Mark's Monster Garage....3800 sq ft

[IGO2XS]

I was lurking on another forum and heard mention of the Garage Journal. I couldn't get here fast enough. Originally from Indiana I had a love of barns and cars. Moving to Florida in 1983 my first home did not have a garage. In my twenties I had no trouble getting up early every morning and wiping off our cars. Fortunately 4 short years later we purchased a home down the street with a two car garage......YES. I managed to get by another 4 years before I was able to add on a 3 car garage to the existing garage. NICE.......but as barns and garages go I found myself short on space. I really wanted a lift, more room to work, a place to park my truck, and more storage. In 2005 with blessings from the wife I started construction on a 2400 square foot detached garage. I was in heaven and had the man cave of my dreams. I ended up with two lifts and now cars started coming apart. Needless to say I really wasn't sure how they were going back together.

Long story longer my family decided we would buy a large piece of property were we could all build and live close to each other.......that meant new garage time. I had built the garage of my dreams but now I had it under my belt and I was ready to really build the garage of my dreams.....garage guys are never satisfied are they?

I couldn't wait to post and sorry not ready to add pictures. They will come soon. The garage is already built but I would like to try to document the build.

 

[ElliottG]

How long ago did you build it? Sounds cool all living together!

 

[Kevin54]

All of that and not even one teaser pic? C'mon now.

Welcome to Garage Journal. Once you come to the site, you will realize that you need to change the garage all around. This place sort of has that effect on people.

 

[yogitech]

Welcome! We need pictures or it didnt happen...

 

[JC23]

Like Kevin said. Welcome and get ready to do yer garage over again!

 

[rmckee]

All that description and anticipation building with not ONE photo of ANY of the aforementioned photos?!?

 

[UN4GTBL]

Pics or ban!!

(Welcome!)

 

[IGO2XS]

Man you guys are tough on this garage forum. I guess I have been hanging out in some of the sissy forums and was used to getting my way. Ok, I know I threw out all of the hype and just left you hanging. As a "type A" person I wanted to post all of the build pictures in order...........however, somehow I can't seem to find the beginning stage pictures. I guess I am not going to be one of the guys with the 5 stars on his thread. I am going to post some plans in the next few days so you can see the layout.


As many garages start, it was on a plain sheet of paper. I had spent so much time on my last garage I took the basic footprint and enlarged the size. Believe it or not I used a Homes and Garden Designer Suite Program to design the outside elevations to show to the architect. Although not a licensed contractor I was going to act as my own builder.

So here you go, one single photo of the front of the garage. On the right you will see the door to the RV garage, to the left and next to the tower is the guest apartment, and then two doors to the main garage on the far left.

 

[IGO2XS]

How long ago did you build it? Sounds cool all living together!

We have spent the last 4 years on this project from property purchase, design and build 3 homes and my garage. A few fun facts on the garage, it was the first building we started construction on. We were selling a home in Indiana and we had a 50 x 70 Morton Building up there, my garage and home here in Sarasota and we needed a place to keep all of the "stuff". The garage was just almost one year ago. However, it has taken one year just to sort through everything and get my garage into a condition I was comfortable with sharing.

 

[IGO2XS]

All of that and not even one teaser pic? C'mon now.

Welcome to Garage Journal. Once you come to the site, you will realize that you need to change the garage all around. This place sort of has that effect on people.

The one about the soap and the speed in which one washes quoted in your post........I just used that one yesterday so I guess i am in the right place!!!

 

[cj7365]

Holy **** a castle, wheres the moat

 

[IGO2XS]

Holy **** a castle, wheres the moat

thanks for the compliment......I wanted to build a "castle" theme but it presented a lot of obstacles......too many round walls for one so I guess i had to lower my standards to "old world". As I will eventually share, the house matches the garage......yep, I am probably one of the few men who actually got to design his garage first. Wife was OK with it and we ended up carrying a lot of the inside trim work over to the house. Cant wait to show you.

 

[JC23]

SBJ!!!

What a palace!

 

[brslk]

I'm pretty sure I have seen this before. What other forum(s) have you shown this on before?

Very nice btw.

Bruce.

 

[allinon72]

WOW awesome!

 

[Mmfh]

You have to give us more than that, Quickly!

Looks like it could be one of the better ones here on GJ, get those pics in order, inquiring minds want to know.

Very, Very, Nice!

 

[IGO2XS]

I'm pretty sure I have seen this before. What other forum(s) have you shown this on before?

Very nice btw.

Bruce.

Bruce, the only other forum you might have seen it on is the AVS Forum while I was doing my home theater build. I am also on 67-72 Chevy truck forum as I am building a 69 Chevy p/u. I like building stuff! These forums ate a great way to get ideas.

 

[SuperSocket]

I'm pretty sure that is not a garage... but rather a castle...

Nice!!

 

[Wingnut65]

I'm pretty sure that is not a garage... but rather a castle...

Nice!!

The hard problem with building a castle is that the door folds down instead of going up. But maybe that can give more head clearance for the lifts... IGO, is it too late to change the doors????

Nice work! If that building is just the garage, we will need to see the floor plan to undertand how your Second Dream Garage has come to be. Maybe we can learn from your experience and reasoning. I love the tower!

BTW, Welcome to GJ from a litte north of ya. Although I do end up in LWR for a project on a regular basis...

 

[Kevin54]

Holy ****!!!! We ask for a pic and get THAT slammed into our face.

Looking forward to seeing more.

 

[metalhead212121]

Looking forward to seeing more.

x2 on that...

oh yeah.. subscribing.

 

[IGO2XS]

Ok, dropped plans off today to be scanned and reduced so I can post the floor plan and elevations of garage tomorrow. At the very beginning of my garage design I picked up this Chief Architect Home Designer Suite software. I feel like I have a creative mind but the visual in 3D helps to get an idea of what you have drawn on a piece of paper......today you see many of your upscale car builds starting with a rendering.......a theory of sorts. The above rendering I did with this software. It is actually kind of fun and if you really want to get into it you can add interior design elements and take a virtual tour through your design.

This picture above was a print out of the garage I designed with the Home Designer Suite software. Although I had two very capable architects this picture helped them work out the roof lines.

You can see 4 different roof lines which cover the 4 areas of the garage and I know I covered them before but this picture gives a pretty good overall picture of the garage layout.

THE TOWER......was my key design element to give me my faux castle. It is approximately 28 feet tall. The tower was to be designed to be covered with stone to appear old with other stone appointments on other areas of the garage. This tower ended up being the bedroom of the guest house. Although just 10 x 10 interior dimensions it is quite spacious because the inside ceiling height is around 22 feet.

BEHIND TOWER......and the lowest roof on the building is the living room, kitchen, and bathroom area making up the guest apartment. The small 8 x 8 garage door you see in this section was originally designed to house my 41 Willys.......it was to be the show garage. To the right of this door is the main entrance to the apartment. There is a large 4 x 4 window between the living room and this garage that allows view of this garage from the guest apartment.

TO THE RIGHT OF TOWER the long narrow roof is the RV bay. There is one 12 wide x 14 tall door on the front and not pictured is a 12 x 14 door out the back.

ON THE LEFT are the two 10 x 10 garage doors into the main room. It is about 45 foot deep.....enough for two cars end to end plus room for a work bench or cabinets across the back.

 

[Wingnut65]

That is awesome. Not the norm of a square box with a door. Well thought out. I like the idea of the window into the garage from inside the apartment.

The tile roof will look great on this. I have an excellent roofer that just did 30,000 SF of tile in Lakewood Ranch.

Stone on the tower would be icing on the cake!

 

[catsteve]

Your gonna need a faux light-cannon in that faux gun tower in the faux castle.

i like it.

 

[1991Syclone]

Where at in Sarasota? I work downtown and live in Englewood. Garage is coming along nicely! Congratulations on being able to build a decent place to work on your projects.

 

[IGO2XS]

That is awesome. Not the norm of a square box with a door. Well thought out. I like the idea of the window into the garage from inside the apartment.

Stone on the tower would be icing on the cake!

Where at in Sarasota? I work downtown and live in Englewood. Garage is coming along nicely! Congratulations on being able to build a decent place to work on your projects.

Hey local guys, I am on Proctor Road just 1 mile east of interstate 75. If you are going to be in the area give me a shout. We are always hanging out in the garage and your always welcome.

 

[IGO2XS]

Your gonna need a faux light-cannon in that faux gun tower in the faux castle.

i like it.

There is a pond next to the garage and the cannons were a thought

 

[1991Syclone]

There is a pond next to the garage and the cannons were a thought

Looks great. The tower on the house matches the one on the garage! Have you finished the house yet?

 

[was2]

Not a machine gun turret? Ok, at least install a fake so folks will look directly at the security cameras.

 

[IGO2XS]

Looks great. The tower on the house matches the one on the garage! Have you finished the house yet?

Dude, you spoiled the surprise. I promise we will get to that

 

[Nighttrain]

First garage with a tower I have seen. Can't wait to see how it turned out.

 

[IGO2XS]

Here is the layout of the property. The home to the right of the drawing is my brothers home. To the left on the top left hand corner is the garage, below is the existing pond, and to the right is my wife's house!!!




Here is the floor plan of the garage. The tower bedroom is marked studio, and the living room is labeled study.


Front and side elevations.





I want to add I have a 8 foot tall prestressed concrete wall around the entire property so we have plenty of privacy.



As I layer out the property building sides I built as close to the property corners as i could to preserve as much open space between the homes as possible. I want to add I have a 8 foot tall pre=stressed concrete wall around the entire property so we have plenty of privacy. The lot is about 700 feet deep by 300 feet wide.

 

[Chaz]

Got my attention!

 

[Thedoc14]

You call that a pond!!!
It looks like a small lake, how deep is that.
If that is your garage, how cool does the Wife's house look compared to your brothers or is his the benchmark for your inspiration.

 

[Wingnut65]

Excellent plans! Since the tower will be the focal point of the entry drive, I'm glad you have added all the stone and trim. From looking at the isometric, I was going to say the roof slope should be raised to at least 6:12 or 8:12, but the elevations look great. The stone on the RV shed looks nice to balance. There still may want to be some stone wainscot on the Study area. The garage arches could use a keystone.

And to top it off, there is A/C in the garage!

Also, just a 2 cent thought, if the fridge and sink were flipped, there could be another window on that wall. Although an over-the-sink window.

Nice work. Looking forward to following this build. I may take you up on the open door sometime.

Oh, I have a faux stone contact as well...

 

[Boosted1]

I like it. However one thought.
If the Tower is not an absolute must, you could probably put a second story onto the Behind Tower building for the same money and end up with more space inside and a smaller footprint / larger yard space.

 

[gussteve]

nice layout!

 

[IGO2XS]

You call that a pond!!!
It looks like a small lake, how deep is that.
If that is your garage, how cool does the Wife's house look compared to your brothers or is his the benchmark for your inspiration.

The "pond" is about 15 feet deep. It was existing and i just dredged it. I built my own storm drainage system on the property. One 12 pipe traveling 500 feet from the front house. Every downspout on all three structures ties in to a main pipe and goes into the pond. I built numerous concrete drain boxes with steel grate on top to capture any water around the driveways. The property elevation drops two feet front the front of the property back to pond so all of the water naturally drains down to the pond.

My brother and I went different directions on design. My brothers house is spanish mediterranean. My design came from my head.........as most people do researched castles and tuscan style buildings to get my look.

Excellent plans! Since the tower will be the focal point of the entry drive, I'm glad you have added all the stone and trim. The stone on the RV shed looks nice to balance. The garage arches could use a keystone.

Also, just a 2 cent thought, if the fridge and sink were flipped, there could be another window on that wall. Although an over-the-sink window.

You have a very good eye. Yes as it worked out the garage tower is seen directly down the driveway. What you cannot see is the 200 year old grand oak trees on the property. As you travel down the driveway an oak canopy covers the road and opens up to the tower.

When you see the kitchen plans you will see how it worked out. There isn't a tremendous amount of space but a friend of mine is a custom cabinet builder. We have an undercounter dishwasher and a undercounted refrigerator and freezer. it was a very tough kitchen to design.

I like it. However one thought.
If the Tower is not an absolute must, you could probably put a second story onto the Behind Tower building for the same money and end up with more space inside and a smaller footprint / larger yard space.

If I can find them I will show you my two story design. I wasn't going to bring it up and confuse my thread but since you brought it up. I actually had submitted the two story garage to county building officials. The tower was originally designed as a staircase to the second floor living quarters. I had offices and this and that down stairs in the current living area........it was bad ***. There was a tragedy in our family and I guess I figured I was really crazy to build a 4600 square foot garage. I went back to the architect and we redesigned to the single story.

I will post some interior framing photos tonight.

 

[Thedoc14]

Cant wait.......

 

[IGO2XS]

If you look at the floor plan of the garage I posted this picture was taken from the main garage looking towards the rear door of the garage. On left a 8' x 8' overhead door which opens to a 18 x 26 concrete slab on the back of the garage (open work area, outside storage, access to back of RV garage), middle door goes to the RV bay, and to the right a view into garage 2 and behind it the living room.


This picture is looking out the two 10 x 10 doors on the front of the main garage and then to the left you will see the opening for the 8 x 8 door for garage 2. The huge pile of dirt is good top soil mixed in with the dirt we dredged from pond. Also, corner of the garage for my house.


This shot is taken toward the pond area and the back wall of garage.........14 foot tall ceilings. Concrete slab is 5 inches + thick and footers were poured for two car lifts.


The is the rv bay with its 16'6" tall ceiling.........12' x 14' opening for garage door. OUt the door is a view of the concrete fence that surrounds our compound. You can also see the (2) 200 amp panels. One can never have enough electricity.

total of 6 garage doors.

2 - 8' x 8'
2 - 10' x 10'
2 - 14' x 12'