Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Dollar Special - 20x20 from 1971

[frojoe]

Hi all, my name is Joe and I've been a lurker on here for several years, but now I have something to really post about... a garage! My girlfriend and I bought our first house... a 1971 funky C-shaped house that has an attached 20'x20' garage (accessible thru a work room and 2 doors).

Since the work room shares a wall with the garage, my girlfriend was persistent in making me look at the listing, saying "hey the garage is just a 20x20, but you can expand into the neighboring room to make a shop!!", haha. The neighboring 'rec room' is ~13'x17', and I've already figured out a layout for it.

The name Dollar Special is kind of a silly reference to it being a different variety of the standard Vancouver Special housing style you see in many parts of this city.

I previously spent my formative garage/wrenching/fabricating years in my parents' garage.. a 12'x23' single with no insulation and unsealed concrete. I'll post below, to show how much I managed to optimize that small space.. and I can't wait to finally add that creativity to a bigger garage.. that I actually own!

The plot of land is ~75' wide and variable 100'-135' deep, since the back property line is at an angle. The driveway can legitimately hold 8 cars, with a U-shape bend into double 9'x8' garage doors that load into the garage on the backside of the house.

 

[frojoe]

Here is the moving-in mess, including my main project.. 1972 Chevy Nova. It fits much better than I expected, even with the work bench behind it which I plan to remove later on.

The metal work bench and metal racking came with the garage, which is cool. I'll decide later which I'll keep, but for now they're super helpful while we're unpacking, and the neighboring work room hasn't even been started on.











First night drinking beer and organizing my stuff in my own garage.. YEEEEEEAHH(!!)....



People seem to cringe at my usage of the Nova as a shelf.. but the quicky paint job by the previous owner really is a 25-footer.. maybe 20-footer on its best day when freshly washed....

 

[frojoe]

Here is the current 3D mock-up of the nextdoor work room. I wood and metal work, so it needs to be versatile. Long work bench, many boxes, a welding station, horizontal/vertical bandsaw, drillpress, and as many things on casters as I can manage.

 

[frojoe]

And here is what I used to completely rebuild the Nova, almost twice.. Sometimes when I was living at home, and other times when I would have to commute 45mins across the city to get from my apartment to my parents' house, across the span of ~10 years....

My motto is that everything on the ground either needs to be tucked out of the way and so heavy that it's immovable, or braced to a wall... or it's gotta be on wheels. That includes my welding cart, the bandsaw/chopsaw cart, the car (preferably on dollies), and floor jacks.

Here is the very first TIG welding project I made right after buying my Dynasty 200DX, in ~2011 I believe..

 

[frojoe]

I'm a mechanical engineer by profession, so deal with 3D modelling all day and production tolerances to +/-0.02mm, however I know there is always a balance in life. I like to model many things out, before I cut stuff.. that said I ain't afraid to do things quick-n-dirty with zipties and sawzalls.

I do however like to have a tidy toolbox. It lets you know instantly when a tool is missing, and with my photographic memory I can tell exactly what size it is. Also helps if my dad or a friend needs to stop by, I can say "the 18mm ratcheting box end wrench is in the left chest, 2nd drawer up from the bottom, left side of the drawer". I'm not OCD, just specific.... I swear!

 

[frojoe]

Apparently my pics aren't working by hotlinking to Imgur... weird because they were displaying all the way up until the last post. Let's see here...

**EDIT**... okay, moved pictures over to Flickr for hotlinking... every post previous to this should have a good half dozen or more pictures displayed now.

 

[Mr. Spanner]

Congratulations on the acquisition of the new home Joe! Setting up your garage and workshop will no doubt be an endless source of joy in the next few days, months and years.

 

[captain14]

Pictures are showing for me

 

[frojoe]

Pictures are showing for me

Yeah, two friends (one with account, one without) also confirmed that... on my car forums I just use Imgur.. but apparently it doesn't hotlink to GJ.

Strange because for all of the first posts, every embedded pic from Imgur was displaying initially... maybe the jpeg URL was still valid in my cache, and once I closed the browser and reloaded the page, then the hot link got broken. Oh well.. fixed with Flickr now!

 

[Markoos]

Wow, little diamond in the rough you both found for yourselves, girlfriend is a keeper obviously congratulations!
Some hard work, few nights here and there and dream will turn into reality..
M.

 

[frojoe]

Having gone thru several iterations of shelving previously at my parents' garage, I kind of wanted to just copy what I already knew would work well.. high shelving on L brackets.

Since there isn't a ton of floor room when two cars are parked in a 20x20 garage, the shelving couldn't eat up any floor space. I previously learned that these Home Depot 12"x14" stamped steel L bracket can create a very strong shelf if used in every stud.

I like these flip-top totes from Home Depot, but the shelves can fit a bunch of different plastic bins. Shelf height is 78" above ground, so at 6'2" I can easily grab the bottom tote, and a 2nd one stack on top of it is still within finger's reach... but still walk under without hunching.

The wood is laminated "white wood" from Home Depot, in 16"W x 8'L size. I've previously used strips of 1x8" and 1x10" Spruce to make up ~17" depth, to hold the 18" deep plastic totes... but this laminated board was less expensive than an equivalent pair of Spruce 1x8 + 1x10, so gave it a shot.



I had a heck of a time reliably finding stud center in these walls, using a borrowed Bosch GSM120. I was getting readings varying up to 1/2" on some studs, and another area of drywall the finder was convinced there was a 1.0" stud, but with test drilling I found nothing but drywall across a 6" width, as well the finder wasn't reading metal or live wires there.

Luckily there was one visible drywall seam that I used as a reference point, and for every bracket I measured 16", then drilled test 1/16" holes approx 1/4" apart to plot out the stud width, until I found stud end on either side. Tedious... but I need the shelves to 100% be into studs and strong, and want them to be installed ASAP.

 

[Garett]

I looked at the house and thought it looks like Burnaby, Coquitlam or New West, then I saw your car. I've msg'd you before and follow your nova build on ls1tech, you were crammed into that garage. Props on your fab skills, you're on another level.

PS, I'm in a Vancouver Special too. Not the typical red brick and white stucco, and because its not in a row of others nobody really notices.

 

[frojoe]

I looked at the house and thought it looks like Burnaby, Coquitlam or New West, then I saw your car. I've msg'd you before and follow your nova build on ls1tech, you were crammed into that garage. Props on your fab skills, you're on another level.

PS, I'm in a Vancouver Special too. Not the typical red brick and white stucco, and because its not in a row of others nobody really notices.

Awesome, good to meet you on here too! We'll have to get together for a cruise at some point, and talk shop... literally haha.

 

[Garett]

I ended up selling my dart 582, then at the start of Covid I sold my 69 acadian. Going to sink that money into my C10, turbo 6.0!

Looks like you have good height in your garage. Have you thought about adding on? You have plenty of room to extend it if you wanted to.

 

[wasfast]

Yours has to be the first garage with a "just after we moved in" photo that doesn't look like a bomb went off. Kudos for being intentional about it and getting off to a great start organizing.
Nova looks great, Pro Street.

 

[frojoe]

I ended up selling my dart 582, then at the start of Covid I sold my 69 acadian. Going to sink that money into my C10, turbo 6.0!

Looks like you have good height in your garage. Have you thought about adding on? You have plenty of room to extend it if you wanted to.

Awesome! Yes I have grand plans of lowering the landscaping grade leading up to the highest property line (back) by 2'... 3'.... 4'...? to keep the driveway at its current grade (or less of a grade) but extend the garage wall with the bay doors out by 4-6'.

The garage was originally a carport, which is nice because the wall with the bay doors is only holding up a small upstairs patio.. so removing the center wall segment between the doors, reinforcing the ceiling with a composite beam, and then extending that entrance wall out is all just cosmetics at that point. Ideally I'd love to have a 20'W x 26'L garage with a single 16'W x 8'H roll up door.

I also have more immediate plans to investigate removing the two center pillars and replacing with two lateral steel trussed or composite beams.. but that will require much more research and number crunching to see if it's even feasible.

A single open space, with car parked in the middle and access on both sides/doors, is much more valuable to me than the current "two stalls" configuration, even if extended longer/deeper.

Yours has to be the first garage with a "just after we moved in" photo that doesn't look like a bomb went off. Kudos for being intentional about it and getting off to a great start organizing.
Nova looks great, Pro Street.

Thanks! Cars have always been my #1 hobby. The Nova has everything you could think of thrown at it, engine redo (twice), suspension, coilovers, big brakes, interior, you name it.... all fabricated by myself though. I believe that the only aftermarket parts on it that I haven't either bought then modified, or straight-up fabricated from scratch, are the front tubular upper control arms.

 

[frojoe]

Because it's always safe to be multi-faceted, I also have a 1998 24V 5spd Cummins Dodge Ram, which I've also fabricated all the suspension parts for, and a whole lot of more "OEM+" mods that fly under the radar but add to the versatility and functionality. It's more of a daily driver and camping/daytrip wheeling rig.













I also have a 2001 740i which will live inside the 20x20 garage, once the floor is clear and the tools and things are in a functioning neighboring work room. It's a great roadtrip cruiser and general around-town sled that's super quiet, comfortable, and completely unassuming. They really don't make them like this anymore.

 

[wout]

Congrats on the house AND garage! Gonna be nice when finished.

Wout

 

[bananaBOAT]

Great start. Will be following!

 

[Robey5]

Cool place. Looks like it has some serious potential and a lot of character.

You have a solid collection of tools, and very well organized. Organization is one of the biggest barriers to having a useful work space: nice example!

 

[frojoe]

Thanks guys!

More progress on cleaning up the 2nd stall in the garage, got the wood screwed to the high shelving, and loaded with stuff. The rest of the black-and-yellow totes will be going on a shelf in the work room.







Car is getting less and less cluttered....



This metal workbench that came with the house is starting to become more appreciated... I may just keep it around until I've fabricated a full size bench in the work room...





Also got around to starting the yard work.. this old bush next to the boat is right in a convenient spot to put a bumper while doing a 5-point turn around, so out it came...









Also pretty stoked to use my dad's old wood saw, and this rusty machete that was left in the garage....

 

[frojoe]

Spent probably too long this weekend installing 4 out of 7 planned T8 light fixtures, but the light is already immensely better. Once the shelving on the floor is gone, shadows will be almost non-existent towards the bottom of the walls (at front of car).

I chose to go with PVC piping for a few reasons:

- I've never used it before (any conduit, for that matter), so wanted to try
- I like the industrial appearance
- I didn't have to poke holes in walls/ceiling that very likely has asbestos
- PVC material was light, so along with cable weight it's less likely to pull a screw/clamp out than EMT
- ease of routing future speaker wiring, POSSIBLY.. will have to see if interference/noise develops

I'm pulling the hot wire from a junction box in the ceiling, where the existing lights got their switched power from, running the power down to the switch next to the door via 12/3 cable inside 1" conduit, and then back up from the switch, daisy-chaining from one fixture to the next still using 12/3 cable, inside 1/2" conduit.

 

[frojoe]

These are the cheapy hardwired T8 fixtures from Home Depot ($25 Canadian), that I had to convert to side-entry for the wiring, vs top-entry as they come. I holesawed a 1" hole in the ballast end, rerouted the wiring to the cavity between the ballast and the end between the bulbs, and then moved the ground terminal to the ballast cover screw, testing continuity for ground to the fixture body.







I'll have some painting and ceiling panel patching to do later, but I have no issue painting around these fixtures while they're already installed.

 

[frojoe]

Some more [slow] progress.. one area I was worried about for a dark spot was underneath the garage doors, if late/dark at night and one or both doors are up (late night hot summer working with doors open, or returning late from a 4x4 trip).

So I decided to drop the odd/last fixture down 16" to have it be just tucked up between the garage door tracks, I think it turned out well. The damn fixture appears to not be level, but it sure is... it's the garage door tracks that slope downwards towards the end of the horizontal parts... arg.

Oh man is it nice to just be able to back my truck up to load/unload.. I've never had this, not even at my parents' single garage (alley was too tight)...



Started by making a drywall track, to hang the drop chains from, but with copious holes for drywall screws...



Completely unnecessary detail, but 3/8" fuel line as centering spacers on the M6 bolts, to keep the chain visually centered in the track...











Power cable transition from conduit to track, to then fixture...

 

[Bruce 993 SEA]

Wow, great progress in a short time!

Question...are you running SO cord inside the PVC? Somewhere in the back of my mind I recall that you are only supposed to run THHN inside conduits. No Romex or jacketed wire.

Maybe someone here knows the details of the code. I think it is for heat or something...

 

[frojoe]

That's a good point, I'd be interested to hear feedback from others, and can change if/as needed.

 

[harley jim]

frojoe
The shop is looking great and I'm thinking you are having way too much fun dude.

Sent from my SM-A102U using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[CoerceCare]

Bad *** Nova

 

[RPhil]

Love your Ram and have followed your thread on ExPo for a while. Looking forward to this one as well.

 

[frojoe]

Bad *** Nova

Cheers! Everything I know about fabrication I've taught myself on that car over the last 16 years

Love your Ram and have followed your thread on ExPo for a while. Looking forward to this one as well.

Cheers! Well now you'll be able to connect the dots... when you see future ExPo truck wrenching pics in this yard/garage, and vice versa on here when the truck is hauling renovation supplies hehe.

 

[Norcal]

Wow, great progress in a short time!

Question...are you running SO cord inside the PVC? Somewhere in the back of my mind I recall that you are only supposed to run THHN inside conduits. No Romex or jacketed wire.

Maybe someone here knows the details of the code. I think it is for heat or something...

Under the NEC flexible cord is not to be used as substitute for permanent wiring, I have no idea on what the CEC has to say but understand they have been making the NEC & CEC have similar requirements, as to NM in conduit, it is allowed but only a good idea if needed for protection of the cable, THHN/THWN conductors make the conduit more useful, IMHO.

 

[-TheBandit-]

I'm not 100% sure on SO cord, but I know NM-B (aka Romex) should not be used inside of conduit and I wouldn't think SO cord would be appropriate either. You should probably be using THHN or THWN - I recommend stranded because it's easier to pull around corners and such. At each end of the conduit you should use a junction box to make transitions. For what you did with the lighting, you would want to transition at that junction box to a flexible conduit (metal or plastic, up to you) down to the light fixture. I probably would have used prewired metal flex conduit to get down to the light. I'm not sure if SO cord is permissible for permanent installations.

 

[Bruce 993 SEA]

I think the reason they do not allow SO cord or NM Romex in conduit is for heat load in the conduit.

These lights are not going to max out the amperage draw. But...technically, it is not to code.

I have seen conduit run to a box and then the SO cord as a flexible wire to the fixture.

Cheers!

 

[frojoe]

I got a copy of the CEC from an elevator mechanic friend, and it reads that 53% of the internal area can be composed of a single conductor or multi-conductor cable (my 1-direction runs per light, in 3/4" PVC) or 31% maximum area fill for 2 conductors or cables (my 2-direction run from ceiling junction box to light switch, in 1" PVC).

So I'm just going to pull out all of the wiring and redo with 14ga single conductor solid standard house wiring, and depending what the area calculation is, I may upsize the conduit to the light switch to 1.5" PVC.

 

[frojoe]

Lots of other side projects have been going on with the house.. none really worth mentioning, but I took a few pics of some closet optimization I did, so might as well share. The closets are all quite small, with thin 1/2" plywood shelves that were sagging, and very bent clothes hanger rods.

I decided to do a quickie redo of the closets, pushing the rods back 3" to get clothes closer to the back wall, and cut pressure treated 2x12 as the new top shelves. The slight price premium in getting pressure treated wood was worth it, since it provided just enough color to look decent, instead of getting cheaper yellow SPF and being tempted to spend all the time staining it before installation.

Good 'ol Dodge doing house things finally!...





Another reason I wanted to overbuild the top shelve material, is to support the hanger rods in the middle to prevent future bending...



This is the space gained in front of the rod/hangers and shelf...







Utilitarian rod support, but just fine for a closet...



I also wanted to carry the shelf theme into my office, to store/show my helmets. This is the cheaper SPF that I'll give a quickie sand and dark Walnut stain to...





The 9-5 Mon-Fri home office...

 

[frojoe]

I brought some more tools over from my parents' garage, where I previously was doing all my work, including my welding cart, shop vac, and bandsaw cutting cart.

Did a little reorganization of the free workbench that came with the garage... it'll do until I bring my toolboxes over and make my big work bench in the workshop room next door.

Also needed to put all my cables somewhere, with easy access.. so used ladder hanging hooks next to the door..

And needed the ladders out of the way. I feel like a real homeowner now that I have ladders hung up in my garage!...

And then a friend came over to compound turbo his truck, and that blew the organization all apart again, haha...

 

[frojoe]

And a bit of forward progress on the "rec room" next to the garage. It has continued to be an unboxing/staging area for the move and unpacking, but I managed to score a free kitchen island from a friend's mom, and an extra table top from my work.

Here is the room as it's been sitting...

The plan quickly became to use the kitchen island with drawers (blue) and make a steel perimeter frame under the top, which the secondary table top mounts to (yellow) to extend it...

Here is the kitchen island. It's an Ikea unit with a 58"x25" butcher block top, and 4 real big drawers. I think I'll use these drawers to put my circular saw and DA sander in, and then make wooden holster inserts to hold my Milwaukee impact drivers/drills/wrenches in, with the chucks facing down...

The top was already beat up.. the entire island was quite clearly used as a chopping block.. so I have no issues with reusing it as a beatable work bench...

And here is the identically-matching 58"x25" Ikea top, that was the old table top from my work's kitchen..

I'll have the layout like this, so that the right top is open underneath and aligned with the windows, to allow all that daylight to still come in...

 

[frojoe]

Fun update, finally made a passthru between the garage and the neighboring work room!







Turns out there's wiring under the window! Not quite as straight forward as I hoped, but nothing a little investigating and reworking can't fix.

Under the window, the white wiring is for two outlets on the wall (to left in the pics), direct from the breaker panel to the right of the window in the following pics.

The red wiring under the window is 220V (!!!!!!!!!!) to the baseboard heaters (near said outlets) direct from the thermostat (under the ladder).

I'm SUPER excited that the garage is apparently already wired for 220V, I was assuming just 110V, but hadn't looked into it too deeply, obviously.











Had to trim 1" off the 6.5"-deep door frame, to bring it to 5.5" deep to match the wall (including drywall on both sides).



The base 2x4 was pretty damn level to start with, so I left both sides of the door frame the same length/height, to theoretically make the top of the door frame level..







I might flip the swing orientation of the white door leading into the house, to make 'cutting the corner' turning right into the garage a bit easier...

 

[wasfast]

How does your power meter get read when it's inside the building?

 

[frojoe]

How does your power meter get read when it's inside the building?

I'm not sure, we have a newer power meter on the exterior corner closest to the street.. I presumed that this one was deactivated or bypassed when the garage was enclosed from its previous carport status. Either way, we haven't yet experienced the hydro company come by, since we've only been here since June. Will know more when the company comes to read the meter.