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The Busted Knuckle

Statesman

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Or Why i went from This;
garage002.jpg

garage006.jpg

To This;
45912138837419294713398.jpg

And the various trials & Tribulations learned from buying a older neglected home.
 
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Statesman

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The Story so far;
Five years ago my wife & i moved ourselves into a 4 bed 2 bath house to care for her mother,as she was getting quite frail & forgetful,well long story short the forgetfullness turned out to be dementia & she is now in a high care nursing home.
The move into the larger house put quite a strain on our finances,& finally last may we had had enough of the monthly struggle so we sold up,with the house selling quite fast it left us in a bit of a bind as we had not started looking for anything else.
The short brief was,3bed 1 bath 2nd toilet if poss,had to have at least a double garage,& room for double carport,room for the hound.AND A Verandah.This is what we found;
46650138837535297613398.th.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
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[/URL][/IMG]Lounge.
mainbedbuiltin2.th.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]Main bed.
46298138837551298013398.th.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]Side Carport,take note of where the downpipe is.
So the house is in an older part of the same neighbourhood.It's been rented for many many years,the smell was unbearable,CATS pee everywhere,apparently the last tenant was a cat lady & left them locked up inside all day & night.
Well fortunately it ticked so many of our boxes,once a building inspection was completed,with gas masks on the deal was done .
 
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Statesman

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The list when we settled was quite long,it began with renting a caravan & parking that on the front lawn so we had somewhere to sleep.The bathroom & kitchen were quite servicable so we at least could shower & cook.
I was going to get rid of the carpet next,but chose to put up with the smell & use it as a drop sheet while painting.The last time it had been painted,they had used a horrible faded lemon colour on pretty much every surface,we used a coffee colour & white frames & architraves,after painting & new wiring & lights it was time for the carpet to go and decide what to do with the floors.
We where hoping to be able to polish them,but it was dependant on the staining from all the cats pee,this is what we found:
44314138837467295913398.jpg

gibsonav020.jpg

gibsonav016.jpg
Yes that is fence paint.
 
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Statesman

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I have no experience with floorsanding & doing plenty of internet searching,i decide to call a couple of contractors to come look at the floor.They all were of the opinoin that the damage wasn't too bad ,so we decided on one & here is the result:
gibsonav021.jpg
Lounge Same as in first post.
gibsonav022.jpg
Dining as second photo in above post.
gibsonav028.jpg
Kitchen.
WooHoo time to get rid of the caravan & move in.
 
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Statesman

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So while all the renovations are going on we are having a very wet winter & spring.The whole time the back yard is soggy & wet & smelling very swampy.There is only one downpipe coming off the garage & carports,it has a large box drain centreway across the garage .Well this 4" downpipe finishes about an inch above the 4" grate,when i pull the grate up out of curiosity there is a reducer about an inch down back to 2"???
Okay this is not a good start as the roof area draining into this is about 80square metres,so we shove a hose down to see if there are any blockages,it goes about 20feet & lodges into something hard.
Shovel out to where hose stopped & we start digging.We find the pipe alright,what we find is the END of the pipe.A rubble drain about 4" down.No wonder the yard is like a swamp.
How do we fix this? plumber tells me it needs to be run into stormwater.
I have another idea,as we are now allowed to store water for clothes washing & toilet flushing:
wp000091.jpg

wp000092.jpg

Two 3000ltr poly tanks.I had several hundred metres of 1" poly line & fittings salvaged from when we bought our factoy unit.A trip to the local Bunnings for a automatic pump,we now run the washing machine,2nd toilet(if you look hard in the first garage photo you can see it in the middle of the garage,i used to call it my loo with a view!),and have 2 taps to water the garden with.
Apart from the cost of the tanks,the main expense was for the concretors,as i had a shed slab put in at the same time.Yay!! free water.
More soon
 
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sscustom

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The Story so far;
Five years ago my wife & i moved ourselves into a 4 bed 2 bath house to care for her mother,as she was getting quite frail & forgetful,well long story short the forgetfullness turned out to be dementia & she is now in a high care nursing home.



hey mate i had a simiilar thing with my nanna my mum was pretty much living there to help with everything but would never think to put her in a home havent you seen THERES SOMTHING BOUT MARY .CAN I TROUBLE YOU FOR A GLASS OF MILK ,YOU CAN TROUBLE ME FOR A GLASS OF **************** , my point being is that most on the holmes pinch and abuse there patients so they wont tell there family whats goin on .......just my 2c
 

rinker1

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Holy Cow, I thought I was the only one that took on jobs like that! We bought a 90 yr old home 21 yrs ago and Im still trying to catch up with it. Looks like a great job your doing the floors look great.
 
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Statesman

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The Story so far;
Five years ago my wife & i moved ourselves into a 4 bed 2 bath house to care for her mother,as she was getting quite frail & forgetful,well long story short the forgetfullness turned out to be dementia & she is now in a high care nursing home.



hey mate i had a simiilar thing with my nanna my mum was pretty much living there to help with everything but would never think to put her in a home havent you seen THERES SOMTHING BOUT MARY .CAN I TROUBLE YOU FOR A GLASS OF MILK ,YOU CAN TROUBLE ME FOR A GLASS OF **************** , my point being is that most on the holmes pinch and abuse there patients so they wont tell there family whats goin on .......just my 2c

My wife did a lot of research before choosing the home & they visit her twice weekly.So far we have been happy with her care.
 
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Statesman

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Holy Cow, I thought I was the only one that took on jobs like that! We bought a 90 yr old home 21 yrs ago and Im still trying to catch up with it. Looks like a great job your doing the floors look great.
Thanks! everyone who has seen the floors loves them.
I started this thread because after a year i have finally started some work on the garage,my next couple of projects are the ones leading up to the garage,and,give me some of the materials for that project.
The budget took a big hit getting us into the house,so everything since has been planned using a strict budget,or,utilising recycled materials.
I know that for every project completed thers hundreds in the queue!!
Adrian
 

sscustom

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My wife did a lot of research before choosing the home & they visit her twice weekly.So far we have been happy with her care.

thats good , yeah company is the best medicine everybody gets lonley

any updates ,should show more of you garage
 
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Statesman

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46298138837551298013398.jpg

This was used previously i think for an outdoor entertaining area,you can see in the photo there are 3 enormous cocos palm trees that dropped branches,seed pods & seeds,and,attracted bats from miles around to fight & **** on everything.I wanted to use this as a carport,but the way these trees had grown it made it very difficult to get a car in & out(it took me about a dozen manouveres to get the Statesman to where you see it in this photo),so with council approval we had them removed(very happy to pay someone for this job)
My other concern with parking here is that it is still very open to the elements,i was wanting to enclose the sides to give whichever car residing some more protection from the elements.Janet was very keen for this also,although she had an ulterior motive.
In my search for an inexpensive weatherproof covering,i came across on ebay a company who were selling a lot of roofing off after completing a building job,well $102.50later i had enough opaque alsynite to do the job.Janet in the meantime had measured up the old lattice that we had inherited with the house(see some on side of carport,the front verandah had been enclosed the same& i had pulled a lot from around the far side of the garage)
Her idea was to plant some bouganvilla at intervals & have it grow up through the lattice,so my quick enclosing ,turned into 2 full weekend,as the lattice was starting to look very tired & grey,so i painted at the same time:
wp000093m.jpg

And looking from the other side;
wp000094.jpg
 
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Statesman

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sweet cant wait whats your plans for the gaarge .are you doin anything to it ?or just your home
Hi SS,
It's just my home workshop,i still have a lot of my tools & well i call them collectibles,but Janet calls them junk!Stored at my factory unit from when we moved,so i am trying to get as many ideas as i can to utilise space.Even though it is a long garage i'ts not very wide,one of my next posts i will show a space saying idea for some shelving.
 
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Statesman

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ohh dont mean to take over you thread ,i looked at your garage and it seems you need a workbench .or maybe i just cant see one ether way i built mine for about $65-70

big 2 metre one

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=105395&highlight=19yr
Hey SS,
I do have a very "rustic" bench that was about 4 metres long,i have since cut it down to just under 3 metres & hidden it in some wasted space behind where i have enclosed the"loo with a view"
Will get some photos soon,but bench is not varnished or anything yet.
 

sscustom

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Hey SS,
I do have a very "rustic" bench that was about 4 metres long,i have since cut it down to just under 3 metres & hidden it in some wasted space behind where i have enclosed the"loo with a view"
Will get some photos soon,but bench is not varnished or anything yet.

ahh sweet yeah storage space is ideal its crazy what you can fit inn when you organise things proper .,
 

sscustom

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Statesman

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heres 2 of my storage ideas

how to build a tool storage holder .works great and easy to make [lol it rhymes ]
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=108377&highlight=sams

heres another oil storage container -storage

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=106654&highlight=sams


last one but more to come when i get ideas

dish wash storage racks-

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=105993&highlight=sams
Hey SS,
I really like your thinking,these are simple ideas that are cheaply done that make things so much easier,:bowdown::bowdown:
Adrian
 

sscustom

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Hey SS,
I really like your thinking,these are simple ideas that are cheaply done that make things so much easier,:bowdown::bowdown:
Adrian

cheers ,yeah i get them from my work every now and then just wash them out and wipe them with a rag looks and works good .especialy with the handle there easy to carry . i use the coolant one for wood scraps but they can be used for anything that will fit

by the way did you see the tool holder ?

cheers mate
 
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Statesman

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SS,
Yep checked all those threads out & will be utilising them in the not too distant future.
I had another photo in the first post of why i called the thread the busted knuckle,but looks like i deleted it when i resized the pictures,so for any who are wondering here it is;
wp000089m.jpg

I do have quite a few old signs etc(which i will post up as i rediscover & rehang them)
but this one caught my eye not too long ago when i was in my local auto parts store & i blew $30 on it but i think it sums up how projects generally run around here.:bounce::bounce:
 

05CarbonDRZ

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A local store called Hobby Lobby has about 5-10 signs that say "The Busted Knuckle Garage" with a similar design to the one you posted.They may have a website also,I have not checked.
 
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Statesman

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Good Luck with that. I'll be watching for updates and progress.
Thanks HOTFR8, I know it's fairly humble compared to a lot on here,but i am really enjoying the challenge of turning it into something i can be proud of with a minimal budget.Hope to get another update up later today.
 
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Statesman

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A local store called Hobby Lobby has about 5-10 signs that say "The Busted Knuckle Garage" with a similar design to the one you posted.They may have a website also,I have not checked.
Hey 05carbonDRZ,Had a look at their site,but couldn't see any online,perhaps they were a one off,i wouldn't of minded a different version for inside the garage.
Adrian
 

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Thanks HOTFR8, I know it's fairly humble compared to a lot on here,but i am really enjoying the challenge of turning it into something i can be proud of with a minimal budget.Hope to get another update up later today.

:thumbup: It may be humble but as many say about mine the character is on the inside :thumbup::lol_hitti It is what is inside and what you put in it like the sign that makes your Garage :thumbup:

Here is where that sign came from originaly http://www.bustedknucklegarage.com/ as I have the same sign on my wall.
 
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Statesman

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At all our other houses we have had a garden shed for mower,weed whacker,gardening tools & general storage.
I Had the concretors put a slab down 3m x 3m when they were doing the slabs for the water tanks for one in the not too distant future.
In the past we had always bought the cheapest & largest garden shed available when we had the funds available,this time however i wanted to keep the shed in somewhat a period style.
This was probably going to mean i was going to have to build it from scratch,until i came across the Stratco heritage range of sheds;

These are about twice the price of your average zincalume or colourbond shed,but as we want to keep everything in a period (think 1960's) style we decided we were going to save our pennies for this.
Well fast forward to Late April this year & the money was paid & a huge stack of steel,colourbond & a huge box of bolts & tek screws arrived.
2 Weekends and a lot of blood swearing & a few tantrums later we have this 3m x 2.5m:
wp000090.jpg
.
We decided on the smaller width because as this shed comes with gutters & downpipes,we can fit a 1500-2000l water tank behind it which then can be plumbed into our existing tanks.
So now all the gardening paraphanelia i have been tripping over has been sent to it's rightfull home!!
This will lead me to my next post..........
 
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Statesman

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:thumbup: It may be humble but as many say about mine the character is on the inside :thumbup::lol_hitti It is what is inside and what you put in it like the sign that makes your Garage :thumbup:

Here is where that sign came from originaly http://www.bustedknucklegarage.com/ as I have the same sign on my wall.
Excellent thank you so much HOTFR8,Janet & i put a lot of time & thought into everything we are doing on this place (not just the garage)because it's our little bit of fibro 1960's australia that somehow missed being destroyed by our headlong rush into disposing of the past,so while we are modernising we are also trying not to destroy the mid 20th century feel of the house.
Thank you so much for that link,i think the budget might take a bit of a hit with that site!!!!!!!!!
 
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Statesman

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The huge stacks of colourbond sheeting from the garden shed yielded a nice little bonus,every stack had a top & bottom full length protective sheet.
As i was erecting the shed there was a little idea building in the back of my mind about what i could use the leftover protector sheets for.
I Have been agonising over what i am going to sheet the interior garage walls with once time & finances permit,and seeing as this is not particularly high on the to do list at the moment.I thought as this material had essentially cost me nothing & it was only going to be stored as it was too good to throw out,"let's do a feature wall",so i have something to keep the motivation going while finances & time are tight,the end result,not quite finished,but close.......
iphone009tc.jpg

I had made up some shelving at work for this,but it ended up being too darn heavy for the intended purpose so i put it to use elsewhere(post coming soon)
The ornate shelf fronting was something that was left here ,i was tempted so many times to throw it out,but,for some reason couldn't,now i know why.
The old oil cans & bottles are inherited from my father in law.The mini sign hides the centre brackets & the old Golden Fleece oil sign hides a join in the colourbond.I do have more signs & the shopclock to go up,but need to unpack them yet.
I think it adds a great australiana touch & turned out even better than i expected!!!
 

sscustom

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looking good did you stain the cross beam on the top of your shed? btw is the shelf goin to just be for cool old stuff or garage stuff eg power tools
 
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Statesman

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Hey SS,
The beam is just raw,it's one of the things I have to decide,whether I put a ceiling in,or sand & lacquer the beams(they are very rustic).
The shelf is only for cool old stuff definitely not for general storage!!
 

sscustom

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Hey SS,
The beam is just raw,it's one of the things I have to decide,whether I put a ceiling in,or sand & lacquer the beams(they are very rustic).
The shelf is only for cool old stuff definitely not for general storage!!

ahh it looked like it was stained ,yeah just one of a kind items
 
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Statesman

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I can say one thing about it now -"It has Character."
Thanks HOTFR8,
it makes it that bit more pleasurable to be in the garage & is spurring me on to sorting out my box's of garage stuff i have in storage.
BTW I wish you hadn't sent me the busted knuckle link as there is a great shop clock that i think will look fantastic on the wall:bounce::bounce:!!!
 

HOTFR8

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Thanks HOTFR8,
it makes it that bit more pleasurable to be in the garage & is spurring me on to sorting out my box's of garage stuff i have in storage.
BTW I wish you hadn't sent me the busted knuckle link as there is a great shop clock that i think will look fantastic on the wall:bounce::bounce:!!!

Look about and see if a local supplier has them. I know a few shops buy wholesale from the Busted Knuckle. :thumbup: The site may even put you in touch with a local seller. My sign came from a local supplier but I forget who.
 
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Statesman

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Thanks HOTFR8,
I will contact them to see if there is a local supplier,the only problem is the more i look the longer the list gets!!!
Failing that i will talk to them about shipping,i did get some merchandise shipped from Boyd Coddingtons a few years ago & the freight wasn't too expensive.
I am also heading over to SEMA this year,i'm sure they would have an agent in Vegas,or,i could get some gear shipped to my motel.Just need to take a big suitcase!!
Adrian
 

sscustom

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any updates its killing me i wanna see it ,,btw what sort of maachinery are you putting on there?
is it just goin to be for car matience of all round jobs lil bit of everything.welding , woodworking etc

cheers sam
 
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Statesman

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Hey SS,sorry I was going to post up my shelving build today,but,work got in the way!! will see how I go tomorrow,but am getting ready for motorex so it might have to wait till next week.the busted knuckle is just for general home jobs & car maintenance,saying that the Statesman is being dismantled in here at the moment.The welding &any major works gets done at my factory unit,as I have a good workshop there.
 

BigRed390

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Just wanted to stop in and say I'm loving this build. It's completely real world and I like that (not that I don't enjoy/steal-ideas-from the absurdly awesome ones on here :D)

I like the water tank idea too! I've got drainage problems and have places I'd rather the water go, so I may be taking a page from your book on this one.

Keep up the good work!
 
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Statesman

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Just wanted to stop in and say I'm loving this build. It's completely real world and I like that (not that I don't enjoy/steal-ideas-from the absurdly awesome ones on here :D)

I like the water tank idea too! I've got drainage problems and have places I'd rather the water go, so I may be taking a page from your book on this one.

Keep up the good work!
Hey BigRed,thanks for that,i love the big builds on here & can lose hours checking them out.
But i am enjoying the challenge of creating my mancave on a limited budget.
I'm happy for anyone to use my idea's, that's why i'm sharing them.With the water tanks the only thing i would have done differently was to go somewhat larger,as at the moment they are empty,thanks to my son his girlfriend & my grandson who are staying with us for a couple of months.Unfortunately this once again was driven by budget.But i will be installing one off the shed,so i will be plumbing this in as well.
 
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