DetachedGarage:Garage Build Thread

[DetachedGarage]

It has been such a long road to get the land sale completed, but the Town has FINALLY APPROVED the land sale to go through! It has been almost a 3 year process to get to this phase. I feel like I can finally start a "BUILD THREAD" now!

I've been dreaming about building a garage on this property for a long time, and it was looking like it might not even happen at one point. With the approval going through, I can now confidently start working with an architect to look at some design concepts of the garage.

Thank you so much for all the messages I have gotten from so many of you. It has been a long road to get here, and this is just the beginning. If you want to get caught up on the land sale saga, I'll post a link to the playlist below. I'll also be posting more videos along the way throughout the design and build process.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEJOxrLyAdb0IvRcmqXsjjqGC1YDV22HG

Thanks again for all the support along the way! Many more fun posts and Videos to come!
-Sean

 

[DetachedGarage]

My last post was on 7/5/2020 saying the land sale was approved. It took from that point until this week to finally get to closing and sign the documents. Building this garage has been nothing but delays, but I'm excited to finally have closed on the sale! CHEERS

 

[HPRifleman]

I've been following your videos on YouTube as my garage project has been mired in bureaucracy as well. Delays and sticker shock are really turning this into a grind.

You certainly had a unique situation with your neighbor's septic system.

Good luck from south of the cheddar curtain.

 

[Theruse]

I'm with you on this one. Still working with county for approval once I bought the land. First have to incorporate the land into my principal residence, so the area I bought can be considered "a buildable lot". Then the county has to determine what is the front or back of my house. I would have thought that is an easy answer, but according to complex county rules, not so. Then i will need a building permit and a variance. Four different county agencies involved and four different fees. Did I say one fee is just $2000 to submit an application. Oh, yes I need a civil engineering firm to manage the process. They also said I may need a forest conservation plan, but there are no trees on the buildable lot.

Probably 10k in expenses before the first spade goes in the ground.

I will be following your process closely and hope and I am right behind you.

 

[DetachedGarage]

DESIGN is underway! and I am very excited to get your feedback on the stairs location as well as how high we should go with the mechanical room. Finally some progress as we move towards breaking ground in the spring.

Thanks again for all of the support along the way! I hope you guys like the progress!

-Sean

 

[DetachedGarage]

I've been following your videos on YouTube as my garage project has been mired in bureaucracy as well. Delays and sticker shock are really turning this into a grind.

You certainly had a unique situation with your neighbor's septic system.

Good luck from south of the cheddar curtain.

Have you gotten approval for yours yet, or where are you at in the process? It is a grind but I think it will be worth it.

 

[DetachedGarage]

Well it is hard to believe my last post was 10 months ago, but progress continues! I had to switch architect's, which set me back a little bit on time. However, it gave me the opportunity to review a few additional concepts. Let me know your thoughts on the latest concepts, which one you would pick and why!

Cheers!

 

[HPRifleman]

Have you gotten approval for yours yet, or where are you at in the process? It is a grind but I think it will be worth it.

Sorry I missed this earlier. You can read what happened in my build thread.

 

[DetachedGarage]

Well, I could really use the help of the forum for some ideas around the mechanical room, bathroom, and stairs locations/directions. I've been going round and round about how to properly do this so I maximize my mechanical room space and obstruct the upstairs as little as possible.

I'm worried about not having the mechanical room on the exterior wall. Is this fear unfounded or legitimate? I just feel like the space will be much more open and useable if the Mechanical room is on the exterior wall with the stairs going above it. Let me know your thoughts, and feel free to screenshot the video below and send me some sketched up ideas.

Cheers
Sean

 

[CraigStu]

I am glad your are progressing w/ your garage. This is the first time I have come across this thread so I thought I'd start looking at it. But the videos are from 12 to 25 minutes long. Do you really expect people to watch them? I am retired and one would think I have plenty of free time but I am not spending it on this. I will just say, best wishes to you and I hope your garage build comes out to your liking.

 

[DetachedGarage]

I am glad your are progressing w/ your garage. This is the first time I have come across this thread so I thought I'd start looking at it. But the videos are from 12 to 25 minutes long. Do you really expect people to watch them? I am retired and one would think I have plenty of free time but I am not spending it on this. I will just say, best wishes to you and I hope your garage build comes out to your liking.

Thanks Craig! I'm glad you found the thread. Yeah, I can be a bit long winded in some of the videos, and I know they are not for everyone. My average watch time for this video is hovering around 9 minutes with roughly 130 views. Some people like to share pictures and write paragraphs. I prefer more interactive descriptions of my progress. I'm a much better speaker than writer, so video works best for me.

The County did approve the connector concept!!! So that means we will keep moving forward. I'll try and get some additional stills and more paragraph contend on the thread for those that don't watch the videos. Thanks for the content feedback and well wishes. Progress is slow and steady.

Cheers,
Sean

 

[MacTexas]

I watched your video and made a comment. My comment on this thread is do you ever think there is too much government? You are almost a year and a half into the project and you just got approval.

 

[DetachedGarage]

I watched your video and made a comment. My comment on this thread is do you ever think there is too much government? You are almost a year and a half into the project and you just got approval.

Thanks so much for watching and the comment. After going through the land sale process (3 years) and now the design process (1.5 years and ongoing), YES 100% YES the government red tape is obsurd! I had to realistically set my goals to hopefully have the shell of the garage completed by the time the snow flies in 2022.

 

[DetachedGarage]

OK... So we are getting close to being able to start quoting out the garage. I really need to find a MEP engineering firm that will work on residential projects. I need to figure out how to bring water out to the building, how to connect to the septic, how to configure the HVAC, and also how to upgrade the service to 400amp.

 

[DetachedGarage]

The County APPROVED our concept!

We finally have approval from the County allowing us to move forward into the construction drawing portion of our garage design! The architect also updated some of the renderings of the garage space as well as the upstairs area. I'm now starting to talk with contractors about the infrastructure (HVAC, Plumbing, Septic, Electrical, etc!) Thank you guys for all the help along the way! I'm excited to get into the nuts and bolts of construction drawings soon.