Sixfeet4
Well-known member
Hello GJ,
What a crazy two and a half years it's been. Finally feeling like my life is getting back on track. Haven't been checking in much here since I sold my last build in 2020 to avoid the Mobile Home Park developer that purchased the land adjacent to mine. Fun fact, apparently there's no zoning laws in Harris County, TX.
So there began the journey; first I moved the fam into a rent house and put all my shop goodies in storage. Really killed me to have to do that, but did I mention mobile home park? LIke anything BUT that, right? That left me dead set to do it again, only better, or at least bigger. Got lucky and found a great plot that's totally protected. It's in a gated community with around sixty 5 acre lots that opened around 12 years ago. I purchased one of the last ones left and by the time I developed plans and selected a builder for the house, COVID hit and everything went crazy. i.e. lumber at all time highs, shortage on cement, Sherwin Williams running out of paint, etc, etc, on and on... I decided the best course was to wait it out and see if things were going to level back out. A year later, I had already fired the first builder, changed architects, and switched to whole new house plans. By the time we started up again around Jan of 22, the price of pretty much EVERYTHING had gone up. In hindsight I should have kept my foot on the gas and built during COVID. Overall it's been about a 30% price increase on just about everything. Oh well.
Signed the contract on the house in Feb of '22 and then had to go to battle with the HOA about my drainage plan. Ultimately, had to hire a civil engineer to get the plans acceptable to the architectural committee, whose President also happens to be my new neighbor on one side. Good times. He's actually pretty cool, but people take their water drainage pretty seriously down here, so I get it. Finally broke ground on the house August of '22. Construction is coming along and hoping to be done in December.
Started construction of the shop a few months ago. Basically acting as my own GC, but using some of my builders' trades to do some of the work. I decided to go metal construction this time for several reasons, but mostly bang for buck. I drew up the basic plans in CAD to get building quotes. Once I had the builder, we had an architect draw up real plans.
Few shop details: .Slab is 4" 3500psi. Building is welded red iron construction 50x70x16 w/a 12/5 roof pitch and ridge at 26'. The office/lounge/jam room is 20x50x10 and the shop area is 50x50. Garage doors are 10x14. It's getting 3" of closed cell foam on the whole roof for R-20 and 4" of open cell on the walls for R-12ish. interior walls all getting stick frame and sheetrock. . Loft will be closed in, but left unfinished and used for storage. Doing 4 mini splits and a 14' Big *** Fan for HVAC. Still debating some things, like flooring, and finishes in the buildout areas. Hoping to have it finished up by end of summer, but doubt it.
Really enjoyed sharing my last build (3 Bay Shop/Casita) on here, so thought I would come back and share this one too. Perhaps some of you will see me screwing something up along the way and save me some headaches. Feel free to roast away. Ha. I lived on this site for about 5 years, mostly lurking and learning. Having all my tools in storage and zero shop time has been really hard. LIke really hard, so now I'll shut up and start posting some photos
The plans
These are the plans the guy I purchased the building from provided w/his quote. Old School Cool!
Here's what we started with. Whole lot was so thick we had hack our way in with machetes.
This is after clearing underbrush and finally bringing in equipment.
One acre pond. Used the dirt to build up the pads.
Driveway taking shape
Me for scale
To grade.
What a crazy two and a half years it's been. Finally feeling like my life is getting back on track. Haven't been checking in much here since I sold my last build in 2020 to avoid the Mobile Home Park developer that purchased the land adjacent to mine. Fun fact, apparently there's no zoning laws in Harris County, TX.
So there began the journey; first I moved the fam into a rent house and put all my shop goodies in storage. Really killed me to have to do that, but did I mention mobile home park? LIke anything BUT that, right? That left me dead set to do it again, only better, or at least bigger. Got lucky and found a great plot that's totally protected. It's in a gated community with around sixty 5 acre lots that opened around 12 years ago. I purchased one of the last ones left and by the time I developed plans and selected a builder for the house, COVID hit and everything went crazy. i.e. lumber at all time highs, shortage on cement, Sherwin Williams running out of paint, etc, etc, on and on... I decided the best course was to wait it out and see if things were going to level back out. A year later, I had already fired the first builder, changed architects, and switched to whole new house plans. By the time we started up again around Jan of 22, the price of pretty much EVERYTHING had gone up. In hindsight I should have kept my foot on the gas and built during COVID. Overall it's been about a 30% price increase on just about everything. Oh well.
Signed the contract on the house in Feb of '22 and then had to go to battle with the HOA about my drainage plan. Ultimately, had to hire a civil engineer to get the plans acceptable to the architectural committee, whose President also happens to be my new neighbor on one side. Good times. He's actually pretty cool, but people take their water drainage pretty seriously down here, so I get it. Finally broke ground on the house August of '22. Construction is coming along and hoping to be done in December.
Started construction of the shop a few months ago. Basically acting as my own GC, but using some of my builders' trades to do some of the work. I decided to go metal construction this time for several reasons, but mostly bang for buck. I drew up the basic plans in CAD to get building quotes. Once I had the builder, we had an architect draw up real plans.
Few shop details: .Slab is 4" 3500psi. Building is welded red iron construction 50x70x16 w/a 12/5 roof pitch and ridge at 26'. The office/lounge/jam room is 20x50x10 and the shop area is 50x50. Garage doors are 10x14. It's getting 3" of closed cell foam on the whole roof for R-20 and 4" of open cell on the walls for R-12ish. interior walls all getting stick frame and sheetrock. . Loft will be closed in, but left unfinished and used for storage. Doing 4 mini splits and a 14' Big *** Fan for HVAC. Still debating some things, like flooring, and finishes in the buildout areas. Hoping to have it finished up by end of summer, but doubt it.
Really enjoyed sharing my last build (3 Bay Shop/Casita) on here, so thought I would come back and share this one too. Perhaps some of you will see me screwing something up along the way and save me some headaches. Feel free to roast away. Ha. I lived on this site for about 5 years, mostly lurking and learning. Having all my tools in storage and zero shop time has been really hard. LIke really hard, so now I'll shut up and start posting some photos
The plans
These are the plans the guy I purchased the building from provided w/his quote. Old School Cool!
Here's what we started with. Whole lot was so thick we had hack our way in with machetes.
This is after clearing underbrush and finally bringing in equipment.
One acre pond. Used the dirt to build up the pads.
Driveway taking shape
Me for scale
To grade.
