The 428 Estate... sorta

[428]

I bought a heavily wooded vacant lot in 1992, nothing but an idea in my head to go by, never done anything like this before either.
We've been working on this thing since 1993, and other than hiring a GC for the house rough in and a few subs here and there, we built it all ourselves.

The garages are about as done as they will ever be, maybe a few hangers and shelf organization to do.
The floors in the garages and pool house turned out good I think.

We have a screen porch to put on the back deck next month and then we are offically done. Thank goodness and

BTW, the estate title is a running joke, several friends named it that when in reality we loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly...

 

[428]

The pool house.

 

[428]

Attached 2 car garage

 

[428]

3 car detached, now attention turns to car restoration. The boat has been moved to lakeside storage.

 

[Luckydevil]

Very nice! What's the square footage on that monster house?

 

[Ramblur]

Dayem! Thats a nice spread...

 

[Stuart in MN]

Wow, everything looks great, and it's all much too clean and organized... I like your Firebirds, does one or both of them have a 428? (I'm guessing from your screen name.)

That's quite a collection of water skis as well, it looks like you have a couple vintage ones at the bottom of the rack - I was pretty big into slalom skiing when I was a teenager, but I haven't been behind a boat for probably 30 years now.

 

[428]

Thanks,

House is a little over 3000 sq ft. Has a game room over the garage with a pool table.
The ski's are my Cypress Gardens from the 60's, Obrien in the 70's and Mastercraft 80's
Quit skiing in the 90's to build this place, got all new HO ski stuff now but it's in the boat.

No 428 in the Firebirds, maybe one day. But the coupe isn't lacking for HP for sure.
It'll get done first. Start taking it apart this weekend getting it ready for paint.

The Convertible is a nice putt putt OHC 6 cyl. Good driver, I'll leave it stock but it gets a frame off resto.
Had the coupe since 1976, the Convertible since around 1984.

To make a long story and adventure short, I had an old somewhat run down 1940's 2 bedroom 1 bath house with a 1 car garage that I renovated a little. When I decided to move I was advised by my elders to get a moderate house, move up again, and then again. I decided to skip a few steps and build it from scratch. They thought I was NUTS!
Took about 6 years longer than I thought it would but all in all it was worth it.

I heard this more than once

 

[JMURiz]

To make a long story and adventure short, I had an old somewhat run down 1940's 2 bedroom 1 bath house with a 1 car garage that I renovated a little. When I decided to move I was advised by my elders to get a moderate house, move up again, and then again. I decided to skip a few steps and build it from scratch. They thought I was NUTS!
Took about 6 years longer than I thought it would but all in all it was worth it.
/QUOTE]
Good work, who needs to waste time with those baby steps, if you know what you want, go for it. Looks like you did and have lots to show for it!
I just bought my house in October and don't plan on ever moving, only about 1/2 the size (house and garage) as yours but suits me fine.

 

[tech]

great job. there are not alot of pepole that will put in that kind of work anymore. its nice to see so many of them on this board. but i think you've out done us all.

i'm 21 and just starting to roof my 24x25, and its funny when i go into homedepot and the sales guys are like "what this for?" "you own this house and are building a garage too?".

 

[snorvet]

Great job! are those mats or different color tiles/epoxy under your cars in the detached garage?

 

[thammel]

Very impressive!!! I really like your organization - you are a model for me to follow! It looks like you custom make most of your shelving and organization, e.g., your water ski racks. The epoxy on the pool house and garage floors look great. Your pool house looks cool with the filter and plumbing housed there. How about some house pix inside?? Did you do all the landscaping? That looks like many tons of stone work!!!

Great place!
Tom

 

[428]

Epoxy floors are covered here.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4849

Wife and I did all landscaping, including building the terraced cross tie wall. Over 250 cross ties in that wall. Our backs will never be the same, but she was a trooper through it.

Planted well over 100 azeala's, lost count. No telling how much other stuff we've planted in the yard. What's not shown is the 3000 sq. ft. english flower garden that's her hobby, I did the hardscape and she did the rest. Her sister has green houses so we get lots of free plants for helping her. Also have a lighted horseshoe pit at the back of the garden. Great beer drinking game.
Garden Pics are old and not very good. Lots has been done since then. I'll try and get some better ones sometime.
Game room pic is old as well. Been so busy on everything else, kinda forgot to take pics of things we've finished.

I'm doing a how to article for the Aquaskier.com web site on the ski rack I made. Maybe we'll have it posted in a week or so.

But we are very proud of it all being DYI. It's been a ton of work but lots of reward.
I know most of this doesn't pertain to garages but in a way it was all tied together for us.
The main reason I sold the old house was because of the one car garage and no room to expand. At the time I sold it I had 4 cars, a truck, boat and a motorcycle packed into the back yard, garage, lean to's, tarps. It was just time to get more garage space.
It just kind of snowballed from there.

 

[RogerQ]

Attached 2 car garage

Looks great! What type of floor paint / epoxy did you choose?

 

[C_F]

The Tonka Toy collection is my favorite! (J/K)
I like the brick steps inside the main garage, along with the surrounding walls. I've got some spare brick from when I built our house 6 years ago & haven't decided what to do with it...you just gave me an idea!

Great looking job on everything!

Looks great! What type of floor paint / epoxy did you choose?

*ahem* Scope out the post juuuust above yours.

 

[carb454]

428, Wow fella that is a spread to be proud of... The wife & I just bought some property in S.C. and have a similar vision ....Very Nice Say what part of S.C. are you in, We bought on the west side next to Lake Seccession...Retirement is looking mighty tasty these days

 

[...dave]

BTW, the estate title is a running joke, several friends named it that when in reality we loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly...

What's that old saying... he who laughs by the pool laughs best?

That looks like a wonderful place... you must get a great sense of pride when you drive up to your house every day

i'm guessing you're somewhere in the upstate... looks like your lot has more elevation change than my entire county.

...dave

 

[Just A Beginner]

428,

You ever post on the Performance Years board?

Tom V.

 

[Marv]

Thats fantastic! I have 5 acres here in Missouri and I'm looking to do similar with garage. That was some great inspiration! Great job!