"Coyote Flats"

[Don T]

Well here we go! Actually the project is farther along but I want to start from early on... As I look back at all the pictures it's just amazing the amount of things and the order they need to happen. The posts to this should at least happen every couple days if not more. I'm finally getting into full speed ahead.

Rented a small excavator and had a friend help me out with the operation. We had to dig a 330 foot trench into the property for power, cable, and phone. He did a great job and it took a little less than a day. Now all I have to do is install the conduit, phone and cable.

 

[Don T]

We ordered the building package and 45 days later it arrived. The only problem is we had to stop the dirt work due to the weather. We were just making more of a mess than doing any good. I thought maybe I’d get lucky and have a winter like last year, but no dice. Been wetter than normal for us this year.

Oh well can’t let it get me down. I know this is a little boring to some, but hang on it’s got to get better. I hope!!!

Could not store the building on the property, just no room at this time, so I found someone that had a fenced in area and he let us store it there till we are ready for it.

As soon as the weather breaks and the place dries out a little we’ll hit again.

 

[shocksystems]

I look forward to future updates. I hope you see some dry weather soon. On the plus side this gives you a lot of time to plan the next steps. It is amazing how many potential "gotchas" you can cut off at the pass when you have enough time to think about things and plan and prepare.

Cheers!

Jim

 

[Don T]

Sorry it’s been a little bit, but life and weather get in the way sometimes.

Well we finally got a break in the weather so I turned the dirt guy loose after we staked out the building foot print. I wasn’t around when the dozer was clearing out the small trees but the pile of debris he was burning was a big as a house and he burned it all in about a day and a half. Amazing what a little forced air will do. The hole in the foreground (picture #2) is for the electric vault and transformer. Picture #4 is looking from the back side of the building out the drive toward the road.

Hope the weather holds for a while so we can get the excavation done for the slab.

Picture #1 didn't upload, a little to large, and it was just a picture of a small dozer.

 

[C_F]

Man, that's a lot of trees to clear! How big is your planned garage? Are you building a house too, or just a garage?

Looking forward to more updates.

 

[enginerd]

Wow, that would be a $250k fine for taking that many trees over in our neck of the woods!

 

[Don T]

C_F,
Just building a shop (40' deep x 56' wide with 14' eves) it's also going to have a 29' x 21' shed room off 1/2 the front for an office / rec-room.

This is a 5 acre property we bought some years ago that's close to a small airport and on a main highway (50MPH two lane) into our little town.

enginerd,
Lucky for us, at this time, we are able to develop our property as we want with in reason. Of coarse we still need permits and jump thru all those hoops. We are still allowed to burn, weather permiting, for part of the year and if the air quality is ok at the time.

 

[Don T]

Still moving forward… We hauled in more crushed concrete for the drive. A local quarry crushes old concrete road bed and what ever else into assorted size chunks. The price is right and we brought in about fifteen yards of the larger, 3” minus, makes for a good base for the road bed. We’ll build from there.

Any way we got the excavating done for the slab. Had to take it down to the hard pan and I didn’t realize that there was a small rise in the ground and we took out more dirt than I thought. What am I going to do with all the piles??? Oh well worry about that later. I’m on a mission to get this building up!

 

[cyclopsblown34]

Glad to hear you are still able to use your common sense in the construction of your shop. Looks like it has a big footprint.

 

[Don T]

Common Sense??? My wife says I have it, some times.

After they dug down to the hard stuff they filled it part way back up with a few truck loads of compaction material and went over it with a large vibrating roller. It turned out almost as hard as concrete and nice and level.

I guess now they’ll come back in and dig the footings to get ready for the forms.

 

[Don T]

Diggin’ the footin’s.
Starting to see more progress and starting to get some excitement back. The weather was really getting me down. We’d get a little done then it would rain and take up to a week to get dry enough to continue.

I know this is the boring part of a project and I’m trying to hang in and keep going as fast a pace as I can.

The area marked in the last picture are extra pads we're adding for a two post hoist.

Thanks,

 

[Don T]

Switching gears while waiting for the cement guy to come in and do the forms etc. the power company came in and installed the transformer and line from the pole. Wanted to get the transformer farther into the property and close to the building so as to try and save some money on the larger power cable. Also the transformer is large enough to handle, they say, up to four 200 Amp services? Anyway I also installed the temp. power pole and meter/breaker box, got it inspected and ok’d for hook-up.

In the last picture you can almost see a trail leading out to an opening. There’s a 6” water main that follows the whole property line to the south. It’s about 130 feet to the building.

Thanks for looking,

 

[Don T]

Between some rain days forms are all going together. Rebar, wire mesh, and “J” bolt anchors all installed and ready for the cement trucks to arrive.

 

[Don T]

63 Yards later…

Finally!!! We’re pouring the cement. It took the first half of the day to pour and the second half and into the evening to finish it off.

I told Mike’ my concrete guy, I wanted it Flat and Smooth, so they worked it with a couple power trowels extra hard. He told me “it’ll be so smooth that every time I slip and fall on my ***, just remember him”.

Anyway it turned out great and I’m one happy camper.

 

[Namocsid]

Looks nice! Can't wait to see the walls start going up!

 

[Don T]

Namocsid said: Looks nice! Can't wait to see the walls start going up!

You and me both, got to keep this thing going.

Thanks

 

[Don T]

Late in the afternoon on the same day of the pour and they came back and put a coat of sealer on and told me to come back later and flood the slab with water. Lucky thing the P.U.D. came in that day and installed the water meter and I hooked up a temp. hose bib.

A couple days later the forms were stripped and it’s just a waiting game till we can start putting the building together.

 

[Don T]

Sorry it’s been a while but some times life takes you away from getting things done or just plane delaying the process.

Rented this mini excavator to back fill the slab/footings back to the grade the dirt guy did. Then I’ll install the storm drain system and back fill close to the level of the slab.

This little machine was a lot of fun to operate, took about 15 minutes to learn and another 3-1/2 hours to get the job done.

 

[PhantomEB]

One thing I always tell my fiancee is when I do cut down a tree in the future backyard or acreage if that ever happens... I will replace it with 2. My idea to hide the garage from view, One day I want a shop like a former bud of mine, he had 15' from ground level to the peak of the roof, all you could see of the garage was the big door. Even the man door was blocked by trees but outset for access.

 

[Don T]

YAHOOOOOO!!! The building is starting to go up…

A friend, Mike, called early Sunday morning and said he’s ready to move the building and install the columns. He’s got more equipment than I think than the whole county put together and he works fast. In about five hours he had the building package moved a half mile to the site and 19 of the 20 columns installed. He worked my *** off and it was pouring rain when we put the columns up. Boy was I sore the next day or so!

It’s great to have a guy like Mike around with so much equipment. He left me with a large fork-lift and one of his extra man lifts for as long as I need them. Thanks Mike…

 

[Bib Overalls]

Looks good! Excellent concrete work. Once the roof is on there are no more rain delays!

I built my shop using a package from Adam's Truss here in Arkansas. Looks like the same kind of building you are putting up. Web steel trusses, wood purlins, and sheet metal skin. Very stong when fully assembled. For me, the hardest part was rasing the side posts/truss sub assemblies. I had to boult one half of the roof truss to a side post and then pull it up. I tied the peak of the truss to my staging and then pulled the other side up and bolted the two together. A two man operation. Closest thing to real work I have done in a long time!

 

[bmwpower]

Looking goooood, Don. That place is gonna be huge.

 

[Don T]

Thanks Guys,
Spent Saturday and Sunday leveling the columns and installing some of the Girts to hold everything together. I'll post some pictures later today.

I'm going to have "Big Mike" come back in with his boom truck and set the rest of the steel, later this week I hope. Then I have a contractor coming in to finish the frame work and install the sheet metal.

I get up to about 15 feet on the manlift and that's it for me, I don't like being that high.

 

[cdrewferd]

Great looking garage. Can't wait for more progress pics. That things gonna be huge.

 

[Don T]

Here’s what I got done yesterday and Saturday. I really hope to see this build move along a little faster than what I get done by myself. When I don’t know what I’m doing it’s hard to have some one help me. I have to study everything before I do it, and about the only thing someone else could do is hold the dumb end of tape or something like that. They’d get board as hell…

Bring on the contractor and get this thing weathered in!!!

 

[gotta56forme]

Wow, that's lookin' great. I'm envious for all the space you are going to have and the nice quiet woodsy setting to do your work.

Love the name (Coyote Flats), too...

Scott/Gotta56forme

 

[Don T]

Thanks Scott, the name came from a friend, as I said before, who has lived here most of his life and that’s what they called this area. It fits…

Well "Big" Mike gave me a call at work a week ago Thursday about 5:00 PM and wanted to put up the trusses. So with him being so busy all the time, you just JUMP when he calls and take the help no matter what’s going on. We worked until dark and he came back Friday AM first thing and spent about another hour on it and DONE!

So needless to say he worked my *** off again. He’s so fast at what he does, you just have to kick it into high gear and do what he says.

We had to go to family reunion Saturday so I only had Sunday and Monday to get most of the sill plate installed. On this building they call for ½” by 5 ½” anchors on 4 foot centers. That works out to almost one hundred of those little suckers and that’s a lot of holes to bore into the concrete.

I spent today finishing up the sill plates and did a bunch of lay-out for the doors, windows, shear wall in the office area, etc. My brother-in-law is coming over tomorrow to help with blocking the girts to square them up.

 

[Don T]

Well, got a little done over the week-end. These pictures don’t show much difference but they’re a closer look at the building it self and a lot clearer.

Thanks

 

[Don T]

Well I gave in and brought a contractor in to finish the framing and sheetmetal. I just want to get it weathered in before we get the bad weather, you never know when it'll come. So far, for this area, we have not had that good of August.

Anyway I'm really getting excited...

 

[Matt2point4]

That's building into a lovely shape!

 

[sharpshooter]

The slab looked big, but with the framing up, it just looks GINORMOUS

 

[C_F]

I think the size is juuuuust right!

Progress is really going now, thanks for the pics.

 

[Don T]

Thanks for the coments guys.

Well as of last night they had the roof installed but still need to finish the fastenings and trim the over hanging sheets. Hopefully they'll have the eve trim all installed and maybe some of the siding on by Friday evening.

 

[Namocsid]

That's looking great Don! That's going to be a great space.

 

[cyclopsblown34]

I can picture the extended area out front as a den of sorts. Cool garage build.

 

[Don T]

Thanks,

Ya, that part will have a small office area and the rest will house a small bar and game area. Hope to do it in a 1950's style dinner as funds become available for the stainless work.

 

[Don T]

We've been out of town for a while and when we returned this is what the project looked like as of Thursday evening.

They got it just about all weathered in, and early next week the overhead door guy will come in followed shortly by the gutter and down spout installer.

As soon as the building is secured I'll start the wiring.

 

[waltmcq]

Great building Don! I need a place to store my P/U for awhile

 

[Don T]

Hey Walt,

Sounds like you got the plugged fuel line fixed from last week-end. Store the P/U for a while??? Only if I can play with it. LOL!

Sending you a PM.

Thanks,
Don

 

[PhoenixRising]

You already have the Summit banner up...nice