The Electric Blue Garage

[jktruck150]

I concur. Nice touch!

 

[Nighttrain]

Very nice way to get the wife involved with the ownership of the project. Keeping her to the design of the driveway!

We should all take this skill you have bestowed upon to us.

Now you better not show the board here in future pictures how she has hung cute little curtains with mini’s on them and other girly stuff in “your garage” .

Keep the pics coming.

 

[aqr81]

It's looking great and I'm loving the driveway. Really a nice touch.

 

[WANTSOM]

Nice garage and well shaped driveway to set it all off. Looking really good.

Also, looks like a nice part of the world with the tree lined streets and all. (one of the beauties of this site is an insight into American suburbia and regions. Its like a geography lesson with nice garages and cars to encourage the learnin'.

Cheers

 

[ngk22r]

Very nice so far, cant wait to see the shop built up!

 

[jakeb]

looking good!! Another Michigander here, a bit north of you in Bay City tho.

Can you take a couple pictures of how they are doing the stud walls in between the posts? Are they 2x4s? or 2x6s?

 

[Squirlz]

jakeb they are 2x4s. Heres a couple shots, you can see the wiring, the bathroom framed in and the front door.

Got lots of siding done

Pressure washed and sawed the driveway yesterday, and put sealer on the colored part.

Nighttrain, Molly is really not a girly-girl. I mean she loves Hello Kitty but she is also the 3rd fastest driver on The Dragon and she's a total car nut and techno geek. More into carbon fiber than lace curtains!

 

[jakeb]

thanks, looks good. Interested to see how they are going to finish it with the posts sticking past the 2x4 stud wall.... Do you know if the posts are going to stay sticking out past the finished wall? or are they going to put some furing(sp) strips on it?

hmm

 

[Got-Busa?]

Love your garage setup, looks very nice so far!

 

[4StarCstms]

very nice - Like the others, I'm diggin the border they did for the driveway

 

[Squirlz]

The outside is 99% done.

The inside should get finished up next week. Inspectors today approved the plumbing, electrics and structure. The building inspector gave very high praise to the framers. She described it as extremely well built and "overkill" in some areas. I'm happy to hear that!

At our christening party we will see how many MINIs we can fit in the drive.

 

[Got-Busa?]

Look forward to seeing how you decorate the interior.

So did they give you some $$$ back since it isn't 11' like you wanted?

 

[JC23]

That looks GREAT! Imagine that nice shop with some REAL sized cars in it! haha

You are going to have a TON of room. Keep the great shots coming. We wanna see the insde turn out as kool as the outside.

P.S. Molly is a Keeper! What's she got planned for the inside?

 

[theroyz71]

That looks great. I can't wait to see the finished interior.

 

[dodgeramsst2003]

From a fellow michigander, I have to say very nice job! One question I have though is looking at the drive it looks very small to make the turn into the doors. I realize that you are driving minis and they are small cars, but how is it to park in the last single car stall? I'm hoping to have something that nice in the future, but until then my old garage will have to do.

 

[Motown 454]

It looks great, Nice work.

 

[Maneki Neko]

Very nice way to get the wife involved with the ownership of the project. Keeping her to the design of the driveway!

Ha ha, well, I am paying for most of the garage so I do have some ownership in it. LOL
No, seriously, this garage is totally a joint effort on the parts of the two of us. Yes, Squirlz is about the biggest car nut I've ever known, but I'm probably a bigger car nut than many of the guys on this board. My MINI is very far from stock.

BTW- I HATE curtains!

From a fellow michigander, I have to say very nice job! One question I have though is looking at the drive it looks very small to make the turn into the doors. I realize that you are driving minis and they are small cars, but how is it to park in the last single car stall? I'm hoping to have something that nice in the future, but until then my old garage will have to do.

Below is my other car which will be living in the bay with the smaller door. You'll note the curve in the drive around the tree to give more room to navigate the larger car. By code, you cannot have more than 35% of your land footprint be house/garage/driveway. We are pushing it to the limit right now. Also, I really wanted to keep the tree to help offset the largeness of the garage. It helps the garage look more like it's been there for awhile.

1962 Ford Falcon Station Wagon
This is from the National Falcon Convention this year where I won first place in my class: Lightly modified utility vehicle.

 

[Squirlz]

Aw ****, the wife's here!

Look forward to seeing how you decorate the interior.

So did they give you some $$$ back since it isn't 11' like you wanted?

Yeah, the price will be reduced for that. I'm not too upset about it.

The single door has 20' of drive in front of it. Should be sufficient to get in and out. The Liftmaster 3800 openers are sweet!

 

[Nighttrain]

Welcome to the board Molly ! I guess if the drive way is too small you can just "Drift" those mini's into their spots. . Do you guys do any snow cross up there? I lived in Traverse City for several years and put a pair of Blizzacks on the wifes Honda. Some of the most fun Sunday drives I had. And that was with two kids in car seats in the back taking naps. Nice Falcon!

 

[51rider]

I wasn't sure when I saw the photos of the 'concrete brick' but now that they are weathered in, they look really cool. My ocd tendancies would have me painting the concrete between them a different colour to simulate grout!........

The garage looks great & the Minis do look a little lost in there. I love the colours-reminds me of my original Mini painted in Astral Blue Metallica genunie colur option, not a respray. Looked in the sunshine. Ahh, happy days!

Please update the thread with the interior pics as it progresses.

 

[Squirlz]

Nighttrain, I don't Snowcross but I do drive mine year 'round. A set of Nokians on black steelies and it will go through almost anything.

James, the other MINI is a friend of ours. We're in a club and have literally hundreds of friends with MINIs. I think the Titan 4-post lift looks pretty nice for the money. The walls will be insulated under 1/2' sanded plywood and the ceiling will be textured drywall.

 

[Clinotus]

The outside is 99% done.

I like that photograph, everything came together for you fairly quickly and the garage just looks like it belongs there. The 'pavers' concrete was a nice touch, can't say that I've seen that before.

 

[Squirlz]

Kind of slow this week. The insulation went in.

Got the bathroom ceiling finished and drywall inside the bath and on the ceiling.

Today they built this really nice cedar gate between the house and the garage. It looks great!

Tomorrow they will stipple the ceiling then the walls will be covered with 1/2" sanded plywood. The old garage will be walled off, insulated and turned into my business space. Pretty expensive way of getting out of scraping and painting that sh***y old garage door!

 

[sasquach]

That would be pretty cool if you could just insulate the existing garage door instead of building a new wall . It just seams to fit .

 

[Non Member]

What did this garage cost to build,minus the awesome drive...Looks like you had a great and cheap plan to do this project...cost wise please..

 

[28HopUp]

Tomorrow they will stipple the ceiling then the walls will be covered with 1/2" sanded plywood. The old garage will be walled off, insulated and turned into my business space. Pretty expensive way of getting out of scraping and painting that sh***y old garage door!

Rather than do that, I would get a single garage door to match the new one you have to the far left. That way you tie the new building into the old one. It doesn't even need to open if you want to keep it as an office. JMO...

 

[Squirlz]

No, it's going to be much nicer without a garage door, and easier to put a ceiling in.

 

[Motown 454]

It looks great, they did a nice job..

 

[Squirlz]

The garage is just about done! The wall are 1/2" sanded plywood and every edge has been finished nicely. The textured ceiling came out great.

Bathroom is painted

The old garage has been walled off.

The compound.

Put the cars in today.

Plenty of room for everything!

Whats left is toilet, faucets, 6 gallon water heater under the sink, and a Reverberay LD 30-50 radiant heater. Can't wait!

 

[Squirlz]

Well after my last post full of pictures and captions got NO replies, I took my leave for a few years. I was recently taking some pictures of how the garage looks today and I thought I'd share some.

Here's the living room. I finally have a place for the automotive art I've collected.

Added a couple of toys since last time.

4 post lift.

I built the workbench with leftover materials.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Modern Jess]

I dig this space!

 

[Jon69RagTop]

Very cool. Thanks for posting the pics, I like the space.

 

[norotor88]

Very cool! I dig the living room and the V wagon.

Jesse

 

[Nighttrain]

It's looking good. Ok I have to ask, what is the three wheeler?

 

[55cadillacking]

It's a lot of fun just checking out your photos! I can't imagine how much fun it would be hang out in that space. No shortage of CTS-V wagon drivers on this forum.

 

[ChevyEFI]

Your build manages to make it seem warm and welcoming inside despite the season. I can't believe you managed to add 2 vehicles by 1 lift.

 

[ODIS]

Ah, you have cats and a Falcon. You are cool!

 

[shopnut]

Judging by the snow covered MINIs in your avatar picture, you NEEDED that garage! It's coming along nicely.

My wife has her mind set on Countryman ALL4 as a replacement Subaru Baja Turbo. She sometimes needs to haul a couple big dogs so she wants the extra room. She is happy with 225hp of the Baja, but I'm concerned the 180hp (?) of base engine in the larger Countryman might leave her wanting more so I'm trying to sway her towards the JC Works version. Any comments you can offer about the performance difference? Are the JC Works versions hard to get? We haven't test driven one yet so that is probably the first order of business. BTW, she will not touch an automatic ******.

 

[Squirlz]

It's looking good. Ok I have to ask, what is the three wheeler?

It's a 2013 Morgan 3 Wheeler. Most fun you can have on 3 wheels.

 

[Squirlz]

Judging by the snow covered MINIs in your avatar picture, you NEEDED that garage! It's coming along nicely.

My wife has her mind set on Countryman ALL4 as a replacement Subaru Baja Turbo. She sometimes needs to haul a couple big dogs so she wants the extra room. She is happy with 225hp of the Baja, but I'm concerned the 180hp (?) of base engine in the larger Countryman might leave her wanting more so I'm trying to sway her towards the JC Works version. Any comments you can offer about the performance difference? Are the JC Works versions hard to get? We haven't test driven one yet so that is probably the first order of business. BTW, she will not touch an automatic ******.

I have no personal experience with a Countryman but I have friends who own them and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend one, especially with manual trans.