wkohler
Member
Hi there. My name is Chris and I'm from Phoenix, AZ. I joined back in 2009, a couple weeks before we closed on my house. At the time, I felt it was best to read and learn using the search function before asking questions.
Here's the house right after I got the keys:
The house was built in 1954 and is brick constructed in the "Flemish bond" style. The garage is original to the house, though it is made of wood. The wall separating the house from the garage is brick. My neighbor to the south has a brick exterior wall and the one to the south of them has the same setup I have.
Unfortunately the big bottle tree in the photo was diseased and couldn't be saved. I miss it and the shade, especially. There's another one just out of the photo, but it benefits my neighbors more than it does me.
Here's the garage (taken at the same time):
It looks different now, but not because of any positive changes or anything. I thought it was a nice setup at the time since it had decent width with a 16' door. It was deep as well. There's a nice area with a built-in workbench that's pretty solid, and two doors heading to the back yard. Outside, there's a sink and the closet which holds the water heater. Behind the garage, there's a nice spot leading to an RV gate and I thought, "This would be a great place to put a lift." There's also a door to a room which used to be the laundry room. That was since moved inside, so this was pretty good for storage. Nothing was particularly efficient, but I figured it had potential. I also would soon find out that the "epoxy-coated" garage floor was nothing more than the PO dumping out a can of epoxy floor coating and spreading it around with a roller. Zero prep on that. Nice. Figured we'd insulate the walls, put up some 5/8" sheetrock and finish it nicely. The workbench posed some logistical issues with that plan, though nothing that was a deal killer. That said, there were more pressing issues, as the POs weren't as detail/quality-oriented as I or my father.
Started working on the house. Had the tree removed and spent a lot of time tidying up the landscaping. It was also a requirement to maintain my insurance policy that I put a roof on the house. $14,000 later, we had a roof on the house, a lot of wood replaced and I did a lot of painting. My dad gave me a hand with that. Things were moving along.
In October, 2010, we had a freak hail storm here in the valley and I happen to live in one of the hardest hit areas. Friends just a couple miles down the road didn't even get any rain. Crazy. Either way, I had a couple of cars hit badly, my 6-mo old roof,, my freshly-painted/stained fence etc. What a mess. Started recovering from that despite the pittance I received from insurance (wouldn't even cover 1/2 the cost to install the same roof). Made all this progress and everything we did was damaged. A few months later, we are hit with a freeze on New Years. Arrive home to seeing water flowing out of my garage under the door at an alarming rate. I figured the water heater went. Turned out a pipe froze in the attic above that storage room.
Look at that beautiful floor. That was after everything had been moved out. I had a lot of stuff soaked, but fortunately, it was mostly limited to the boxes. Glad I got the car out before the big chunk of ceiling fell out, though. Insurance had a company come out and remove the affected ceiling.
At this point, I had a garage with half a ceiling, no lights and the whole attic is exposed. Time to figure out what to do with it. It's been 2.5 years and we're still there, though now the circa 1980 Genie opener is broken and I open my deteriorating wood garage door by hand. It's full of **** and it's placement is all "temporary" but "temporary" is seeming a bit "permanent" to me.
Close the door and it doesn't look half bad, though:
Part of the reason this worked out the way it did is that I like to do things right the first time. No point in fixing what was there without doing what I wanted. I wanted plenty of light, redo the floor (which I did get insurance to pay for) and maybe even use this missing ceiling thing to my advantage and figure out how to put a lift in there.
I figured hey, none of these ceiling joists are actually attached to the walls (the rafters are), so why not pull them out and allow the greenhouse of the car to go up into the attic a bit?
Couple of beams in the way, but hey, maybe it would work. So, I did a bunch of searching and reading and just ended up jealous of the 12-14' ceilings many people have.
I've got a few projects that need doing on cars, so the search for a lift climbed the priority list. I wanted a two-post, but figured, we're going to have to go with a four post and a bridge jack to go inside since height is a problem. I'd love a Mohawk A-7, but I simply cannot afford something like that. Sure, new was an option but I wanted US made if I could get it and I started searching Craigslist every day. I had pretty much given up and then found this on Sunday for $700:
It's a Mohawk TP-9. 9000 lb two post lift made sometime in the '80s. I was the first one in with the email and got a call back that evening. Made arrangements to see it the next day. It's been sitting in that spot for about five years, so it's no beauty queen. I checked it out and didn't see any glaring problems, knowing it was going to need rehab. I don't mind a project. I paid the guy $650 and got a bill of sale. I took a few parts with me including the original brochure and owners manual.
It's in my driveway right now as I haven't yet gotten the concrete poured. I'm sure my neighbors love it, but it was the only option I had. I plan to put it here:
Right now, the 745i (brown car - it's parts) is still back there. The red one (once also destined for scrap) is now out front, so my plan is to have a nice concrete pad that exceeds minimum specs, install the rehabbed lift and put a shade dealie up. I think one of those four post jobs with the arched top will work nice, but I'm open to ideas. I'm going to start a thread about the lift and going through it, which I think should be fun and an excuse to buy some new tools.
Anyway, sorry for the long story, but I thought it was probably the best way to get y'all up to speed. I hope to continue learning and maybe someday I can actually contribute something constructive based on experience. At this point, I don't have much, unless you have an '80s BMW.
Here's the house right after I got the keys:
The house was built in 1954 and is brick constructed in the "Flemish bond" style. The garage is original to the house, though it is made of wood. The wall separating the house from the garage is brick. My neighbor to the south has a brick exterior wall and the one to the south of them has the same setup I have.
Unfortunately the big bottle tree in the photo was diseased and couldn't be saved. I miss it and the shade, especially. There's another one just out of the photo, but it benefits my neighbors more than it does me.
Here's the garage (taken at the same time):
It looks different now, but not because of any positive changes or anything. I thought it was a nice setup at the time since it had decent width with a 16' door. It was deep as well. There's a nice area with a built-in workbench that's pretty solid, and two doors heading to the back yard. Outside, there's a sink and the closet which holds the water heater. Behind the garage, there's a nice spot leading to an RV gate and I thought, "This would be a great place to put a lift." There's also a door to a room which used to be the laundry room. That was since moved inside, so this was pretty good for storage. Nothing was particularly efficient, but I figured it had potential. I also would soon find out that the "epoxy-coated" garage floor was nothing more than the PO dumping out a can of epoxy floor coating and spreading it around with a roller. Zero prep on that. Nice. Figured we'd insulate the walls, put up some 5/8" sheetrock and finish it nicely. The workbench posed some logistical issues with that plan, though nothing that was a deal killer. That said, there were more pressing issues, as the POs weren't as detail/quality-oriented as I or my father.
Started working on the house. Had the tree removed and spent a lot of time tidying up the landscaping. It was also a requirement to maintain my insurance policy that I put a roof on the house. $14,000 later, we had a roof on the house, a lot of wood replaced and I did a lot of painting. My dad gave me a hand with that. Things were moving along.
In October, 2010, we had a freak hail storm here in the valley and I happen to live in one of the hardest hit areas. Friends just a couple miles down the road didn't even get any rain. Crazy. Either way, I had a couple of cars hit badly, my 6-mo old roof,, my freshly-painted/stained fence etc. What a mess. Started recovering from that despite the pittance I received from insurance (wouldn't even cover 1/2 the cost to install the same roof). Made all this progress and everything we did was damaged. A few months later, we are hit with a freeze on New Years. Arrive home to seeing water flowing out of my garage under the door at an alarming rate. I figured the water heater went. Turned out a pipe froze in the attic above that storage room.
Look at that beautiful floor. That was after everything had been moved out. I had a lot of stuff soaked, but fortunately, it was mostly limited to the boxes. Glad I got the car out before the big chunk of ceiling fell out, though. Insurance had a company come out and remove the affected ceiling.
At this point, I had a garage with half a ceiling, no lights and the whole attic is exposed. Time to figure out what to do with it. It's been 2.5 years and we're still there, though now the circa 1980 Genie opener is broken and I open my deteriorating wood garage door by hand. It's full of **** and it's placement is all "temporary" but "temporary" is seeming a bit "permanent" to me.
Close the door and it doesn't look half bad, though:
Part of the reason this worked out the way it did is that I like to do things right the first time. No point in fixing what was there without doing what I wanted. I wanted plenty of light, redo the floor (which I did get insurance to pay for) and maybe even use this missing ceiling thing to my advantage and figure out how to put a lift in there.
I figured hey, none of these ceiling joists are actually attached to the walls (the rafters are), so why not pull them out and allow the greenhouse of the car to go up into the attic a bit?
Couple of beams in the way, but hey, maybe it would work. So, I did a bunch of searching and reading and just ended up jealous of the 12-14' ceilings many people have.
I've got a few projects that need doing on cars, so the search for a lift climbed the priority list. I wanted a two-post, but figured, we're going to have to go with a four post and a bridge jack to go inside since height is a problem. I'd love a Mohawk A-7, but I simply cannot afford something like that. Sure, new was an option but I wanted US made if I could get it and I started searching Craigslist every day. I had pretty much given up and then found this on Sunday for $700:
It's a Mohawk TP-9. 9000 lb two post lift made sometime in the '80s. I was the first one in with the email and got a call back that evening. Made arrangements to see it the next day. It's been sitting in that spot for about five years, so it's no beauty queen. I checked it out and didn't see any glaring problems, knowing it was going to need rehab. I don't mind a project. I paid the guy $650 and got a bill of sale. I took a few parts with me including the original brochure and owners manual.
It's in my driveway right now as I haven't yet gotten the concrete poured. I'm sure my neighbors love it, but it was the only option I had. I plan to put it here:
Right now, the 745i (brown car - it's parts) is still back there. The red one (once also destined for scrap) is now out front, so my plan is to have a nice concrete pad that exceeds minimum specs, install the rehabbed lift and put a shade dealie up. I think one of those four post jobs with the arched top will work nice, but I'm open to ideas. I'm going to start a thread about the lift and going through it, which I think should be fun and an excuse to buy some new tools.
Anyway, sorry for the long story, but I thought it was probably the best way to get y'all up to speed. I hope to continue learning and maybe someday I can actually contribute something constructive based on experience. At this point, I don't have much, unless you have an '80s BMW.