parents have had a bad tenancy to move around (Just in the last 20 years ... they lived in a small town near us for 7 years, moved to another house within that town for 5 years, then moved to another town for 2 years, another town for 2 years, and now I think they have FINALLY found a place to settle down. They've had some really neat houses when they were moving around but they were HUGE houses and they just don't need that space anymore. So, around November last year they moved in to an older home that better fits them, sits on about an acre, and had room for the one thing my dad hasn't had in at least 5 years (since their second house in the first town) ... a shop.
The house they moved into needed some updating. The people who built it in 1960 (I think) had not changed a single thing in the 50+ years they lived there. It was all in great shape, but was definitely showing its age. So, last year he did new hard wood flooring, put in an office and a bedroom downstairs, put new tile in the entry way and basement, and painted every room of the house. Then this year we learned that the PO wasn't necessarily truthful about "never having water damage" and we got the pleasure of installing a tile system outside right before the shop started. Here's a picture of the "in progress" tile system - we were able to use an excavator for most of it but the old man was too worried about the utilities and hand dug this huge section by himself (Telling the old man he can't do something is about as useful as telling one of my two year olds to stay inside because I'm tired):
And a couple other pics. We all know he was having more fun than work in the little excavator.
Then my kids got to help papa use the tractor (didn't get a good pic of my daughter but little man is always ready to ride the tractor):
Shop Specs: The shop will be a 28x30 post frame built by QSI with 12' walls, scissor trusts (thank you Garage Journal for helping me convince him of that), a single 10'x12' door, a passenger door, and 2 windows. We'll dig out a hole for the hoist that we can hopefully install later this year (I need struts on my car and man would a hoist be nice for that) and he dug out a drain. The inside will have matching metal wainscoting along the bottom 4', will be insulated, and have sheetrock along the top 8' of wall. We're still debating how to handle the roof.
Finally, getting that all out of the way, we got to see some progress. When my dad got the quotes for dirt, they originally quoted him $9,000 for dirt (they said $100/load and "at least 80-90 loads"). That seemed a little ridiculous so he asked around and found the guy that the original quoter hires out. Then we found out that that guy contracts out another guy - the actual person doing the work. So we got ahold of him and ended up getting it down to around 48 loads at $45/load. So, yeah, that first guy was WAY off. here's a few weeks ago when all the dirt (it took longer than we originally thought but was done in time):
Once the dirt showed up we called QSI and within a couple days we had all the supplies:
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I'll try and get some more pics this week.
, will drive you crazy inside the shop.
