new old house means new old garage.

[gibby64]

Love the work you are doing. I do everything myself too... which is why it takes me forever to get things done... you can always tell the guys who have no kids though!.. i have 2 young ones and they have ZAPPED all time from me... reading this makes me want to get going on my "list" of projects i have in my own home... just no time for now though. I too have an old house... which had CRAZY wiring which i fixed when i first moved in. I have a kitchen and master bathroom remodel in my future. Keep on going though!!! I remember the days of coming home from work and working on the house till midnight or so.... repeat repeat repeat... that all changes with kiddos though. Wouldn't change it for the world though.. GOOD LUCK SIR!

 

[jammyduff]

ok.Good pictures.

 

[bj383ss]

Nice job on the desk! Look forward to seeing it complete. Read through your whole thread. You are no stranger to hard work. The effort you have put into the garage you are going to tear down. Wonder how awesome your new one will be.

 

[User-C3]

Thanks for the positive comments.

The effort you have put into the garage you are going to tear down. Wonder how awesome your new one will be.

This is funny because I said when we got the house I wasnt going to spend money on the garage. I'm starting to realize it is going to be quite a while before a new garage goes up so this one will have to work for a few years. I might as well make it decent. The plan for a new one is a monster attached that will have an upstairs to add another room to the house and a mud room. Before that the main floor and kitchen will be getting done, as well as adding another bathroom upstairs. After that it will take some time to save up.... everywhere I look I just see money running away from me..... eek.

I try to remind myself how much value we are putting into the home though.

 

[The Engine Room]

You should probably go ahead and bore through that second layer of concrete to make sure it's not a cistern or an old bomb shelter or something hollow...

 

[User-C3]

You should probably go ahead and bore through that second layer of concrete to make sure it's not a cistern or an old bomb shelter or something hollow...

where were you last week?
Too late for that, I poured friday. I guess we will see how it does now. LoL

 

[The Engine Room]

Could you imagine the mess if you were, say, lifting a car and you punched the mast down into your neighbor's septic tank?

You might go ahead and get a long concrete bit; dill through the slabs; and drive a piece of rebar as deep as you can. If it doesn't firm up as you're pounding it in, you have a problem. Do it a couple of places under the mast just to make sure.

 

[User-C3]

Could you imagine the mess if you were, say, lifting a car and you punched the mast down into your neighbor's septic tank?

You might go ahead and get a long concrete bit; dill through the slabs; and drive a piece of rebar as deep as you can. If it doesn't firm up as you're pounding it in, you have a problem. Do it a couple of places under the mast just to make sure.

lol.. That sounds terrible. Good news is we are on a sewer system and I know there isnt anything like that down there. I did plan on drilling all the way through when I go to bolt it in, so I will do the checks then.

good call!! Thanks

 

[User-C3]

Its been a long time since I updated this thread. A lot has happened.

I finished the install of the lift. poured the footers in the garage (mixing by hand in a wheel barrow.... terrible idea) and it was pretty cold out so I was really worried they were going to freeze before they cured. I covered them with all kinds of plastic and blankets and was able to keep them from freezing. This was the day I got it installed and wired up, couldn't help but put the lift in action.



I also got my desk I was making finished. It came out really nice. We are pleased.





I did get a small chance to do some motorcycle and car work. not much but some. Cleaned up and did a brushing on the drums of the wheels for the Porsche and got the centers powder coated.







These wheels are so wide I couldn't even find tires to fit. This is stretched 335's on the back



Best news is my measurements where correct and I can stack the cars in the garage and still open the door. Not an auto opener but I'm not complaining.





I also sold some c5 corvette parts I had that gave me the money to get the widebody pieces for the Porsche. Here is with the wheels on the car and before and what the flares will look like for width.

 

[User-C3]

And here's just a cool shot I think looks sweet.

 

[User-C3]

I also picked up a yamaha roadstar last year at the end of the season after selling one of my choppers. I've wanted one for a long time now and found this one and swooped it up for 2k. Couldnt pass it up. Was able to do my thing on it and I love it. Dont have any real good photos of it right now, but maybe soon.

Did some work to the rear fender where it was pretty well damaged. Tried smoothing it out, but wasnt so lucky.



So I ended up cutting out the bad area and tack welding in a dimpled piece to give it some flavor. I wasnt going for a perfect look so I didnt want to smooth it in.









ended up doing a little chop and lower of the front fender to get it right down on the front tire and then stripped all the paint did clear over the brushed bare metal. Wanted to go for the semi gangster look with this bike.



And just because....... Lifts for everything!!!

 

[User-C3]

Back to the house, where all the focus has been. We finished the upstairs photos of which I am lacking, and started in on the main floor and kitchen.
Here are the plans I drew up for permits from the city including what was the current and the plan. Also included a cross section for the major load walls and a kitchen detail.














This was the very rough 3D model I made to try and figure out how we were going to lay everything out.

 

[User-C3]

Started by laying out the basement floor cut lines for the footers.





You can see here the reinforcement, and also in the back footer you can see the pipe running right through it. Inspector said I could just wrap the pipe and pour right over it. Crazy thought but I wasnt mad about not having to move it.



Made a shoot into the basement through the back door and did the ready mix stuff where you go pick it up pre mixed in one of their dump trailers. worked out really well. a buddy and his girlfriend came over and they where up top with a wheel barrow dumping it down to me in the basement with a wheel barrow.



Didnt take any photos of the steel posts I made, but they are 3" schedule 40 Beasts of posts. Installed those and then started demo.











There was a strange drop in the ceiling in the eat in area. Ended up being an old coved ceiling. Apparently the previous owners or whoever did all this crazy work also thought wires hanging out and taped up and walled over was totally acceptable.



I tried taking the photos from the same spots to give good reference of how much the space was getting opened up.





Had to make bracing on the first floor down to the basement to install the beams.



In this one you can see one of the steel posts I made and the blocking in the floor joist to make it solid.



So worth it.

 

[bergs]

amazing thread. you do great work

 

[354man]

found this vanity on sale online. It wasn't the color we wanted so we ended up painting it to bring in some subtle color to the bathroom. I turned the sun room into a make shift paint booth to spray it. The mirrors still need to be painted white, but its functional.



and once everything was installed and started running some water and testing everything I noticed a leak in the basement. We never actually used the bathroom upstairs before we started the work so obviously didnt notice anything. well this had to happen to the entryway.





To find this



The good news is the upstairs is finally done, minus the closet built ins and the fo-fireplace I will be making. This stuff takes a long time when you choose to do the work yourself... I love old houses... I love old houses... I love old houses..... wait!!

Can you tell me where you purchased your vanity for bathroom and those mirrors from? they are so killer!

 

[Denwood]

Wow, a great thread! What are the lift specs, and final specs for your retro slab? I used Mohawk's retro slab specs for a similar install, but with a smaller lift.

 

[User-C3]

amazing thread. you do great work

Thank you.

Can you tell me where you purchased your vanity for bathroom and those mirrors from? they are so killer!

The vanity and mirrors are from homedecorators.com They have some really nice well priced stuff.

Wow, a great thread! What are the lift specs, and final specs for your retro slab? I used Mohawk's retro slab specs for a similar install, but with a smaller lift.

My lift is the Atlas 9000lb unit. not the most heavy duty but good enough for what I need and was cheap. I didnt really use any real specs for installing it. The slab itself is pretty ******, so I did some 4'x4' cuts for footers. When I made the cuts and dug it out I found my current garage slab sits about 3" over an old existing slab. I undercut the current slab about a foot on all four sides and reinforced with rebar. Now I have a 9" thick footer with a good undercut of the current top slab. So far no movement, no cracking and I leave the cars stacked up in the garage. Porsche has been in the air since I installed it.

 

[OJ Bartley]

Nice lift and the bike looks great, but that table is what stood out for me. Very nice work! I also love that lamp with the sweet braided looking cord. Any info on that?

 

[User-C3]

I'm also rewiring the first floor. At this point the entire house is rewired all new, except the basement. while running the wiring in the basement I found some coal by the old coal shoot. This is at least 80 years. Maybe if I keep it another 100 years I will have a couple diamonds.

 

[theoldwizard1]

So worth it.

Great space !

 

[User-C3]

Nice lift and the bike looks great, but that table is what stood out for me. Very nice work! I also love that lamp with the sweet braided looking cord. Any info on that?

Thanks. The lamp is a very unique hard to come by item. Its produced by a very small European company and can only be found at their remote outlet boutiques. You may or may not have heard of them before, Ikea.

 

[User-C3]

Once we ripped up the floor in the kitchen we found the original flooring that someone had sanded and left unfinished.



The unfortunate part is some of it was pretty damaged and it was spotty so we were unable to use it. Another issue is from the lack of support under the walls there has been some serious settling over the years. This has been taken care of by installing the footers and beams so we shouldn't have any more issues down the road but I still needed to do something about the floors by the walls. This picture shows the dip going to the wall of the stairs in the kitchen.



I cut out a large section of the subfloor, did more than needed so I could just lay a 4x8 sheet down. This picture also shows why the walls started to sink. The walls are not over the beams in the basement. Quality craftsmanship in the 20's





There was also this area in the back of the kitchen that was added at some point, very strange small little addition that you can see by the difference in subfloor.



That also had a significant dip happening.



so that also came out and I sistered the joists to rais it up around the edges to level out the floor.



I also insulated under the floor because this little area is not over the basement or accessible to do the radiant under floor heat the entire first floor will be getting. Most of this will be covered by cabinets anyway so it wouldn't really be getting radiant under it. I reused this insulation that was removed from another area, thus the low R-rating. 2 layers did the trick.



And finally I laid down 1/4 OSB on the entire kitchen floor area to match the level of the wood flooring that is on a sleeper system. The kitchen will be getting 1.5" red oak laced in to flow seamlessly from the rest of the first floor.

 

[User-C3]

Also a couple other cool little finds while demoing the first floor.

The original electrical permit. $3.25



and this super creepy little guy



I cant forget this lovely little site that was in the ceiling in the back of the kitchens eat in area.

 

[Denwood]

You're doing a ton of work, and moving quickly . I'd encourage you to review this and compare your setup. When it comes to working under a car, i might be accused of going a bit excessive, but in my research, lift anchor/slab failures came up surprisingly frequent. If you went completely through both slabs with a 6" undercut, and rebar you're likely good. The image below is my edit of the Mohawk doc to include my own retro slab spec.

Reference pdf document from Mohawk:
http://www.mohawklifts.com/consumer/library/Slab_Req-Reco_2-2010.pdf

You and "Sakamura" need to start an old house Reno club mine is 100 yrs old and gong through a similar transformation, albeit exterior focussed this year. Very impressive progress

 

[theoldwizard1]

...This picture shows the dip going to the wall of the stairs in the kitchen.



I cut out a large section of the subfloor, did more than needed so I could just lay a 4x8 sheet down. This picture also shows why the walls started to sink. The walls are not over the beams in the basement. Quality craftsmanship in the 20's

Did you jack up that wall or add short joists to make the floor level ?

If you chose NOT to jack up the wall, why ?

 

[1Garageman]

You are doing a great job(s)!!!! Amazing all of the different work that you are doing!

 

[On Edge]

Wow your house renovation is impressive. I would love to do something like this someday. Thank you for sharing the progress, it is fun to watch. You have some impressive skills!

 

[OJ Bartley]

Thanks. The lamp is a very unique hard to come by item. Its produced by a very small European company and can only be found at their remote outlet boutiques. You may or may not have heard of them before, Ikea.

Hmmm... Iye-kee-yah, you say? I'll look into them. Lol. Thanks.

Also... no comments on the massive beehive!? That would have terrified me.

 

[Knyte Tyne]

I cant forget this lovely little site that was in the ceiling in the back of the kitchens eat in area.

Holy Hornets nest - That is one hell of hive... Good thing it looks to be old an incative... I wouldn't want to piss a colony like that off.

Love how that pallet floor came out truly unique and the best kind of cheap... Just one question though, was the previous owner into Blacksmithing perhaps? Wonder why that section of Garage was left as dirt otherwise... Also explains the freaky card...

 

[User-C3]

Major moves since last time I posted here. I left off with the flooring. After I finished the sub floor the flooring contractor I hired to lay down the 1.5" red oak got this far and then walked off the job. This took him 3 days to do, needless to say he wasn't competent.



My plan was to get all the flooring down then drywall and then refinish the entire first floor. ended up working out better that we didnt go this route in the end. Here's some shots after the drywall. Flooring laid down and starting to sand.





And the flooring all refinished

 

[User-C3]

Kitchen is now in and fully usable with the exception of the microwave. Havnt had a microwave for over 2 years so it doesnt even feel like we are missing anything.
Went with all hardwood inset cabinets with dovetailed corners. When they say you get what you pay for this is one instance I can certainly see the truth. we were also torn on the counter tops. Initial thought was quartz, but we just couldnt find anything we wanted that looked like marble. So Carrera marble it is.





The sink is a 36" single basin Fireclay Apron sink. The cabinet had to be cutout a pretty substantial amount and left me uneasy with the structural integrity. So I made this bracket to help support the sink and keep the cabinet from wanting to come apart. For something that will never be seen, I'm still very pleased with the outcome.



Obviously still a lot to do, but having a functional kitchen after all this time is huge.

 

[User-C3]

At the same time the kitchen was going in, I was putting a lot of energy towards the heating system in the basement. Because we refinished all the floors on the first level, the radiators had to all come out. We also wanted to convert the first floor to under floor radiant heat to eliminate the radiators all together. I was able to get rid of the mess of massive pipe work in the basement by doing this and not have something to hit my head on anymore.

This is the pile of piping I removed from the basement.



I also added radiant under the floor in the new second floor bath we added. I went the Nibco Heat transfer plates because they were the best price I could find and Menards has them in stock. Certainly not the best plates on the market but for the price and the ease of install made these a very good choice.
This is under the floor of the bathroom.



I also had to reroute a section of pipe to a radiator in the guest bedroom. Pex was the obvious choice, but didnt want to see the pex coming through the floor connecting to the radiator. I came up this little attachment so it still looks original through the floor.





The last room that was left in the basement had a drywall ceiling, and needed to be removed so I could have access to the under side of the floor. There was a mess of blown in insulation in there. Terrible terrible terrible mess.



The hardest part of the radiant was clearing the under side of the floor of all the nails coming through. Very time consumer process. I dont have any photos of all the pex up under the floor but you can take a guess that it looks very similar to the above photo of it under the bathroom on a larger scale.

I did make this little contraption for running the pex tubing. I would highly recommend something like it to keep the pex from binding up. worked like a charm.



I finally was able to turn the heat on to the whole house on saturday. Had the second floor on but was still running loops for the first floor. Here is the manifold setup I put together. Ended up going with Zone pumps instead of valves one for each floor. The Manifold is for the first floor and the larger 3/4 tubing is going to the second floor radiators. So far the first floor pex tubing is still uninsulated and the temp is 70 degrees. Very excited to see how much more efficient this will be.



This is a little bracket I made to support the expansion tank. Had a piece of rectangular tubing in the pile of scrap so I put this together.

 

[xtremek]

Looks like you've been extremely busy. The work is outstanding. I see all that pip and I think of all the projects I could that for.

 

[SilverSS1969]

Wow. Cant believe I even missed this thread. Everything is looking great.

I grew up in this area. Lived in Madison Heights until the wife and I bought our house. I still work in Royal Oak.

 

[jb3]

This is one of my favorite inspirational threads. The variety of work going on and the quality is first rate.

Why did the flooring guy walk off the job, and did you end up doing the work instead? Very interested in your heated floor results. Id like to do something similar in my kitchen

 

[RibsBrisket4me]

This thread is epic! I can't imagine all the time and effort just to think and plan out the work, never mind getting it all done, documenting it all, and then uploading it here.

Do you, sleep or watch tv ever?
Bravo!

 

[dhubbard422]

Wow. You've done an amazing amount of work on your house! The work you've done upstairs and down is fabulous. I really enjoyed reading along and look forward to see you make gene more amazing progress!

 

[vegar]

Thats a huge work you have done. Looking good

 

[User-C3]

wow, I really appreciate all the positive feedback. Thanks everyone.

Looks like you've been extremely busy. The work is outstanding. I see all that pip and I think of all the projects I could that for.

I had a lot of ideas of things to re purpose the piping for. I just couldnt see myself holding onto it for the amount of time I would need to get around to it. Tried selling it, ended up taking it to the scrap yard. I dont know how scrapers do it, you dont get any money for the amount of effort.

I grew up in this area. Lived in Madison Heights until the wife and I bought our house. I still work in Royal Oak.

That's were we are at. Were do you work?

Why did the flooring guy walk off the job, and did you end up doing the work instead? Very interested in your heated floor results. Id like to do something similar in my kitchen

Flooring guy couldn't figure out how to get it laying straight. It was taking him too much time and he threw in the towel. I was planning on doing it myself but ended up going with another company that quoted me when I was initially gathering quotes. waited a little longer to get it done but was well worth it. One of those expenses that's worth paying.

This thread is epic! I can't imagine all the time and effort just to think and plan out the work, never mind getting it all done, documenting it all, and then uploading it here.

Do you, sleep or watch tv ever? ��
Bravo!

Thanks, it is pretty time consuming, basically all I do after work. I do try and put in some down time in there, usually about an hour or so a day.....lol. I am starting to slow down a bit though, we just had our first child so my focus is shifting.

 

[rpenterics]

I also had to reroute a section of pipe to a radiator in the guest bedroom. Pex was the obvious choice, but didnt want to see the pex coming through the floor connecting to the radiator. I came up this little attachment so it still looks original through the floor.

Awesome work, any pics of the radiators installed using these?