Dadofour
Well-known member
I live in Middletown, NJ about a mile from the ocean. Not the “Jersey Shore” some are familiar with, but the very northern portion of the Jersey Shore, above Sandy Hook, for those familiar with the area. We are a few hundred feet from the evacuation line when hurricanes are expected and evacuation is required. For the most part, we all live on sand with soil on top for grass to grow. We generally do not have basements as you will hit water before you get deep enough for a decent height.
I started my “car guy” life in 2001. Since then I have learned a great deal about maintaining a street car and building a race car from the chassis up, starting with my first brake job in 2002. As a result of this growing passion, I have accumulated tools, cars, parts and the other assorted “****” from interests of my four kids (now all in their twenties).
My neighbors are awesome. They have tolerated three different cars sitting on jack stands for months while I either built them up or stripped them down for the junk yard. My daughter married a car guy and now I am contending with his collection of cars and parts as well. At the time of this writing we have 14 vehicles and an aluminum open trailer and a 28 ft enclosed trailer, all at my house with a 2/3’s acre yard. The street looks like we are having a party every day and the yard often has cars parked on the grass, especially when it snows and it is illegal to have cars on the street. We have kayaks, tree stands and tires piled along the side. We try to make the house look neat, but it is a losing battle.
I became aware of the concept of a pole barn in the late spring and started fantasizing about having my own. Fantasy led to reality and before I knew it I was seriously headed down the detached garage road with my wife’s blessing. I have many friends in the car community that are enablers and constantly “encouraging” the build so they have a local lift to work with and because misery loves company.
The serious part of the journey started with a visit to Town hall in June of this year (2015). My wife and I spoke with the head of zoning who shared all of the rules the barn would need to follow to be approved. She also shared that any structure or addition above 500 sq ft would need to be approved by the Township engineer. It seems that in the past since Hurricane Sandy, the town has been very focus on rain runoff management. This approval process is called a Grading Survey approval and requires I hire an engineer to do a site survey, including comparing my build against Zoning rules. The application is $250. I will save the gory details, but every application is rejected at least once and the town collects $250 each time you resubmit. The process takes 2 months per submission OR resubmission.
After speaking to the Zoning head, I spent the next month working with a Pole Barn company designing the perfect garage for my needs. 30 X 40 with 12’ 4” ceilings and an attic to store all of the **** that is currently in a 192 Sq Ft shed at the back of my property. I would have loved to go bigger, but there comes a point where you have to consider the aesthetics. The garage is designed to be three bays with a lift in the far right bay. Once we get further along I will share my plans for heat, lighting etc. My plan is to eventually convert the left two bays into a wood working shop when my racing decreases and/or I retire and want to get more into building furniture.
This is what the pole barn company and we (my wife and I) designed and moved forward documented with sealed plans per town requirements.
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To be continued...
I started my “car guy” life in 2001. Since then I have learned a great deal about maintaining a street car and building a race car from the chassis up, starting with my first brake job in 2002. As a result of this growing passion, I have accumulated tools, cars, parts and the other assorted “****” from interests of my four kids (now all in their twenties).
My neighbors are awesome. They have tolerated three different cars sitting on jack stands for months while I either built them up or stripped them down for the junk yard. My daughter married a car guy and now I am contending with his collection of cars and parts as well. At the time of this writing we have 14 vehicles and an aluminum open trailer and a 28 ft enclosed trailer, all at my house with a 2/3’s acre yard. The street looks like we are having a party every day and the yard often has cars parked on the grass, especially when it snows and it is illegal to have cars on the street. We have kayaks, tree stands and tires piled along the side. We try to make the house look neat, but it is a losing battle.
I became aware of the concept of a pole barn in the late spring and started fantasizing about having my own. Fantasy led to reality and before I knew it I was seriously headed down the detached garage road with my wife’s blessing. I have many friends in the car community that are enablers and constantly “encouraging” the build so they have a local lift to work with and because misery loves company.
The serious part of the journey started with a visit to Town hall in June of this year (2015). My wife and I spoke with the head of zoning who shared all of the rules the barn would need to follow to be approved. She also shared that any structure or addition above 500 sq ft would need to be approved by the Township engineer. It seems that in the past since Hurricane Sandy, the town has been very focus on rain runoff management. This approval process is called a Grading Survey approval and requires I hire an engineer to do a site survey, including comparing my build against Zoning rules. The application is $250. I will save the gory details, but every application is rejected at least once and the town collects $250 each time you resubmit. The process takes 2 months per submission OR resubmission.
After speaking to the Zoning head, I spent the next month working with a Pole Barn company designing the perfect garage for my needs. 30 X 40 with 12’ 4” ceilings and an attic to store all of the **** that is currently in a 192 Sq Ft shed at the back of my property. I would have loved to go bigger, but there comes a point where you have to consider the aesthetics. The garage is designed to be three bays with a lift in the far right bay. Once we get further along I will share my plans for heat, lighting etc. My plan is to eventually convert the left two bays into a wood working shop when my racing decreases and/or I retire and want to get more into building furniture.
This is what the pole barn company and we (my wife and I) designed and moved forward documented with sealed plans per town requirements.
View media item 55583
View media item 55584
View media item 55585
To be continued...