New Member...and Manland!

[tsumner]

Hello Everyone,

My name is Terry Sumner and I am in the process of building my dream with the support of my wife! I am a retired Connecticut State Police Sergeant, having retired 11 years ago. Never had a garage my whole life, even though I am a gear head. So this summer I got a mortgage on my home and began construction of Manland. My shop is 24' X 48', 2 story. The ground level has a 12' 10" ceiling to accomodate the lift I'm installing. The second floor will be for my other love...woodworking. It has a 9' ceiling. I used 16" IJT's for the second floor joists and pre made trusses for the roof, so there are no columns either upstairs or down. Built this thing so far mostly with just my 23 year old son and I, with occasional help from some friends. The electrical is being done by my future son-in-law. Today saw most of the shingles put on the roof. We have about 4 or 5 squares of shingles to go tomorrow. There are 20 windows in his monster!

I have lots of woodworking tools and car building tools. I have an 87 Corvette that I intend to highly modify with a big block and my son has a pair of Camaros to work on, so the shop will see a lot of use.

I'm going to try to embed a few photos here but if it doesn't work you could visit my Fotki site where there is an album of photos of construction from beginning to present. It's here.... http://public.fotki.com/tsumner/manland/

BTW, the lovely lady in the pink blouse is my lovely wife of 26 years, who pushed me into getting off my duff and building my dream. She was posing with her new carpenter's apron that I bought her to help with. She's got ot loaded with a lot of stuff, most of which had nothing to do with carpentry. But she did get up on the second floor when we were laying down the plywood panels and she actually ran the nail gun for a bit!

Thanks for looking!

Terry Sumner

 

[ponjohn]

Terry-

Welcome, I live in Woodbridge.

I know a few troopers as well.

John

 

[tsumner]

Thanks John...I'm in Griswold.

Terry

 

[Jay H 237]

Welcome Terry, I live in Watertown, no garage of my own though yet.

Nice build you have there and keep us updated. The 2nd floor idea for a woodshop is great.

 

[caper150]

Nice shop,I know how you must feel about doing the work yourself,I did mine with just 1 friend there to help with most of the work and others stopping by periodically.That 's awesome on the second story,more than I would have tackeled.My wife is 100% behind my build too.

 

[Wilbur]

Great looking shop! Good luck! Um....and if ya don't mind me saying- better looking help than I ever have on construction projects!

 

[locomike]

Nice, seeing alot more 2 story garages. I like that concept.

 

[maa139]

Too funny! I call my garage "Manland 1"! My basement is "Manland 2". I like the space that you've created for yourself. Nice to have an understanding wife, isn't it? I'm getting my wife used to the idea that I need to have a project in my garage to keep me busy.

Matt

 

[Will67]

How are you going to get all your woodworking equipment up there? I assume you have a table saw, drill press, planer, jointer, lathe...drag/carry up flight of stairs or???

 

[tsumner]

Yes, I have all that and more. I have a 15" planer, a Powermatic 66 saw, 14" Delta Bandsaw, Delta jointer, etc etc. I've been dreaming about this shop for many years, so I have it all worked out. In the front of the shop on the second floor, right above the driveway is a 6' wide doorway. I'm going to mount a small I-Beam up there with an electric hoist on a trolley so I can move heavy objects up and down. I plan on constructing the 2 three-foot wide doors mself. For the initial move though, I have a friend who has a large forklift that we're going to use to move all the machinery up there.

Right now, all my woodworking tools are in the basement of my small raised ranch. My workspace is only about 15 X 22 and I can hardly move around, let alone build anything bigger than a jewelry box!

And thanks much for the positive comments guys...they are much appreciated! If you've built one yourself, you know how much work it is. But that's okay because it's mine and I'm looking forward to the day when it's done and I can proudly say that we built it!

I kinda overbuilt it somewhat just because it's mine. The walls are 2 x 6's, 16" on center instead of 24", All the window headers are 2 X 12's. The IJT's are 24' long, 16" on center. And the roof trusses are 16" on center instead of 24. I want the building inspector to see that I built it well and that no corners were cut.

The power is a 400 amp meter socket. My home is a 200 amp service so the power will be split...200 to the house and 200 to the shop.

We finished putting on all the roof shingles today. That's a great relief as I really hated seeing the Advantec floor get wet with the rain. And the upstairs woodshop floor is going to be oak. But the wood has all been cut by a friend off trees on his property. They are drying now and I'm going to plane each board and lay the floor myself with screws and plugs. And the walls are going to be covered with wide plank pine boards installed horizontaly. This should make for a nice warm feeling in the shop.

More to come as we progress...)

Terry

 

[DynoDave]

That's going to be an excellent work space, Terry! Congratulations on the progress thus far.

 

[drmarkr]

Damn, that sounds nice! Flooring from your buddy's tree's, worked by you. Pride of craftmanship, for sure. Make sure to keep the pics coming!!

MR

 

[cdrewferd]

Great looking shop. Can't wait for more pics.

 

[BRUISER]

very nice shop..

I am originally from CT ...brother and wife still live there..

 

[twostory]

My two story garage is 26 x 44. I have cars in the bottom and the wife's wood shop upstairs. I know exactly how much work your building is, as I just built a very similar building.

Click on my username to get to my personal page. On that page is a link to my garage build.

Goodluck...

Robert

 

[dipper]

Nice build so far. Looking forward to more updates.

 

[tsumner]

My two story garage is 26 x 44. I have cars in the bottom and the wife's wood shop upstairs. I know exactly how much work your building is, as I just built a very similar building.

Click on my username to get to my personal page. On that page is a link to my garage build.

Goodluck...

Robert

Wow! Amazing how close yours is to mine! Do you like the arrangement?

Terry

 

[twostory]

Wow! Amazing how close yours is to mine! Do you like the arrangement?

Terry

Terry,

The two story layout works out fine. If I had unlimited land, I think one story would be best. The 24 stairs you have to climb to get to the second story does get old when moving material up stair. I also made the stairs 4 feet wide to make it easy to haul big stuff up the stairs.

One nice thing about the second story is the wood floor. Much nicer on the feet & knee than the concrete on the first floor. Also the view from the second story is nice. We have 9 windows upstair & plenty of natural light. A neighbor commented that it does not feel like you are in a subdivision when you spend some time upstairs.

I really enjoy the 12.5 ft ceiling on the first floor. I makes the big space feel better. I put a high ceiling in so I could install a 4 post lift. If the ceilng was 8 or 9 ft high, the garage would feel small, even though it is 1,100 square ft.

I recently started building shelves 8 ft off the gound and 36 inches wide. I will store lightly used item there, and not affect the air space in the rest of the garage.

Goodluck...

Robert

 

[tsumner]

Robert,
Again, it's amazing how close yours is to mine. My ceiling height on the ground level is 12' 10". I then used 16" Engineered joists to suppport the second floor, so the second floor itsefl is about 14' 4" off the ground. The second floor has a 9' ceiling and I plan to use some oak for the flooring. I also thought about adding some high shelving in the garage level to store some stuff. There is however, no access to the second floor from the ground level. This is because I plan to do some custom painting down there and I don't want ANY wood dust to make it's way downstairs.

I too had to go up because of limited side clearance. In my town, if you attach your garage to your house, you have to have 30' of side clearance to the neighbor's property line. However, if the garage is not attached, you only have to have 15'. Why I don't know, but it allowed me to have 1' left over and still have a 24' wide garage with an 8' space between the house and the garage. This precluded me from having to go through the zoning board of apeals to get a variance. And this was a really good thing given how long it takes to get through the appeals process.

Terry

 

[tsumner]

Time for an update I guess...

The roof is done. Most of the siding is on. The garage now has power and last Saturday my sons and I installed a Challenger 10k 2-post lift. Next mini-project is finishing up the old air compressor. It's getting there!

Photos here....

http://public.fotki.com/tsumner/manland/

Terry Sumner

 

[Kevin54]

Great looking garage and wife!!! You can't ask for better looking help than that. There I said it!!! And you guys know that if he wasn't a a retired police sergeant and that was just a woman posting her pic you would all be bird dogging. LOL!!! But anyways...looking forward to seeing the flooring pics. How is he drying the wood. Air or Kiln?

 

[tsumner]

The wood was milled back in October and it's air drying outside for now...all stickered nicely. Come spring I plan to move it all up into the shop and let it dry more up there. Eventually it'll be dry enough to start planing and sawing to width.

And thanks for the kind words on my wie. She's beautiful to be sure...and she is my biggest supporter!

Terry

 

[upalms]

Hey there,
I live in Bethany, Ct, saw a few from Woodbridge and Watertown, small world, the guy is here sheetrocking my garage as I write this, haven't posted anything YET, but will soon, here's the beginning - http://www.flickr.com/photos/9834165@N07/sets/72157603865199658/

Todd

 

[Kevin54]

Terry...just went thru the pics of your build and I have to say great progress. I have one question though, of the ties (hurricane ties) are they running the right direction or the right ones for the application? From the pic it looks like the angled portion is sticking out into the garage area. If so, it will interfere with any drywall that you do. Maybe it's just the way the pic looks. Very nice garage though

 

[bluesman2a]

You know what they say, it's OK to love your lift, just don't LOOOOOOVVVVVEEEE your lift...

Of course now MY wife wants her own "garage footware"

 

[bigburb]

nice camaro back there.

 

[tsumner]

Well, there is more progress on Manland. I now have my hoist all installed for the second floor woodshop and I have my tools up there. Right now I', done building the 2 front doors and they are ready for paint. Insulation is next. I just got a quote from two insulation contractors for about $2200 to do R38 in the ceiling and R19 in all the walls upstairs and down. Since I kinda ran out of money, I'm selling my Corvette project so I can finish the shop off for winter.
Attached are a couple of photos of the woodshop upstairs. Still don't have the wall and floor wood on yet, but soon. I'm bringing home all the wood in the next week or so and will start planing it all. Oak boards for the floor and pine for the walls.

Hosted on Fotki

Hosted on Fotki

Hosted on Fotki

The rest of the photos are here if interested...
http://public.fotki.com/tsumner/woodworking-1/my-new-shop-in-manland/

And that Camaro in the background is now devoid of it's engine, front K-member, rear end and interior. My son has big plans for that car. )

Thanks for looking,

Terry Sumner

 

[tsumner]

Terry...just went thru the pics of your build and I have to say great progress. I have one question though, of the ties (hurricane ties) are they running the right direction or the right ones for the application? From the pic it looks like the angled portion is sticking out into the garage area. If so, it will interfere with any drywall that you do. Maybe it's just the way the pic looks. Very nice garage though

Yes you are right...I had to put them on the inside because I put them on after the roof was all done. But they fit pretty darn close to flush and it doesn't look like their interference will amount to anything at all. I still have to put up all the furring strips on the bottoms of the roof trusses to attach the sheet rock to.

Terry

 

[LoneGunman]

Congrats on the soon to be awesome shop, I'm sure you deserve it.

 

[D KRAGER]

I love the winch on the trolley system for lifting stuff up to the second level. What's the capacity?

Can't wait to see that oak floor go down!!!

 

[tsumner]

I love the winch on the trolley system for lifting stuff up to the second level. What's the capacity?

Can't wait to see that oak floor go down!!!

That hoist is from Harbor Freight and it's 55o lbs on one line and 1100 lbs on the double line. That hoist was my savior in getting all the heavy stuff up to the woodshop. I had a pallet and I bought a couple of those web type tow cables with a hook on each end. Then I bought a thick D-ring from Hopeless Depot to attach all 4 hooks to. Worked like a Charm! I had to modify the trolley a bit by welding on a few braces. I also made up a bracket with an axle and put in an old car wheel bearing that rides up against the bottom of the I-beam. This was so I could get the center of the lifting cable correct. Otherwise the hoist would pull down in the front and the cable would bunch all up on one end.

Terry

 

[tsumner]

Got my second floor doors made and installed today. I made the doors from 8/4 pine. All the rails and muntins are mortised into the stiles and I made all the raised panels. Now I have to paint them to match the white trim and add the weatherstripping.

Hosted on Fotki
Hosted on Fotki

Terry Sumner

 

[autoist]

BEAUTIFUL!! How you gonna' kep cold weather & birds & bugs out - looks like the can get in around your beam...

 

[tsumner]

BEAUTIFUL!! How you gonna' kep cold weather & birds & bugs out - looks like the can get in around your beam...

Haven't got that 100% figured for sure yet, but I think I'm going to make up some form fitting blocks out of some kind of foam rubber that I can stuff into those openings with to seal it up. I don't know if you can see it very well but I built an overhang with flashing above the door to keep the rain out.

Terry

 

[autoist]

Saw the flashing...you could build a deck over the garage door with stairs down to the ground on the side of the garage!!

 

[tsumner]

Saw the flashing...you could build a deck over the garage door with stairs down to the ground on the side of the garage!!

Actually, the stairs are already there. I built the stairs on the right side of the garage as you look at it from the street in between the house and the garage... The upstairs man door is at the rear and the stairs go up about halfway to a 6' landing, then up the rest of the way to a small 8' square deck at the top.

Terry

 

[russlaferrera]

Terry, Looks great. A thought. What about a removable wrought iron gate in front of the doors ? When the weather is nice and the doors are open, it would allow some safety. That 1st step is steep.

 

[tsumner]

Terry, Looks great. A thought. What about a removable wrought iron gate in front of the doors ? When the weather is nice and the doors are open, it would allow some safety. That 1st step is steep.

You're thinking along the same lines as me. I already thought of that and it's on my list to build something like that in time for Spring's arrival. Still have too much to do right now though. Gotta get the whole thing insulated, get the sheetrock up on the ceiling, lay down all the flooring and get the pine boards up on the walls.

One thing that just happened to me 2 weeks ago is good and bad...I got layed off from my job where I was the general manager of a small independant auto repair garage. This is bad because of no work, but it's giving me the time to work on Manland! I guess there's a silver lining in every cloud huh?

Terry

 

[SnyperBob]

Nice garage, hope everything works out with your job situation

 

[tsumner]

More work done on Manland. It's getting there! I've built the custom 3' wide X 8' high second floor workshop exterior doors. The hoist is working great and all my woodworking equipment is up there and I'm working in it. We got it insulated a couple of weeks ago and we are now almost done with the ground level sheet rocking. (the sheet rock is up...still mudding and taping...ugh) Car shop is in a mess right now because we had to bring everything to the center to allow the insulation guys to do their thing and us to get the sheet rock up. Newest photos start at the bottom of page 2 of the Manland album in my Fotki site here...

http://public.fotki.com/tsumner/manland/page2.html

But here are a few shots..

Terry

Hosted on Fotki

Hosted on Fotki

Hosted on Fotki

Hosted on Fotki