Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT Roboto's Garage

[Growlertdi]

Nice place, just read through this over the last couple of days. keep up the good work.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Nice place, just read through this over the last couple of days. keep up the good work.

Thank you for taking the time to read through it all! It’s been a fun transformation.

Took care of the new door into the addition. Filled in all the holes from the screws they used to install it, and painted the step. They made Swiss cheese out of the casing in a few spots, so it’s been bugging me. Also, when I built the step, I didn’t take into account for the pitch of the floor, so I shimmed up the left side temporarily to level it out. It kept shifting and wobbling so I added this skirting around the base that leveled the step out mote permenantly. I’m sure there was more of an elegant solution that would have looked better, but oh well. Got the job done and it solid. Not sure wheather to leave the door white, paint it the light gray of the upper walls, or the dark gray of the lower wall/trim. What do you think?

 

[sponaugle]

My first time reading this today. Amazing work! I never considered putting a shop vac on the wall for cleaning out cars... a great idea that I will copy!! The concrete work looked great, and when you are under that lift it is good to have the insurance of a well done pad. I'm also a fan of minor over-engineering.

Jeff

 

[Growlertdi]

I say dark grey bottom, light grey top and stripe pattern on the horizontal area between the recessed panels. With the grey border/trim on the door, the stripe will look like a bit of forced perspective or a shadow box style.. hard to describe in words.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

My first time reading this today. Amazing work! I never considered putting a shop vac on the wall for cleaning out cars... a great idea that I will copy!! The concrete work looked great, and when you are under that lift it is good to have the insurance of a well done pad. I'm also a fan of minor over-engineering.



Jeff

Thank you! Yeah, I love the vac on the wall. It's always ready to go. Sometimes half the battle is just getting motivated to drag the shop vac out to clean a car, so it's a big help.

3 years later, and still no issues with the concrete yet either! Fingers crossed it stays that way

I say dark grey bottom, light grey top and stripe pattern on the horizontal area between the recessed panels. With the grey border/trim on the door, the stripe will look like a bit of forced perspective or a shadow box style.. hard to describe in words.

I'm leaning towards a solid color. I'm afraid it will look too busy if I do a 2 tone with stripe... I'm thinking either the light gray or just leaving it white.

 

[Finallygotit]

If that were my door, I would leave it white. But I would also paint it semi-gloss so that dirty fingerprints clean up easily.


YMMV

 

[Unruh]

I love how yours turned out!


69Bigblok posted this picture. The colors are pretty similar to yours and the black looks really good. His grey is darker and you’d have to paint your door. Still looks great!

Here is his Garage build...
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=182914


2017-06-19 22.24.05 by Chad Perry, on Flickr

 

[maddog1949]

Looking good.. You did some great work.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Well, as you can tell from my lack of updates, I've been pretty busy and/or lazy lately. If you remember from last fall, I threw down some large stepping stones quickly in front of the front door to the addition temporarily to get us by. Our thought was to eventually install a paver landing and new front walk way to the main door of the house, but after getting some quotes, it's not in the cards this year. We're actually getting a fence instead along our left property line instead soon, but I digress.

Here is how it's been since last fall. Yuck.... embarrassing when someone comes to the door.

And here is my still temporary but more elegant solution. It will due for another year or two until we probably get around to having someone come in and do the pavers we'd like to do.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

While I'm at it, Ill share some pics of the fill work I had done as well in prep for the fence going in. The RV you can see is my neighbors. My property line is a few feet off his driveway. It doesn't look that bad in the photos, but there is a large sinkhole and the lawn slopes back both towards the woods and his driveway. This is the corner where I want to set up my Daughters swing set, sandbox, etc so I had to level it so it would be usable, and so the fence line would run cleanly.

Here is the before:

Fill coming and being spread:

Leveled:

Hydroseed:

Grass coming in:

Weather permitting, the fence will be going up Friday.

 

[Bob Heine]

Mr. Roboto, it always amazes me how much dirt it takes to level an area like that. That really changes the corner of your yard. When you put up the fence are you planning to have a vehicle-size gate or easily removed section? It never fails that you need to get equipment back there soon after the fence goes up.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Mr. Roboto, it always amazes me how much dirt it takes to level an area like that. That really changes the corner of your yard. When you put up the fence are you planning to have a vehicle-size gate or easily removed section? It never fails that you need to get equipment back there soon after the fence goes up.

80 yards total! They came in with 2 tri-axle loads. I was surprised as well, it never seems to go as far as you'd think.

No plans for any gates. Here is where the fence is going (red line)

As you can see, there is still full access from the road.

 

[Purist]

Well, as you can tell from my lack of updates, I've been pretty busy and/or lazy lately. If you remember from last fall, I threw down some large stepping stones quickly in front of the front door to the addition temporarily to get us by. Our thought was to eventually install a paver landing and new front walk way to the main door of the house, but after getting some quotes, it's not in the cards this year. We're actually getting a fence instead along our left property line instead soon, but I digress.

Here is how it's been since last fall. Yuck.... embarrassing when someone comes to the door.

And here is my still temporary but more elegant solution. It will due for another year or two until we probably get around to having someone come in and do the pavers we'd like to do.

I think your temporary solution is a damn fine one. Should absolutely do the trick until you get your pavers in place.

And I totally understand/relate with the being busy part. Kids, especially young ones, will do that to you. Glad to hear all seems to be well on your front and good to hear from you again.

Take care!

 

[Mr. Roboto]

I think your temporary solution is a damn fine one. Should absolutely do the trick until you get your pavers in place.

And I totally understand/relate with the being busy part. Kids, especially young ones, will do that to you. Glad to hear all seems to be well on your front and good to hear from you again.

Take care!

My wife made fun of me because my temporary solution still cost $120 in materials and took me 4 hours to complete

Yeah, it's been a roller coaster, but our daughter is at a really fun age now. We've been enjoying the summer with her!

 

[Mr. Roboto]

The fence is up! I'm pretty happy with it for the most part. They had to slope it up to get over the tree roots as you can see, so the gap under the panels grew a bit more that I would have liked, but it's better than the alternative of a jagged rise in that location. Definitely liking the privacy it provides though.

 

[nc.detail]

Thanks for sharing the progress over the years!

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Thanks for sharing the progress over the years!

You bet! This thread had become my record of all the various projects I've done. I look back myself often to recall certain info as well haha.

 

[DynoDave]

Handsome looking fence.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Well, I was awful leery about hydro seeding during the hottest months of the year, but much to my satisfaction, the grass really has come in fairly well. Been watering twice per day ever since it went down. Gave it its second mow this weekend with the push mower. I think this will be a nice flat shady spot for our daughter to hang out. I'll just need to add some seed this fall to fill in some of the thin spots and I think I'll be good to go.

Also, snapped this shot when I was leaving for work this morning as the sun was rising. Gives a nice overview of the privacy the fence added. Also, I really need to stop being lazy and paint the damn trim white on the second story windows and change those shutters already Lately I've just been feeling like there are never enough hours in the day, or days in the week!

 

[amkluttz]

Lately I've just been feeling like there are never enough hours in the day, or days in the week!

There aren't... Also, it doesn't get any better. Enjoy it while you can!

 

[nc.detail]

Looking great!

 

[Wreckster23]

Yard looks great, just needs a hammock and you're good to go.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

I finally fixed something that has been bothering me since I built my deck 3 years ago. The main beam had always been exposed, and since I wrapped some ice and water shield over the top of it to keep water out from getting in between the doubled up 2x12s, it really looked like garbage. Here is a before pic of the beam as I was building it:

Took some time to wrap it up today finally in PVC. Much better:

The last thing I really need to do to the deck area is get some crushed stone down under it.

 

[Growlertdi]

Looks nice with that PVC wrap treatment.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Looks nice with that PVC wrap treatment.

Thanks! I go to great lengths to avoid staining or painting things hahaha. PVC wherever I can.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Here is a rarely photographed corner of my garage that is finally getting some attention. I'm replacing this old makeshift cabinet with a NewAge Bold 48" locker that I'm planning to wall mount. it will house most of my detailing supplies as well as some other miscellaneous oversized things. I ordered it from the one and only "dittle fart around" here on the forums. Looking forward to making this area more presentable. And if you're wondering why the old cabinet is elevated, it was to get it up over the foundation and flush up against the wall so that it would take up as little floor space as possible.

My wife said I could get the new cabinet if I move the old one into the basement so she can house all of her arts and crafts stuff in it... sounds fair enough to me!

https://www.shopstoragecabinets.com...48-locker-cabinet?_pos=2&_sid=82b502831&_ss=r

 

[nicholam77]

To echo what others have already said, the addition you guys did really transforms the house. And that's an awesome deck you made there, looks very pleasant!

I have to say the amount of things you've accomplished since the baby gives me hope

My daughter just turned 10 months a few days ago, it's a riot!

 

[Mr. Roboto]

To echo what others have already said, the addition you guys did really transforms the house. And that's an awesome deck you made there, looks very pleasant!

I have to say the amount of things you've accomplished since the baby gives me hope

My daughter just turned 10 months a few days ago, it's a riot!

Thanks! I didn't really do much at all the first year she was born. The second year, I was able to build the front porch, but even that was a challenge between balancing family time and project time. It had to get done, unfortunately, due to the rot damage behind the old steps. Since then, I've just been tackling small projects, which is why we ultimately decided to hire out the shell of the addition.

The inside is still completely unfinished. I'm more than likely going to just take a week off of work sometime in October to get as much done as I can inside there. I'll be spinning my wheels trying to chip away at it on nights/weekends here and there, so I'm just going to bite the bullet.

 

[tommyoneil38]

It looks so spacious. You can fit a lot of stuff in there.

 

[LeGaCyGiAnT124]

Thank you for sharing all of your progress over the years. Reading through it all, you should be dang proud of the work you have done/ have had done. Awesome awesome awesome. Makes me appreciative to be on the board to view. Good stuff!

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Thank you for sharing all of your progress over the years. Reading through it all, you should be dang proud of the work you have done/ have had done. Awesome awesome awesome. Makes me appreciative to be on the board to view. Good stuff!

Thank you very much for the kind words! While I’m very happy with how far the house and garage have come, I could never do it all over again! I’m exhausted just thinking about it.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

My NewAge Bold 3.0 48" locker arrived on Saturday. It comes in 2 flat boxes and in several pieces. Assembly wasn't too bad. It's pretty much tool-less. All of the panels are kind of thin and flimsy on their own, but they come together to form a decently strong cabinet. I opted to wall mount mine. The corner I placed mine in will work well, because 3 of the 4 legs will also sit on the foundation of the garage. That, plus 6 lag bolts total into 3 studs should keep it from going anywhere. Here it is in it's new spot, replacing the cabinet I showed a few pics up:

I'm trying to eliminate things being stored out in the open, so I'll probably end up relocating relocating my centipede stand up top. Or may even sell it. It's a great idea, but I really don't use it anywhere near as much as I thought I would. I will also try and build or buy some hooks for hanging those ladders up on the wall.

Unfortunately, the cabinet sustained some shipping damage. I'm not surprised. With the amount of messages all over the box, instructions, and cabinet components themselves about calling NewAge directly for damaged components, it must be a common occurrence. The doors are pretty twisted to the point where they don't lay flat on the ground if I put them face down.

Top of the right door sticks out 2-3 inches:

Bottom of the left door sticks out 1-2 inches:

I called NewAge. They asked for a few pics and a short video to show the damages to open a claim for getting new doors sent out. Have not heard back yet, but hopefully it's painless. For now, I was able to bend the doors to the point where I can get them to close.

Oh, and for those who have been following along, I also finally painted the rest of my window trim The new shutters will arrive on Thursday. Hopefully I can get them up this weekend.

Now my eyes are just drawn to my aging eye sore of a roof

 

[nicholam77]

House is looking good. What color will the new shutters be?

Hope New Age sorts out the damage for you and in a timely fashion. 2-3 inches twist is a lot, even if functional, shouldn't be like that on what I assume was an expensive cabinet. Looks nice, though!

 

[Mr. Roboto]

House is looking good. What color will the new shutters be?

Hope New Age sorts out the damage for you and in a timely fashion. 2-3 inches twist is a lot, even if functional, shouldn't be like that on what I assume was an expensive cabinet. Looks nice, though!

Thanks! The new shutters will be a dark gray. Also switching them to a more modern raised panel design from the old louvered style on there now.

NewAge seems to be taking care of the issue fairly quickly. I got a UPS notification today saying I have a shipment inbound from them that I am going to assume are the doors. Hopefully they come damage free this time around!

 

[Purist]

Not sure how I missed it, but that deck came out fantastic!! I'm with you on avoiding staining/painting where possible. I hate doing either of those things. My father-in-law and I stained my deck last year and it already looks awful. Maybe the prep work I did wasn't good enough, but I am very unhappy with the Thompson's WaterSeal stain that we used. I may pony up the cash next spring to pay the pro's to come in and redo the deck.

One day, I'd love to expand our deck and go composite. But not anytime soon, ha!

Also glad to hear NewAge is quick to address that cabinet damage. I had great experience with them. The only thing I ended up doing was ordering more shelves for my tall cabinets. They don't come with enough from the factory.

Take care!

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Not sure how I missed it, but that deck came out fantastic!! I'm with you on avoiding staining/painting where possible. I hate doing either of those things. My father-in-law and I stained my deck last year and it already looks awful. Maybe the prep work I did wasn't good enough, but I am very unhappy with the Thompson's WaterSeal stain that we used. I may pony up the cash next spring to pay the pro's to come in and redo the deck.

One day, I'd love to expand our deck and go composite. But not anytime soon, ha!

Also glad to hear NewAge is quick to address that cabinet damage. I had great experience with them. The only thing I ended up doing was ordering more shelves for my tall cabinets. They don't come with enough from the factory.

Take care!

Thanks! It's been 3 years and it hasn't fallen down yet, so I guess that's a good thing haha. It is certainly nice to maintain other than requiring a power-washing a few times per year. That's a bummer about your failing deck stain. Since your house is so new, did you give the PT enough time to dry out before applying stain?

And yes the new doors will be in mid next week. I've considered adding one more shelf to mine, too. Was it affordable to buy more?

 

[Purist]

Thanks! It's been 3 years and it hasn't fallen down yet, so I guess that's a good thing haha. It is certainly nice to maintain other than requiring a power-washing a few times per year. That's a bummer about your failing deck stain. Since your house is so new, did you give the PT enough time to dry out before applying stain?

And yes the new doors will be in mid next week. I've considered adding one more shelf to mine, too. Was it affordable to buy more?

Ha, definitely a good thing! As for the PT wood, I gave it over a year before applying the stain. The home inspector told me that should be more than enough time to wait, but perhaps it needed more time?! Either way, all I know it is looks AWFUL. Luckily we have a rug as part of our deck decor that covers a good majority of it. Or else I would have redone it already since it would be much more in my face.

Yeah, the shelves were definitely affordable. Right around $60 for a two-pack.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Ha, definitely a good thing! As for the PT wood, I gave it over a year before applying the stain. The home inspector told me that should be more than enough time to wait, but perhaps it needed more time?! Either way, all I know it is looks AWFUL. Luckily we have a rug as part of our deck decor that covers a good majority of it. Or else I would have redone it already since it would be much more in my face.

Yeah, the shelves were definitely affordable. Right around $60 for a two-pack.

That’s a bummer... 1 year definitely should have been long enough. Some composite deckings have gotten pretty affordable. Not sure how big your deck is, but be sure to compare the cost of replacing your deck boards yourself with composite vs having pros come out and stain the deck. Just some food for thought.

 

[sk8louisville]

Sorry if this has already been answered. I didn't read all 38 pages

but why the furring strips on the ceiling? Why not just screw to the bottom of the trusses? I ask because I'm getting ready to do the drywall in my shop.

My builder quoted 3k for insulation and finished drywall. I'm debating on whether to just hire it out.

Thanks for the info!

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Sorry if this has already been answered. I didn't read all 38 pages

but why the furring strips on the ceiling? Why not just screw to the bottom of the trusses? I ask because I'm getting ready to do the drywall in my shop.

My builder quoted 3k for insulation and finished drywall. I'm debating on whether to just hire it out.

Thanks for the info!

My trusses were 24” OC. Too far a span for 1/2” drywall with insulation above, so I had to strap it out to 16” OC. Good luck!