New House and Garage in an HOA in ATL

[Scott0023]

@Scott0023 – Looks like the house is really coming along! That garage is going to look great with those Vidmar cabinets

Linda and Marty,

Thank you both! Over the years I have helped spec out three shops at work using Vidmar cabinets and benches. It was a lot easier spending other people's money than it is my own. I have always wanted to do my own shop with Vidmar but have never had the budget to. About 2 years ago I found a set of Lista cabinets that started my collection. Earlier this year I started in earnest looking for Vidmar and now have the 7 I will be using. Craigslist and not being too picky on colors has been the only way I have been able to go this route. Some have had holes drilled in them that will get plug welded in the next week. I will show the repair and restoration here.

These things are painfully heavy and do not lend themselves to be moved. Although that is good from a security perspective it is a PITA to move and repair. The ones I found had not been used much as the grease in the drawer bearings is hard and sticky. Carb cleaner and re-greasing the bearings makes them feel like new.

>Scott

 

[Scott0023]

Scott,

Greetings from the south side of ATL.

The house is coming together wonderfully. Your garage looks like it will be the envy of the neighborhood!


Dino

Hi Dino,

Thanks. I will be moving in during the hottest part of the summer. I can't wait to be in there and getting going on finishing the garage and shop.

Scott

 

[Scott0023]

I feel your pain on double checking on the construction. We built our home in 2004 right in the middle of 4 hurricanes LOL . I was lucky as it was only 4 miles from my moms 9where we were staying) and on my way to work so i would stop by every morning then got back in the evening and do closer inspections.

My best inspection was towards the end as the concrete guys were doing the slab out side the garage I showed up and the whole corner of the roof and garage light were destroyed from what I'm pretty sure was a concrete trucks boom and no one could speak english

The part that has kept most of the pain away has been attitude, mine. That and a builder who gets it. There have been problems and so far they have been handled very well. There are still some minor things but all of those can be fixed.

A couple weeks ago I was talking with the project manager about the driveway. There is an 18" drop from the street to the garage and a step of a couple inches from the street up to the driveway. I was asking about the need for a drain across the driveway closer to the house. He listened and said he would look at it when they got the grade finalized. We went by this week to find the driveway done with a drain running the entire width. The end of the drain is connected to corrugated drain pipe and will be routed to the back of the property. Seriously, how cool is it that all it took was a simple conversation and he went with it. I trust the guy as he has been doing this for probably 30 years. He seems to know his stuff and has a great attitude about doing the right thing and making the house (garage) the way we want it.

>Scott

 

[jsherid1]

I've been following your thread with particular interest as we are also in the process of building a new home and it is awesome that you have a project manager who pays attention to details and does things right. We had a number of months with a project manager who either didn't know or care (possibly both) and it made building a miserable experience. We demanded and got a new guy, 180 degree turnaround--moral of the story is that the project manager is the one who will determine the quality of both the experience and the house, if you get a bad one get them changed out sooner rather than later. Sorry for the partial hijack/rant but your build is a case in point for how a good project manager is worth their weight in gold!

 

[Caddis295]

Scott,

I have a few Vidmars myself. They have traveled across the US a few times, so I know what you mean by heavy.

If you need some muscle when it comes time to move, all you need to do is ask. I am free most of the week.

I am finishing up my garage right now....

Regards,

Dino

 

[TiFJ]

Your place is looking great! Excited to see the finished house and the progress on the garage!

 

[BHR4CE1]

Can't wait to see the finished garage.

 

[Scott0023]

I've been following your thread with particular interest as we are also in the process of building a new home and it is awesome that you have a project manager who pays attention to details and does things right. We had a number of months with a project manager who either didn't know or care (possibly both) and it made building a miserable experience. We demanded and got a new guy, 180 degree turnaround--moral of the story is that the project manager is the one who will determine the quality of both the experience and the house, if you get a bad one get them changed out sooner rather than later. Sorry for the partial hijack/rant but your build is a case in point for how a good project manager is worth their weight in gold!

Jim,

You are lucky you were able to change. The first time we did this they builder was a real ***. They didn't want us in the house at all during construction. We went in anyway and found some serious stuff not right. I still remember that on our walk through there were things wrong like the drain pan for the washing machine was under the dryer side. It was plumbed to that if there was a leak 92nd floor laundry) it would go to the drain. There was a hot water pipe no sweated so it leaked and ruined the ceiling of the first floor.

This one is going much better.

>Scott

 

[Scott0023]

Scott,

I have a few Vidmars myself. They have traveled across the US a few times, so I know what you mean by heavy.

If you need some muscle when it comes time to move, all you need to do is ask. I am free most of the week.

I am finishing up my garage right now....

Regards,

Dino

Dino,

I may take you up on that. I am getting a few young bucks to help with the heavy stuff.

I remember touring the Vidmar factory back about 15 years ago. We were looking to outfit our shop with all Vidmar boxes and benches and I lived pretty close to their place in PA. It was really cool. The one perk the employees had there was they could purchase dented and dinged units. I have said that the one indulgence I would jump on if I won the lottery would be the garage with the built-in modular cabinets and benches. I would have to fill it up with something but that was always at the top of the list.

>Scott

 

[Scott0023]

This is the drain the contractor added to the driveway.

I had a neighbor who had a downhill driveway and he regularly got water in his garage. I don't think I would have had that problem here but really didn't want to worry about it. The house next to mine is at the highest point on the street so the peak of the road is about 75 feet from my driveway. There is a step up of about 2" from the street/curb elevation to the driveway. I don't expect to get a river flowing from the peak of the road to my driveway. That said, I am still glad the drain is there.

>Scott

 

[Scott0023]

The doors went up this week with the Liftmaster 8500's.

We are being told that we should close in a month. There were a few electricians still there tonight at 8:00PM hanging the fixtures, ceiling fans and such.

 

[Scott0023]

We are just under a month before we close on the new place so I am trying to get things in order. This weekend's job was to repair and paint the Vidmar cabinets. Over this past year I picked up 7 of these, 3 - 1 door cabinets, 2 - 4 drawer units, an 8 drawer unit, and one 10 drawer.

These were all used and some had a few dents and dings in them.

Some of these had hasps for locks screwed into them.

This one had a large steel rod that went from the top of the cabinet to the bottom to block the drawers when locked in place.

The people who drilled all of these holes were obviously were not the ones who spec'd these out. it would have been so much easier to add locks.

Although, I really don't like this massive lock cylinder right in the middle of the door.

 

[Scott0023]

These cabinets are amazingly stout. About the only thing wrong with them outside of the cosmetic abuse is the grease on the rollers has hardened over the years. A shot of brake cleaner and new grease makes the drawers slide in and out they way they should.

I rolled the Lancia out of the garage and parked it on the driveway until I could take it to my work. I will leave it there over the weekend as there is no room in the garage with the Vidmars all spread out. Looks small next to the RAV4.

Grind away the paint around the holes where the lock hasps were. The hole to the right was for a lock cylinder. Only one of the three cabinets has a lock. Since I don't really like that one I am going to remove the plugs and weld them all up.

I found some washers that are a pretty decent fit for the lock holes. I plug welded the hole up and will tack these in place.

Welding this can be tough for an amateur. The last time I used my MIG was almost 2 years ago. I am thankful there are grinders.

A magnet holds the washer/plug in place nicely.

The 10 drawer cabinet was the worst of them all. The holes were 3/8" and the area around them were all beat in. A bit of welding and hammer/dolly work got me close enough.

 

[Scott0023]

I took a body shop class back in high school. Between that, auto shop, and metals, it was the best part of those 4 years. Every once in a while I get to brush up on that training from 1980.

Body filler to clean up the dings and smooth over the welded parts.

Primer makes it start to look like it is worth the effort.

Ready to paint.

Some of the cabinets are a light blue, some grey, and the ones I had painted before were red and black.

Here's the darker blue I am going with.

The holes from the hasp as well as the lock cylinder hole are all gone. Cool

 

[Scott0023]

Here they are staged for the move.

The handles all have these plastic ends on to keep the drawer labels in and to finish off the handles. These are the older ones and some are looking tired.

There were a few drawers with these newer ones.

I need to find these. It seems a shame to put the old cracked ones back on.

While I am searching I will look for these Vidmar logos too.

I used a Glidden oil base paint that I rolled on. I picked out the Behr color S-G-570, Saphire Lace. The HD guy matched if from there. I wanted a gloss for the cabinets and the only gloss oil they had was Porch and Floor. It seams to flow out a little nicer that the Rustoleum I had used before. I thinned it a little for each coat and just barely got all 7 cabinets done with the gallon I bought. I ended up putting on two coats. I did not do the backs of any of them. These are going up against a wall and I really have no plans to move them.

 

[eddie98]

Nice Place Scott, I'm very familiar with Canton. Great to see you are building the garage you want.
Since you have a nice car i'm going to ask if you know about the car show Caffeine & Octane that happens in Alpharetta the first Sunday of every month.

 

[rmmiller]

Love the house and garage! Man we had similar goals when searching for a new home! We ended up with a 2100 sq ft house and a 5 car garage. The front is 3 car and half of the double with all of the third twice as deep (38' x 22 at the big end). We ended up on the equivalent of your first lot, it was that or nearly double the price of the dirt to live by the "pond" (read irrigation pond). Here's a screenshot from google, the black lines on the house represent the garage and the box in the yard is where my 12 x 12 shed is. The back yard is all my labor except the curbing. Sorry for the hi-jack but it's exciting to watch and made me want to share mine with you!

HOA means your hosed on arrival if you like doing anything other than cutting grass and planting flowers

Not true, depends on the HOA and the covenants.

 

[Scott0023]

Nice Place Scott, I'm very familiar with Canton. Great to see you are building the garage you want.
Since you have a nice car i'm going to ask if you know about the car show Caffeine & Octane that happens in Alpharetta the first Sunday of every month.

Eddie,

Thanks. I have been in the Atlanta area a year now and have made it to Caffeine and Octane twice. I have not woke up early enough to take my car though. I hope to go a little more often once things settle down a little.

>Scott

 

[Scott0023]

Love the house and garage! Man we had similar goals when searching for a new home! We ended up with a 2100 sq ft house and a 5 car garage. The front is 3 car and half of the double with all of the third twice as deep (38' x 22 at the big end). We ended up on the equivalent of your first lot, it was that or nearly double the price of the dirt to live by the "pond" (read irrigation pond). Here's a screenshot from google, the black lines on the house represent the garage and the box in the yard is where my 12 x 12 shed is. The back yard is all my labor except the curbing. Sorry for the hi-jack but it's exciting to watch and made me want to share mine with you!






Not true, depends on the HOA and the covenants.

RMMiller,

If I could have found a 5 car like that I certainly would have. That looks great and the yards looks to be about the right size. Not too big but enough to enjoy.

We were on a pretty tight budget with one in college and trying to stash enough away to sometime retire. My other reality is that cars take up so much space and come with a pretty big price tag. I would like to find a smaller, lower cost hobby. That's the jamb I am in right now.

My current project is the house so I am not in a rush but like to stay busy on weekends.

>Scott

 

[rmmiller]

I can relate, the yard took the better part of a year so now I'm on to the garage. I have cabinets and a bench up, attic access is in and extra car parts stored up there. The shed helped to get the lawn tools out and gave me a place for the engine hoist, motorcycle jack and other large tools to go when not needed. As of now the garage hold our daily drivers, an 18' boat and a 71 Maverick Grabber. I just sold the bike so now it's finally time to get after the car!

 

[Scott0023]

I can relate, the yard took the better part of a year so now I'm on to the garage. I have cabinets and a bench up, attic access is in and extra car parts stored up there. The shed helped to get the lawn tools out and gave me a place for the engine hoist, motorcycle jack and other large tools to go when not needed. As of now the garage hold our daily drivers, an 18' boat and a 71 Maverick Grabber. I just sold the bike so now it's finally time to get after the car!

I did an engine swap in the Lancia before I moved a year ago and it is about 99% done. There are still a few small things to be done; clutch adjustment, throttle sensitivity, and some trim pieces. It will be a few months before I even consider them.

>Scott

 

[Scott0023]

Time for an update. Moving can be busy and the last few months have been a blur with the new house as well as work and family commitments.

We closed on the house on June 30 which became the beginning of my work. We continued to have the same good experience with David Weekly homes and our manager, Jim. The closing happened on the date they had promised a couple months prior and I think there were two items on our punch list on the final walk through. That sure beat the last time we did this with a different builder which had 35 items on that list.

There were three main items I wanted to get done before we moved in. I needed to finish the floor of the garage, paint some accent stripes in the garage, and install a closet organizer in the master closet. I'll get to those but first are some photos of the garage at closing.

The third car garage with the high ceiling and Lift Master opener.

I hated putting the water heater in the garage but I really could not find a better place. The plumbing above it looks like it is out of a Dr Suess book. It works as it is supposed to but I am a little cleaner with what I would do. More on that later.

The two-car side:

I have cleaned the floor and are trying out a couple strips of paper as an idea on the stripes for the wall.

I will get to the flooring next.

 

[dubber]

Awesome garage, always a fan of those carriage door accents on the outside. Is that a wooden pulley for the attic hatch? Also do you have a basement? In Canada the hotwater tanks are put in the basement the majority of the time.

 

[thetastelingers]

Nice layout. I'm interested to see how you place everything.
Welcome to the south!!!

 

[Scott0023]

Awesome garage, always a fan of those carriage door accents on the outside. Is that a wooden pulley for the attic hatch? Also do you have a basement? In Canada the hotwater tanks are put in the basement the majority of the time.

No basement. I've had them before and although they are great for storage I hate the idea of all of my stuff is being protected by a $300 electric sump pump. I had one fail on me and the cleanup was terrible. We specifically looked for only houses without a basement even though most of them in the Atlanta area are walkouts with a much lower chance of flooding.

 

[Scott0023]

Nice layout. I'm interested to see how you place everything.
Welcome to the south!!!

Thanks, me too. The shop that is on the back of the garage will have 3 benches, a welding table, drill press, press, and maybe a couple other things.

The store room on the back of the shop will have my compressor, bikes, lawnmower, yard equipment, etc.

We've been in the Atlanta area now for about 18 months so we are getting used to it. We came from the Chicago area so are loving the warm winters and no snow blowers.

>Scott

 

[Scott0023]

I added two stripes to break up the walls. I have always likes the way something so simple really changes the look. I knew that if I didn't do it now it would never happen. Just like the floor. In the pictures below the acid stain is complete and I am waiting to seal it. That is a bit longer story and will get to that.

I bought a rotating laser from Harbor Freight. What a POS. It really does not do that good of a job in creating a level line around the circumference. I was able to find three points that were all level. Then used the HF laser to connect them. I think it turned out pretty good.

The blue is the same shade as what the Vidmars were painted.

>Scott

 

[Scott0023]

The clear epoxy has been applied in this photo.

 

[Scott0023]

Is that a wooden pulley for the attic hatch?

Missed this earlier. The pole is used instead of a rope for the pull-down stair that lead up to the attic. I like it better so that the rope is not always hanging down in the middle of the garage. There is an eyelet on the stairs and a hook on the wooden pole. I need to get a little longer pole for my wife (don't go there) she can't reach this one.

 

[thetastelingers]

Missed this earlier. The pole is used instead of a rope for the pull-down stair that lead up to the attic. I like it better so that the rope is not always hanging down in the middle of the garage. There is an eyelet on the stairs and a hook on the wooden pole. I need to get a little longer pole for my wife (don't go there) she can't reach this one.

 

[thetastelingers]

On a side note, you ever get to Atlanta Cars and coffee?
I'd love to see that Lancia.

 

[Arps]

looking good!

 

[Scott0023]

On a side note, you ever get to Atlanta Cars and coffee?
I'd love to see that Lancia.

Thanks. I have been wanting to take it there since I moved here. I've been twice without it and keep telling myself I need to go. I hope to in the next month or two.

>Scott

 

[Scott0023]

Re: New House and Garage in an HOA in ATL, Acid Stained Floors

Let's back up a little and work through the floor. I have always wanted to have a finished floor and knew that it had to be done before we ever moved in. The typical epoxies all look great but I have always felt that they don't wear that well unless you go with the most expensive stuff. Even then they get chipped and scratched from use.

I ended up deciding on the acid stain in a black/grey. I was going to shoot for a lighter version with a marbled look. That way the scratches and such will not be as easily seen in the non-uniform colors.

I called Scotty at Legacy Industrial with a few questions and he was quite helpful. I went ahead and ordered everything and it all showed up as promised. Scotty was great and I was to soon learn that even more so. This was all delivered at the rental house as we had not closed. On the day of the closing I have the back of my SUV loaded with the Legacy cans and supplies and dropped it all off to get started the following morning.

I had been in the house many times and at first look the slab looks pretty good.

I have one of those foam pad kneeling pads and got a lot closer as I started to get a few spot up.

The longer I looked the more I found. This is a boot print that was pretty tough to get off. On the LH side of this photo is some blue stuff. I found this a quite a few places and I think it was the blue edge of the sheets of OSB that had been stored in the garage a while back. The contractor would turn it on edge and drag it.

Here is a pretty rough and porous section.

I had my Harbor Freight steel brush and was going to town. getting all of these spots and blemishes up. Sort of.

I was using Simple Green for some parts and Acetone for others. It strted to become clear that I was getting these spots up but in the process was creating a lot of spots.

I was thinking that with the stain these might show through. ****. It was already taking longer than I had hoped but I wasn't going to cheap out at this point.

I ended up heading over to Home Depot to get the floor scrubber and go over the whole thing. This would mean that I would be getting it very wet which would add a at least a day to dry.

 

[Scott0023]

Moving on to staining the floor. I will say that this ended up being more work than I had planned but there are a few things I should have done a little different in hindsight.

I said earlier that I used Legacy Industrial black acid stain for the floor. My idea behind this was mostly that I didn't want to deal with aged epoxy in 5 or 10 years. The acid stain will get its own nicks and chips but with it being a very organic color pattern, the hope is that it will not show the blemishes later on. Time will tell on that.

While on the topic of Legacy Industrial I have to say that Scotty was great to work with. I am sure he gets these calls all of the time but he took the time to walk me through this project. Thanks!!

The first task is to test the concrete to see how it will color. The acid stain reacts differently to the varying compositions of the concrete so the colors will be different between each application of different finished slabs. That and I wanted to get a marbled light grey with black in some areas.

My test location was the shop which is the small room at the top of the far RH single garage. I was going to go ahead and stain this anyway and was OK if there was some differences there. Benches will line the walls and hide most mistakes anyway.

My first sample is the larger area. I purposely made it a light coat with the thought that I could add more later to get the dark spots. I needed to do that so that is why there is a dark section surrounded by a lighter section.

I ended up liking this a lot. After the acid does its thing you wash it off to get the loose stuff off. At the same time you get to see it wet and that is an indicator of how t will look with the clear epoxy on when it's all done.

So far, so good. Wrong. This ended up being where I made first mistake.

I went ahead and stained the floor. This is seriously messy stuff and comes out in the yellowish-brownish liquid. It is about the viscosity of water and it is easy to splash it on the walls. You'll see that soon enough.

There are a few ways to apply this. I had tried the spraying bu that ended up being too messy on my newly pained walls so I went with a mop. It is not easy (impossible) to wring out a mop with this acid stain in it so I used a cheap one that would not hold much.

 

[Scott0023]

That paint brush is used to get up the footers to the baseboard and around a few other places that were tight.

It flows out nicely and find its own pattern and it becomes obvious just how uneven the floor is from this perspective. My first "Oh ****" moment came about this time when the acid stain started to run out of the garage onto the apron.

 

[Scott0023]

Fortunately a lot of the floor ended up like this, just the right amount and in a pretty cool pattern.

A little too thick in parts of this here but still some nice color variances.

For what I wanted this ended up being a bit too much. The pattern is still developing.

 

[Scott0023]

The hard part is now to close the doors and let the acid do its work. I lowered the doors so they were about 2-3 inches from the floor and let it set up overnight.

Through all of this work with the acid stain I was wearing a respirator and safety glasses. It was nice to get them off and away from this. All told I think the staining part wasn't more than an hour or so once I got going.

My fears were mostly around what the apron was going to look like with the way it was flowing. I thought it was mostly stopped but would it still creep along over the next few hours before it dried. Morning would tell.

 

[CNGsaves]

Overall that's coming along to be really nice garage.

Curous if I'm seeing ceiling lights as the typical "builder setup" of just a couple bulbs ?? You have any planned lighting upgrades??

Also, did you get builder/electrician to put in enough garage outlets and 240v for compressor, etc??

 

[thetastelingers]

Interested on how it turned out. I like the look of the staining better than most floor coverings.