Above 1200 Sq/FT Bald is Beautiful - 7k sq feet+ of Gruntledness

tig · Feb 9, 2011

Bald is Beautiful

This is my garage / workshop thread. I started it in 2011 when I really got rolling with my workshop in Bellevue, WA. Then, I built a second home in Utah and add that. Then I got divorced and moved to Durango, CO. The thread now carries on, documenting my garage adventures in Colorado.

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Original Post:

Today I picked up and installed my "new to me" Backyard Buddy lift and am using that as an excuse to share some garage Pr0n. Enjoy!

We built the house in 2001-2002 and I had a set of pretty strong requirements for the upper, detached garage. I had not yet embarked on serious re-build/repair projects but knew the time would come and felt fortunate to be able to spec out and build my dream garage.

The basic dimensions are are 39'x23'. The two outer stalls have 8' ceilings and the center stall is vaulted:

In the posts below I will document some of the construction and details some of the changes and upgrades I've made over the years...

Enjoy!

tig · Feb 9, 2011

Going all the way back to the fall of 2001: The foundation for the garage is poured:

And framing is underway:

I wanted as much light as possible, so we installed some sky lights:

The house is "Craftsman" style with a metal roof. Also note the large exhaust fan (which I have rarely used):

tig · Feb 9, 2011

I knew I wanted a lift. That's one of the reasons I paid more to have the center stall vaulted.

A friend of mine had a Bend-Pak two post, asymmetric lift that he'd custom installed. I decided to copy him. His lift was a non-clear-floor model that he had coutner-sunk into his garage floor (making it "clear floor with no overhead either"). Here's a pic I took of his garage to illustrate to my contractor what I wanted:

I decided to buy the same lift he had and got the specs from Bend-Pak. We poured extra thick concrete and made a form out of plywood that matched the base of the lift:

As you'll see in a later post, this great idea didn't work out so well for me. In the end it was a total waste of time and energy. Not because it wasn't a great idea but because I made a mistake and then dilly-dallied....

tig · Feb 9, 2011

As the house neared completion the exterior was buttoned up:

I got a little creative with the landscaping and had them excavate just a tinsey bit more on the side of the garage creating this great parking pad for the boat.

But the 39' depth of the garage is not random either: That's just long enough for a typical 23' wakeboard boat on a trailer with a folding tongue. I have about 4" to play with :rocker:

.

The 9' wide garage doors (really ~8'9" with trim) are just wide enough for our trailer to fit through. Someday I may turn the right most stall into a paint booth, or room for another car, but for now the boat is stored in there during the winters.

tig · Feb 9, 2011

Here's a pic of the first time I parked a car in the garage.

Notice the baby blue paint?

That was not intentional. I wanted white-white. My wife suggested I be a little creative.

I like gray/sliver things. So I picked out a nice gray color. Oops. Looks baby blue.

AND WORST OF ALL it ***** the light right out of the air. I hated it the moment I saw it, but to ensure marital bliss, I didn't complain and left it that way for a few years....

tig · Feb 10, 2011

The little fella in this picture is my son. He's now 15 and over 6' tall with size 15 feet. Great kid. The golden, Maddie, is long gone to the puppy farm in the sky. The black lab, Kona, is still with us but probably not for long. :-(

These photos give a good perspective of the parking pad. Lots of room to maneuver. Mostly flat, although the driveway is pretty steep beyond. The contractors did not quite get the drainage right and runoff does not flow to the drain as well as I would like:

Lesson: Triple check your concrete contractor's slope/drainage plan!

tig · Feb 10, 2011

So then we move in...

The Upper Garage is used primarily for storage and parking the 911. There's no work bench, no cabinets, and I don't spend much time up there.

In early 2006 I finally figure out what vehicle I want to buy as my first "project". I always knew I'd love wrenching on cars, but besides changing oil and other simple stuff I'd never really done much. No better way to learn than to just get a big project and dive in. So I did.

I bought a '78 Toyota FJ40 that was in OK shape and started tearing her apart. See my fix-up thread here on the IH8MUD forum.

I had few tools so cabinets weren't a big deal when I started. I mounted a vice on a Costco shelving unit (with a particle board top!). And did almost all the work you see in the above-linked thread with the garage looking like this (notice how the boy has grown?):

I rebuilt hubs, differentials, put on a new suspension, etc... and it was great.

But I have this fantastic wife and I was just turning 40...

rwhite692 · Feb 10, 2011

looks great, tig. Glad you got the byb lift. Those ramps are definitely longer than the ones on mine....

Jack Olsen · Feb 10, 2011

I'm liking where this is going.

tig · Feb 10, 2011

For my 40th birthday my wife gave me a "garage upgrade". I could get nice cabinets and have the floor done.

Step one was to paint those awful baby blue walls white. Really white.

Step two was to add a BUNCH more fluorescent light fixtures. You can never have too much light. And I still want more.

Step three was epoxy on the floor. I do not remember who I had do the work, but they did a great job.

I went with a paint chip variant and I had them double down on the white chips.

In retrospect I would have done this differently: While the contrast of the paint chips looks nice, has good texture, and hides dirt, it causes two problems:

It hides nuts, bolts, and other small things you drop. It's really annoying!
The darkness of the gray & black chips reduces light reflections. I want MORE light. Brighter! Not less.

If I were to do it over again, I would probably do a very light gray or white floor.

Step four: Cabinets. And now you'll see one of the two reasons this thread is titled "Bald is beautiful".

tig · Feb 10, 2011

... Oh, wait a second ... I forgot a bunch of stuff.

Way back when I designed the garage I specified the following:

Tons of shop plugs with multiple 110v and 220v circuits. This includes a circuit for a welder, one for a air compressor, and one for the lift.
Plubing for compressed air built into the walls.
A toilet.
Plumbing for a washer/dryer. I'm fanatical about cleaning/detailing my cars (my Porsche won best in show in a show this summer). That measn lots of rags. That means the wife gets pissed when I smell up "her" washer & dryer.
Security cameras on the inside & outside.
Wiring for audio/speakers.
Wiring for network.

Let's talk compressed-air: We all know compressors are noisy. I had the great idea that the attic space above the right-side stall would be an ideal place for a compressor. It's ventilated, it's insulated, and out of the way. So I had the air line and 220v put up there. But since (a) I didn't have the budget for a nice compressor, and (b) I had no real way of lifting the compressor up there, I've never pulled the trigger. For now I have a Craftsman-cheapo model plumbed in to another outlet in the back left corner (see above and you'd see the air hose coilled up).

Now that I've gotten the lift (i'll get to that) I can now lift a compressor up there. So that's pretty much next on my list.

On the washer/dryer: The stacking washer/dryer we had in the upstairs of our house smelled bad and it turns out it had some factory defect. I used that as an excuse to buy my wife a new washer/dryer (Meile) and I took the smelly old one off her hands and moved it to the garage. I now have a nice Maytag w/d and always have plenty of soft, clean, 100% cotton, never-been-touched-with-fabric-softer, rags on hand. As far as I'm concerned this is one of my best tools.

Hot water: Oops. I never really thought too hard about how I'd ever get hot water in the garage. Our house boiler can't feed it because it's way up the hill. I discovered "tankless" water heaters! This thing is amazing. It's about 1.5'x1'x4", is mounted to the wall in a cabinet, and provides plenty of great hot water via a 30 amp circuit. You can see it above and to the right of the window in the picture below (right above the plumbing for the washer/dryer).

abstamaria · Feb 10, 2011

Lovely location, Tig, and quite a view. Very interesting project!

Andres

tig · Feb 10, 2011

As you can imagine, the second my wife told me what she was getting me for my 40th Birthday I started digging into research on cabinets.

I checked them all out. Off the shelf, wood, steel, custom, Costco, Sears, etc...

Along the way I found Baldhead Cabinets out of Bend Oregon and it didn't take me long to make my mind up. The quality was top notch and they were just beautiful. I spent a bunch of time on their website and talking on the phone with the owner. I drafted up my own plans in Visio to ensure everything fit precisely as I wanted.

Baldhead is in Oregon and I'm in Washington. Chance would have it that the owner of Baldhead needed to be in Washington anyway and they were willing to not only sell me my cabinets, but drive them up here and install them! How could I say no?

Just a few weeks after ordering this shows up in my driveway:

At the end of the first day of installation the truck had been unloaded and some cabinets installed:

My old (temporary) sink was a plastic freestanding POS from Home Depot. Having a large stainless steel sink, and a large stainless steel bench is bliss:

Most of the cabinets are screwed directly in to the studs. They fit together really tight. It was pretty great having the owner of the company doing the install. :rocker:

4StarCstms · Feb 10, 2011

Awesome!! What a great project

tig · Feb 10, 2011

On the toolbench I choose a butcher block top. You may notice that in some photos this top is in place and in others it's not. Then in others you'll notice a top that extends about a foot to the right.

Here's the short version:

There's a story here.

During shipment the original (short) top was slightly damaged. Baldhead gave me the choice of keeping it or having them ship me a new one. I wanted it perfect so I asked them to replace it. They didn't even blink.

A few weeks later a shipping company shows up to deliver the new top. I'm not home but my wife is. Only the driver. No help. So she helps him. The top slides off the dolly and crushes her foot. Baldhead contracted for one thing out of the shipper (someone to help unload) but got another thing. I _think_ my wife has finally forgotten this incident. I hope so. She wasn't too fond of the garage for quite some time...

Here's what it looks like now. Before they sent me the new top they asked if I wanted it "un-cut"...the excess off the right side might make a great place to mount a vice. They were right.

The tool drawers are just like those found on typical tool chests. Great mechanisms that have a quality feel. They have held up for 4+ years of use and show now wear.

Note the light bar under the cabinet with electrical sockets on the front? Killer.

tig · Feb 10, 2011

Wide shot showing all the cabinets (almost):

Note the tool chests are both secured to the studs AND have feet? The cabinets against the far wall in this picture have no feet. You can also see the slope of the garage floor. It's a great design aspect of these cabinets that they are flexible like this. I now store my dolly and floor jack under that cabinet. Fits perfect.

A glam shot with my '88 Porsche 911 doing the modeling:

tig · Feb 10, 2011

Took this tonight to show how these cabinets look now and to show the washer & dryer. The water heater is inside that cabinet above the W/D.

dykstra · Feb 10, 2011

Looks fantastic!!

Kevin54 · Feb 10, 2011

Man...that is one stunning garage :thumbup:

The color combos are fantastic together.

Now I have three questions....

One- what was the problem with how the lift was going to go as you never stated

Two- why the double check on the slope of the concrete apron for drainage? I see a square block in there that looked like it may had been originally for maybe a drain?

Three- The short bench top to the long bench top. Swapped out to add a vise I suppose?

And just to add, this thread adds a lot of ideas for other garages :thumbup:

baja65 · Feb 10, 2011

Great looking shop, I too was wondering about the lift?? From looking at the pictures, it looks to close to the front wall, maybe? but on with the story. please

moss9994 · Feb 10, 2011

Great looking shop, looks like you did everything first class. But what a view outside the shop, very nice.

BPJOOP93 · Feb 10, 2011

keep going you have our intrest. :drool:

993James993 · Feb 10, 2011

Very nice! Please show more photos of the exterior and your car. Do you still have the same 911?

A1an · Feb 10, 2011

Your property certainly does have a beautiful view. Garage looks nice too.

GTO · Feb 10, 2011

Very Nice,great job all around.
BTW:I love those old air-cooled 911's

drof · Feb 10, 2011

I am impressed. I'm also jealous.

GrandmaSideways · Feb 10, 2011

Wow.
Marking this thread to come back to it later!

robsled · Feb 10, 2011

Beautiful! Very happy when I saw the 911. I'm a Porsche nut too.
Really wanted BaldHead cabinets, but was just a little out of my budget.

tig · Feb 10, 2011

Kevin54 said:
Now I have three questions....

One- what was the problem with how the lift was going to go as you never stated

Patience... I'll get to that. (I feel like the guy on TV who says "Don't change the channel while we take a little break...").

Two- why the double check on the slope of the concrete apron for drainage? I see a square block in there that looked like it may had been originally for maybe a drain?

No idea what you are talking about? What's a "double check"?

Three- The short bench top to the long bench top. Swapped out to add a vise I suppose?

I tell the story on this above (the original/short top was damaged in shipment, they asked me if I wanted to cut the new one to length or if they should do it. I choose to keep it long for the vice).

By the way, as is typical for me, I screwed up here too. I measured twice but I obviously need to "measure thrice, cut once" because I mounted the vice too far from the edge of the counter top. I need to move it about 1". The vice slot should be hanging over the edge:

PCO6 · Feb 10, 2011

tig said:
By the way, as is typical for me, I screwed up here too. I measured twice but I obviously need to "measure thrice, cut once" because I mounted the vice too far from the edge of the counter top. I need to move it about 1". The vice slot should be hanging over the edge:

That happens often. It's always good to clamp something in your vice so that it hangs down past the face of your bench, make an adjustment for clearance and THEN bolt your vice to the bench. To correct what you have done, you could mount a peice of metal plate (1/8", 1/4" or whatever) between your bench and your vice to cover any "excess" holes you might have.

tig · Feb 10, 2011

What's the point of a garage if you don't actually work on interesting things in it?

I pretty much dig anything that makes noise or moves electrons. I've always been good at taking things apart; but my older sisters will say not so good a putting them back together. There's some resentment about an Easy Bake oven that I tried to "fix" when I was 4.

So far my garage projects have centered around my 1978 Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser and my 1988 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe.

You can find a massive fix-up thread detailing everything I've done on the Toyota on the IH8MUD forum here:

http://forum.ih8mud.com/40-55-series-tech/79672-uglinas-78-fj40-fix-up-thread.html

The summary of that project is below:

It started with me deciding an FJ40 is what I wanted. A memory of a friend of my father having one in the town I grew up in put it on my short list. I started doing research and joined IH8MUD, met some guy named Bull who knew his sh**, and before long I found some guy selling this:

It had been previously "restored" by Cool Cruisers of Texas (in 1991) and was very original and pretty sold. No real rust. Mechanically it ran well but was clearly having problems. It leaked everything, everywhere. The engine ran well but was obviously out of tune. I got a good deal on it and started to dig in and really learn.

The more I dug in, the more "wrong" I found. For example the front differential was shot.

This:

Came out of here:

The hubs needed rebuilding as well. I had no clue what I was doing, but with the help of the great IH8MUD community and factory service manuals I got it done:

Other things I fixed along the way: Power steering pump, carb, new oil pan, battery tray, transfer case seals (twice!), etc..., etc...

The original springs were terrible so I put a lifted suspension on. I bought new OEM wheels & caps in the classic style and put new tires on. I wanted to keep it as "factory" & "classic" as possible, but I also wanted a slightly more aggressive look.

Here's what she looks like now:

Top off:

And taken yesterday on the Ferry on my way to pick up my new four post lift:

She nows runs like a top and is super comfortable to drive. There's always more to do though...

tig · Feb 10, 2011

PCO6 said:
That happens often. It's always good to clamp something in your vice so that it hangs down past the face of your bench, make an adjustment for clearance and THEN bolt your vice to the bench. To correct what you have done, you could mount a peice of metal plate (1/8", 1/4" or whatever) between your bench and your vice to cover any "excess" holes you might have.

Actually, motivated by this idea in Jack Olsen's garage, my plan is to mount a female trailer hitch under the slab, weld up a base with a male part for the vice. That way it's removable and I can also hang my grinder there when needed.

Discussion here: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=845936#post845936

I am going to use this project as my excuse to buy a welder and to learn how to weld.

sids04 · Feb 10, 2011

Schwing ! I really love your garage ! The FJ ain't too shabby either..

rickairmedic · Feb 10, 2011

Tig great looking garage and projects . I have already figured out the lift issue at this point but I will let you tell the story

.

Rick

JMURiz · Feb 10, 2011

Great looking project....I'm jealous of the 3-bays plus work space!

BTW I think the color of the 911 is cool....subtle, better than most loud looking ones out there (says the guy with a ravenna green car)

bazzateer · Feb 10, 2011

Great garage, when I saw the view it reminded me of my trip to Seattle in '09.

Sawbladz · Feb 10, 2011

Looks great. Did you actually purchase the 2 post when you first poured the floor? Shame you had to do all that work without a lift. Would have made a bunch of projects more fun.

MoonRise · Feb 10, 2011

Nice.

Nice garage/shop.

Nice pictures.

Nice story telling.

You related to Jack?

Oh, hint/tip to find things that fell/dropped/jumped to the floor. Take a reasonably bright and reasonably focused flashlight down to floor level and 'sweep' the floor with the beam. It really-really-really helps to show/find things on the floor. Sweep a section with the light beam where you think the object du jour is or may be. If not there, sweep another area and/or move. The bright light on the 'face' and shadow behind the object usually made it MUCH easier to find.

gasgas17 · Feb 10, 2011

MoonRise said:
Nice.

Nice garage/shop.

Nice pictures.

Nice story telling.

You related to Jack?

Oh, hint/tip to find things that fell/dropped/jumped to the floor. Take a reasonably bright and reasonably focused flashlight down to floor level and 'sweep' the floor with the beam. It really-really-really helps to show/find things on the floor. Sweep a section with the light beam where you think the object du jour is or may be. If not there, sweep another area and/or move. The bright light on the 'face' and shadow behind the object usually made it MUCH easier to find.

My mom taught me this when i was a kid looking for Lego parts on our large rec room floor. It had a dark patterned carpet that hid stuff all the time. Still useful today I might add.

I really like this garage and the taste in vehicles is very much to my liking. :beer:

shopnut · Feb 10, 2011

tig said:
For my 40th birthday my wife gave me a "garage upgrade". I could get nice cabinets and have the floor done.

I know what it's like getting a great 40th birthday present! :beer:

Very well appointed shop you have there Tig. Just a ton of storage space. I've been looking at those baldheads for a while now and they really look nice.

I like the way the ceiling allows easy access to the attic - tried to talk my dad into doing that on one of his garages but he passed on the idea. Don't know why :headscrat

Maybe I missed the explanation on the lift trouble but did Bendpak change their baseplate design or something before you could purchase it?

Keep up the good work!

Above 1200 Sq/FT Bald is Beautiful - 7k sq feet+ of Gruntledness

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