Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT New house and new GARAGE!!!!

[Casey4406]

After being a LONG time lurker I guess its finally time to share. Me and the wife bought our first house in 2013. We never planned on staying there forever so I never put to much time into the garage or house there(it was updated and turn key minus some garage accoutrements). My racing kept me pretty busy also so not a lot of other stuff got done. In 2015 we got a big surprise to find out we were having twin girls. That's when plans started to speed up. The house was a 1100 sqft ranch and the village taxes were killing us. We decided that by time the girls turned three we needed to find something a little larger. Our house was listed after Christmas 2019, the realtor said go big and in six months we can bring it down if there are no bites. Problem is it was sold by March and we hadn't found a house that we liked yet or one that had potential with what we wanted to do. We struck out on a few offers on land but finally got lucky with 5 acres from an old family that moved to Florida.

We agreed to all their terms for sale and figured it would have been a smooth cash deal quick sale, we were wrong. Years ago the local telephone company was given an easement to the property(I'm guessing it was an exchange for them to install a radio tower for the owners business at the time) and our lawyer wanted nothing to do with it. So mid march we had a verbal agreement with the land owners, had already picked out a module home and put in a deposit, started to clear land and didn't actually own the land. Lots of back and forth between lawyers( telephone company ok'd everything and agreed to tighten up the easement) we ordered the house in June and actually signed on the land in July.

Most of the work me and the father in-law did nights and weekends to get everything ready. The only thing we contracted out was the basement so it was a lot of late nights and long weekends to get it all ready for the house set in September. Meanwhile the garage was supposed to have been the first thing put up so we had some dry storage. I purchased a old pup trailer through work for storage of our house contents while we waited and wanted to get some of the more valuable things out of it before the wet season. The garage shell was the only other thing we contracted out and that didn't end up going up until mid January(wasn't happy about that at all). In the end we finally moved into our new home November 16th and the garage is now finally up and I'm in the process of finishing the inside to get started on lots of projects.

There's a story for each step of the build and I'll try and touch base on each one. I have a ton of stories and photos of everything, I think.

Oh yeah I forgot, The garage is 30x40 with 12ft ceilings

 

[Casey4406]

Once we were confident that someone wasn't going to sneak in and steal this land from us(happened to 2 of our other offers) and had a good agreement in place we decided to show face and start clearing. It had always been a hay field so there was a lot to do to get it cut down and the area cleaned up. Against what the wife wanted I decided on a just over 600ft driveway that loops around a cluster of pine trees. Great execution but more costly that we had hoped for. After about a dozen different configurations and widths marked and staked I finally decided on what I liked. After we stripped the top soil and set aside we had bank run gravel trucked in. Somewhere around 50 triaxle loads later we had around 80% of the driveway covered and to a depth me and the father in-law liked. That wasn't the end of the amount of stone we had to bring in for the house, septic, and garage base.

Searching photos I realized I don't have a good photo of the driveway after stone. I'll have to grab some tonight. Still working the garage side of the driveway, ran out of nice weather last fall to finish that.


After we sold the house we moved in with the wife's sister and stayed with them and their 2 children. I'm glad I was busy all summer and gone until midnight or so every night or I would have lost it.

 

[Casey4406]

Racing has consumed most of my life and I've spent any free time on that, missed many many family functions, party's, gatherings,and vacations and also never really got to much into building anything but racecars. Building this house and garage have been a whole bunch of firsts for me. After the twins were born it changed a lot for me. Went from running 50 races in 2015 to 25 in 2016, 15 in 2017 and 2018 and 3 last season.

The garage floor didn't come out as perfect as I had hoped but had some issues with help on the day of the pour. Everyone had an idea but no-one wanted to step up and take charge so I ended up screeding the whole pad. Had to float it myself AFTER and then power trowel after that. By time i started to float it it had already started setting with the wind we had on that day. We got some water to it and got it to come back around a little with the power trowel but not as smooth as I had hoped. Oh well I have a pad now and I did it.

The code enforcer had only shown up twice the entire build and his only concern with the garage was that he wanted plastic underneath(can't get the photo to load). Didn't have to worry to much about hiding the plumbing for the bathroom in the floor. Ended up going with 7 inches of concrete.

 

[Casey4406]

By time I finally got them to come work on the garage the snow had started to fall and it was well below 30 degrees, not including the wind we get at the top of the hill. They started the build in early November and by time they finally finished it was January. I ended up installing the garage doors myself(hint: this is how most of the rest of this goes) because it was taking to long and I wanted my new tractor inside when we went to Florida for vacation in January. Not an easy task alone in the wind, not as heavy as they weren't insulated which I thought was what I was getting with the quote. Guess I should have asked for a more detailed quote.

 

[Casey4406]

I got searching and found a couple photos of my old garage.

These where after we removed the grass and put stone down to park the truck and trailer without getting stuck in mud evertime.

No matter how much I moved stuff around there just wasn't enough room in that garage for me

 

[Casey4406]

The garage was done just in time for us to leave for Florida for a family Christmas vacation from the inlaws. The day we were to leave my sample of floor sealer came in and I managed to squeeze some time in to lay a sample down.

We came back a week later and I didn't like the end result of the finish so I scrapped that and kept searching for a floor coating.

Then came time for insulation. That was a long process by myself after what felt like 1000 trips up and down the scaffolding to grab.

Was storing a fridge I scored for the garage at a buddy's place until the build was over but they sold their house and downsized so we had to bring it over.

 

[Casey4406]

After the insulation it was time for the ceiling. I didn't want there to be too much white in there and the same buddy who stored the fridge works for a large roofing company. Years ago they had a special order for a customer and it was a bulk only buy. Its aluminum perforated and painted gray. They only needed a few panels but were forced to buy the whole skid. It had been sitting there for 7 years. It cost them $7.44 a ft and his boss agreed to sell it for the price that we got the exterior tin for, got it for $2.19 a ft.
The door hanger fit perfectly inside of the grooves in it and I didn't want to cut a hole and have it look weird so we didn't end up starting on either end but in the middle.
We decided to put 6inch flashing up first with the depth of the grooves in the panels to help hide any insulation that may show once the j channel goes up.

There was absolutely nothing I could do on this step without help so I had to wait and wait and wait.

While waiting on help I managed to get a start on the bathroom and storage loft. We also discovered the top of the garage was not square so our method of putting panels up the walls and coming back to the other side didn't work so we had to pull a few panels back down and start again. The wall closest to the house is the worst but I've found its extremely difficult to notice now that I'm putting walls up. Just ***** I know about it in my head.

 

[cros13]

Hey mate, great first few posts, and welcome!

Love the look of your property, looks like really beautiful country.

I'm hearin ya about the issues with getting stuff built. My garage build at my old home was a absolute nightmare. The red tape and paperwork cost more than the actual shed itself! And of course the delays it takes to do everything. I have it all documented too at the start of my build thread.

First batch of your photos worked fine, i think when you just attached the files to the post.

The majority of your posts, i think you have tried to add links right into the post, they are not working, for the last 3 post you did.

Looking forward to more updates!

Rudi.

 

[Casey4406]

They looked like they were loading up on my end. I'll go back to attaching them and try to keep them in order.

It's just far enough outside of the village that we're not to far from everything but have tons of room and not a lot of traffic, other than the nosey people driving by to see what's going on. Only 4 homes on the road and 2 are Amish family's.


These attachments are of my old garage

 

[Casey4406]

Some insulation photos

 

[Casey4406]

The ceiling

 

[Casey4406]

Once I got the ceiling finished I needed lighting. Trying to work off a tripod light and shadows *****. I decided to go with a 16pk of Sunco 4ft led's off amazon. Cheap enough that if I didn't like them in a few years I could swap them out. After I got a full row up I realized just how much it actually lit up the garage. There's 3 rows of 5 centered on the bays. Everyone tried to tell me to just run the wires in conduit mounting to the ceiling but I wanted a cleaner look so I ran all the wires up thru into the trusses. Think I might leave the pull cords on all the lights, they kind of look neat all hanging together.
I wanted to leave everything out of the garage before it was done but I switched jobs and my in laws that we were staying with wanted my toolbox out of their garage so I do have to move it around quite a bit for now to finish stuff up.

 

[krod]

I dig the darker ceiling color. What are you plans for the walls?

 

[Casey4406]

I dig the darker ceiling color. What are you plans for the walls?

Going with white tin for the walls. Actually working on that process now, kind of hoping to get laid off during this pandemic to get more time to work on it but apparently I'm considered essential.

 

[rixtrix1]

So far it's looking real nice.!

 

[cstmg8]

Love the color combo. Makes the space seem taller.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

 

[Casey4406]

Deciding what to do for the floor surface was really weighing on me and I didn't want to risk dropping something or a spill and making more work for myself. The sealer looked good but the finish didn't come out like I had hoped so back to the drawing boar (Foundation Armor ar500). I searched and searched and for a DIY kit that the wife wouldn't complain about price wise. Scowering the old FB and found Icon Construction Supply. I went with 2 kits of the PPB 100 clear epoxy and ordered 2 tint packs also. At the time of ordering I had in my head the idea of just doing clear but after washing and seeing the whole floor ultimately put the color in it.
I opted against etching the floor being that it was new and wasn't 100% smooth, hopefully it works out down the road but so far so good granted I haven't done to much in there yet.
This was my first time laying down a 2 part and it shows. I bought a squeegee that I thought would have worked, 5 ft away from the first wall and I was over half way through the first 3 gallons. Luckily I was thinking ahead and had my hard rubber floor squeegee on stand by. The second 3gallons I wither worked slower and more methodical or it had started to set faster. by time I got to the front door I had all I could do to spread it let alone roll it all back out. There's quite a few imperfections and some spike marks where I had tried to spread it out. Its not perfect by any means but it is hard and the garage will be used to for work so some damage is expected later. A second coat would have made it look a lot nicer but the wife would have none of that. I let it sit for 2 days before I walked on it in socks and 5 before I brought anything else back in. Next for the floor I have to clean and put sealer down my floor cuts.

 

[Casey4406]

The floor tint pack is dark gray in case any one wondered.
This is probably my favorite picture out of all the house and garage ones (although it got compressed now somehow) I've taken so far. The girls should feel pretty good to have the first car parked in the garage and be parked in there ever since.

 

[Casey4406]

Still working on the interior walls of the garage. Seems that once I get on a roll we get a blip of nice weather and I try and get some work done outside. Lots of topsoil to move around and every chance I can get out there without making any extra mud I'll take it. Last weekend I got the security flood lamp camera, door light, outlet and water hose mounted so I can finish the front wall tin.

 

[cros13]

place is looking great. Nice and clean, just the way i have my shop too. Nice toolbox!

Rudi.

 

[Casey4406]

By the looks of things I'm going to end up about 2 pieces of j-channel short to finish the walls. The mother in law called and wants brakes done on her vehicle. Stopped progress on the walls to get the saw cuts filled in with epoxy seam sealer. Apparently I did not get enough but got one bay done enough to worry less about water getting inside the cuts.
Bought some blue painters tape when I painted the bedroom in the house and had a problem with paint bleeding under and leaving a really nasty line. I didn't think it would do the same with the sealer but I was wrong. It is a little noticeable but not terrible and will probably wear in over time.
This rain doesn't seem to want to end so digging for electric is still on hold for the time being.

The trailer has settled quite a bit, once we get equipment up to dig for electric and water we'll level that out and figure out how I'm going to make it look a bit nicer.

 

[Casey4406]

Not much progress on the garage in a week. Had a few nice days and a good outlook this week of light rain. Spent all weekend cleaning up and moving more top soil and spreading to get grass seed down, now its saying snow for the weekend. Got the girls out to help pick nails and screws up after we finally got rid of the left over construction debris.

Looking at these pictures reminds me I still have Christmas light to take down.

 

[Casey4406]

Got the last bit of walling put up. was one piece of j-channel short so made due with some started channel instead of ordering 1 12ft piece. Saturday moved my race car and other tool box from my cousins garage. I felt bad that its been there so long and taking up space in his 80x40 garage. Glad for the car to finally be back with me. Last week on my way home I stumbled upon a 7500 ft roll of drip tape. One day I'll get a garden in to use some of it. Wife's been on me about a fire pit in with all the free time I've managed to have. Its not much but she cant say she doesn't have one now.

Time to start planning some cabinets around my other tool box and figure out what I'm going to do with the other 6 loads of tools, equipment, and parts.

 

[mx3_ryder]

Thinking of doing the same color scheme in my shop. What did you do for electrical outlets?

 

[Casey4406]

The electric I ran exposed in conduit and boxes. More than likely I will want another box or more something in the future. I haven't completely finished the electrical yet but I got half way across the front and back walls and had a few vehicles to work on. I picked up a project truck and a new to me air compressor, need to clean it up and get a motor for it.

Finally got heat in there now. Used the furnace that came with the house since we upgraded to a larger furnace in there. Need to find some air diffusers for the duct work. Currently I'm insulating the doors using rolled foil radiant barrier then back to get the truck running again.