Don's 32 X 48 Two Story

[DonPowers]

Hello All

New to the Journal this month, recommended by my Son In-law.

I consider myself a migrant worker, as I have spent the past 35 + years working on power plants around the country. These jobs can be anywhere from a few months to a few years, or more. Since I like doing most things myself, it has taken several years to get to where I am today on the garage.
First I had to clear land and establish drainage, as the area was woods and a bit marshy.

Spring & Summer 2009:

In the first photo I’m starting the drainage, the garage will be on the other side of the pipe.

In the second photo, I’m moving the woodshed. The front of the garage will be about where the trailer is.

 

[DonPowers]

By 2012 the land was cleared, had a design in hand and started to get serious about building. Also finished up working on a several year gig at a power plant that was about 400 miles from home.

Summer & Fall of 2012:

The following photos are of earthwork and the well. When clearing the land, I came across an unusually wet spot, which turned out to be a spring that produces enough water to fill a 4” pipe about half way with 45 deg water year around. This prompted me to put in redundant drainage systems. One is approximately an inch higher than the other and has a separate discharge location.

I removed lots of muck and backfilled with ballast stone, same stuff they use on rail beds. Also placed a geotech mat above the drainage and compacted the **** out of it.

Did a test pump on the well at 10 gpm, the level in the pipe didn’t budge. The overflow goes into a ditch and doesn’t freeze, even at -35 during the winter. I have plans for that water for heating, cooling and even a walk in cooler under the stairs.

45 deg water + beer = good!

 

[DonPowers]

October 2012:
Rebar, PEX & Concrete

 

[DonPowers]

November & December 2012:

Framing and closing in.

 

[DonPowers]

Building the stairs, March 2013

 

[DonPowers]

Roofing Summer 2013 & Siding Summers 2013 & 2014

 

[DonPowers]

This fall I put in a Bend Pak HD 9XW four post lift. Got it with a wheel kit so I can move it around. In the winter it will be between the two bays and used for storage. In the summer I'll move it to one side or the other to work on stuff.

One of the runways came with a broken weld, which I fixed. Bend Pak sent me a can of spray paint to touch it up.

 

[colt zantop]

Very nice! The colors look great together!

 

[aCab]

Awesome DIY!

 

[1/2 Cup]

Fantastic work and thanks for posting..

 

[DonPowers]

Thanks Guys, nice shed 1/2 Cup.

The concrete was done by others while I was working out of town. Had help with closing in, the roofing and metal trim.

Have to sort through more photos and will update progress.

Currently working on upstairs electrical & insulation.

 

[DonPowers]

BTW, the welding helmet shown with the lift repair has never been used. Bought it for my 14 yr old Grandson to use, a few years ago, who wanted to learn how to weld. He lost interest once he found out how much time the prep work took. Apparently he was under the impression you could put together a chopper frame in just a couple hours. Must have been watching to much reality TV.

 

[James-W]

That is quite a garage! Great job!

 

[Bib Overalls]

Good looking building. Colors are spot on. What will you use the second floor for? Living space? Storage? I had some friends that built a large garage/shop with a party room upstairs. They moved into the party room "while the house was being built." That never happened. Eventually they moved to a real house and left their dream behind.

 

[zkling]

Awesome place. I'm a bit surprised at the broken weld on the lift. Both in that it broke in the first place and also that they let you weld it yourself. From a liability standpoint that is.

BTW, the welding helmet shown with the lift repair has never been used. Bought it for my 14 yr old Grandson to use, a few years ago, who wanted to learn how to weld. He lost interest once he found out how much time the prep work took. Apparently he was under the impression you could put together a chopper frame in just a couple hours. Must have been watching to much reality TV.

Man does that sound familiar. "What do you mean it will take hours to weld this lower unit?" Comes in caked in mud and full of oil.

 

[DonPowers]

Thanks James, Bib and zkling.

 

[DonPowers]

Good looking building. Colors are spot on. What will you use the second floor for? Living space? Storage? I had some friends that built a large garage/shop with a party room upstairs. They moved into the party room "while the house was being built." That never happened. Eventually they moved to a real house and left their dream behind.

Bib

My house is a fairly small log cabin, about 1,100 sq ft, built in the 40’s with nothing that’s level, square or plumb. The cabin is also located on a lake where zoning is controlled by the state. What you can do to the building has everything to do with how close you are to the water. There is also a small garage in the to close to the lake zone, 16 x 22. With that said, I have limited options with regard to expansion of the existing structures. Fortunately my property extends back several hundred feet back from the lake. The new garage is set back far enough to be out of the size restriction zone.
With regard to the upstairs space:

My wife has three kids with five grandkids and I have two with four grandkids. Part of the upstairs will be used for overflow and a place for the grandkids to hang out when they don’t want to hang with the old folks.

There will also be:

• An office / hobby room for me where I can keep reloading stuff & projects out, without getting yelled at.

• A TV room with surround sound where I can watch whatever I want as loud as I want. (Can’t do that in the house, in fact the equipment isn’t even set up anymore)

• Another room for wife, if she ever chooses to go up there. She currently doesn’t like going up the stairs.

• Seasonal storage.

I have attached my conceptual view of the upstairs. It may or may not end up looking like this, but you have to start somewhere.
I have also included a view from my deck.

 

[DonPowers]

Awesome place. I'm a bit surprised at the broken weld on the lift. Both in that it broke in the first place and also that they let you weld it yourself. From a liability standpoint that is.



Man does that sound familiar. "What do you mean it will take hours to weld this lower unit?" Comes in caked in mud and full of oil.

zkling

The weld most likely broke in shipping and the piece is not structural. Its more for protecting the hydraulic cylinder during shipping. The runways are packaged upside down with components tucked away inside and on top.

 

[DonPowers]

zkling, you also quoted PelicanPines
"Working in my garage is like playing advanced Tetris..."

That made me laugh because it seems like I have spent my entire life having to move something to get at something else, it *****! That's another reason for the garage's size.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I'm curious how long those stringers for the stairs are. They look seriously long as the ceiling height must 12' plus.

 

[DonPowers]

NUTTSGT

They started as 20' 2x12's. The ceiling is 11' and the landing is 12' with a step from the landing to the top floor. The length is why I doubled up the outside stringers with the wall side screwed to the studs. The top has 6 half inch bolts going into a header and additional half inch bolts going into the wall and a 3/4" plywood gusset attached to the triple truss on the right hand side. Eventually there will be a wall on the outboard side. The treads are 7.5" x 10.5".

 

[James-W]

BibAnother room for wife, if she ever chooses to go up there. She currently doesn’t like going up the stairs.

Seasonal storage.

We have a 24 X 36 garage and it has storage space on top where we put all sorts of things, not just seasonal things but things we just want to keep for whatever reasons.

We figured it would be difficult, if not impossible, to get things up to the storage area if we had a stairs or a ladder of some sort. I mean, how do you safely carry large boxes up a ladder or a stairs? If you have the storage area you need to be able to get the things you want to put up there, or else what good is the storage area?

We put in a lift which works really well for getting stuff up there. Here is a link to the lift. It may take a little while to load, depending on your Internet connection speed.

http://www.windemuth.org/video-files/Lift-1.avi

 

[DonPowers]

Thanks James

I have thought of installing a stair lift sometime down the road, one of the reasons the stair is 4 ft wide.

Couldn't get the video to play, just got a black screen.

 

[TurboMustang370]

The boat storage is something new. Looks great.

 

[James-W]

Couldn't get the video to play, just got a black screen.

The file has an .avi extension so it should play in Windows media player or VLC player. Not sure why you got a black screen.

 

[DonPowers]

The file has an .avi extension so it should play in Windows media player or VLC player. Not sure why you got a black screen.

Could be that I'm running a Mac.

 

[James-W]

Could be that I'm running a Mac.

That's probably the reason but I would think a Mac would have a reader of some sort that could read riles with an .avi extension. It is a fairly common file extension.

I thought if you could see the video it might give you an idea on how to do something similar. The lift has worked great for us, at least so far it has. My wife has some medical issues as of late and if not for the lift she would not be able to get up to the storage area at all. She doesn't go up there all that much anyway, but on occasion she does and the lift makes it super easy for her. I find it very easy to get stuff up there using the lift and to be quite frank, I don't see how we could get along without it.

 

[DonPowers]

That's probably the reason but I would think a Mac would have a reader of some sort that could read riles with an .avi extension. It is a fairly common file extension.

I thought if you could see the video it might give you an idea on how to do something similar. The lift has worked great for us, at least so far it has. My wife has some medical issues as of late and if not for the lift she would not be able to get up to the storage area at all. She doesn't go up there all that much anyway, but on occasion she does and the lift makes it super easy for her. I find it very easy to get stuff up there using the lift and to be quite frank, I don't see how we could get along without it.

What brand is your lift James, I can look it up.

 

[James-W]

What brand is your lift James, I can look it up.

I didn't the lift, I made it myself. The platform (3 foot by 5 foot) is made from angle iron and some flat metal stock. It has a 3/4 inch plywood floor. I have a winch up on top that lifts the platform and it is rated for 1,100 pounds. I don't lift anything that weighs even half that much, but I guess I could if I had to. Maybe if you know someone with a Windows based computer you could check it out. I am only suggesting it because I think it may give you some ideas.

 

[DonPowers]

Do you have any photos James?

 

[James-W]

Do you have any photos James?

I suppose I could take a few pictures and post them. The video would be much more informative though. Pictures are nice and would show a lot, but a video would show the lift actually working and that would be nicer. But I can certainly take a few pictures and post them for you to look at. Actually, I think I have some pictures that I took while I was building the lift. I'll see if I can find them.

 

[James-W]

The doorbell rang and we have company. I can't look for the pictures right now, but I will try to get back to looking for the pictures later today. In the meantime, please try to use a Windows based computer to view the video. I really do think you can get some helpful ideas from watching it.

 

[James-W]

Sorry that I didn't get those pictures for you yet. Our company just left a little while ago. We ended up going out to eat and finding the pictures just didn't work out the way I had thought it would. I just spent about 15 minutes trying to find the pictures and it turns out I have no idea where they are. I will have to take some more photos, hopefully tomorrow, but I have quite a bit to do tomorrow so we'll see what happens. I apologize for not getting them today like I had planned on doing. I had no idea we would have company stop by unexpectedly.

 

[DonPowers]

The boat storage is something new. Looks great.

Thanks Turbo

 

[DonPowers]

Sorry that I didn't get those pictures for you yet. Our company just left a little while ago. We ended up going out to eat and finding the pictures just didn't work out the way I had thought it would. I just spent about 15 minutes trying to find the pictures and it turns out I have no idea where they are. I will have to take some more photos, hopefully tomorrow, but I have quite a bit to do tomorrow so we'll see what happens. I apologize for not getting them today like I had planned on doing. I had no idea we would have company stop by unexpectedly.

Not a problem james. I'm a long way off from building / installing an upstairs lift, though tomorrow some sheetrock is being delivered and a lift sure would be handy.

 

[DonPowers]

Continuing to work on the upstairs this month. The little propane heater has been keeping the space at around 35 deg on its low setting, which is comfortable enough.

Put up a little sheet rock along with more attic insulation.

View media item 47626
Also working on upstairs electrical, 6 circuits for outlets and 7 circuits going to the attic into distribution boxes for lighting and some outlets. Two of the attic circuits are spares. There is also an empty conduit going to the attic, just in case I forgot something.

View media item 47627
2” Conduit going upstairs

View media item 47628
Everything hooked up inside the panel so far has been temporary. The upstairs wires will be the first permanent connections.

View media item 47629
Second Floor

View media item 47630
Attic

View media item 47631
Distribution Boxes

View media item 47632
More Distribution Boxes

 

[DonPowers]

Connected the grounds and neutrals for the upstairs circuits today. The load side of two of the circuits were ready for power and those were also connected. The remaining black wires will be connected to the breakers once their loads are fully connected.

Also labeled all the wires in 3 locations.

View media item 47688

 

[DonPowers]

Have been hanging a little sheetrock upstairs over the winter, as you can see there is plenty left to do.

Now that the weather is getting a bit nicer, will set up staging on the east side of the building for siding installation and two windows for the 2nd floor. Will work upstairs on rainy days.


View media item 50074
View media item 50073
View media item 50072

 

[dlcwent]

Wow Don. I just went through this thread. You have a truly awesome garage there. I must someday find the time to come meet you and see it first hand. VERY impressive.
Oh and the view isn't too hard to take either.

 

[DonPowers]

Thanks Dan, you are welcome to stop by anytime.

I'm sure that the view where you are at in Waldoboro is also pretty good.