The Wretched Mess Garage

[rubberrodder]

Just an update. We have doors and shingles going up today

 

[rubberrodder]

More pictures! There is one door installed, and the slider door built and laying on the floor. Just waiting to be hung. I went out and got a gallon of "liberty blue" paint for the trim. Also the builder cut in the face boards before installing the gutters. The rest of the garage will be the same shade of gray as the house, along with the blue trim.

 

[rubberrodder]

HOT DAMN! Friday,4/11/14, they handed me the keys to the done garage! My contractor said I can move all my s#:*~ back inside but make sure its at least 3 feet away from the walls untill after the final inspection. Also need to get the exterior painted within the next ten days for warranty on the siding. Good weather the next week, no problem there. I also need to do my sub panel and wiring. For now that's just light lights and an outlet or two. after the final inspection, the fun part begins!

 

[3/4 drive]

Congrats !

 

[sean Buick 76]

Great news!

 

[captain14]

Good luck on the projects to start now.

 

[Mike Miller]

Congratulations.

 

[rubberrodder]

G.c. was unable to get a hold of me on Monday, so he left final inspection instructions with wifely unit. These were relayed to me as "you have ten days to paint it". Sooo, I start slinging color on this thing. I get one whole wall done just as he finally gets me on the phone. Turns out its "You have ten days to paint it AFTER THE FINAL INSPECTION'. DONT PAINT IT UNTILL THEN. The inspector needs to see the nail pattern before they sign off on it." Oh well... on to the electrtical instead!

 

[55dude]

cool! the city are dickheads!

 

[rubberrodder]

Framing inspector was here today. We passed okay other than the loft needs walls to prevent a "falling hazard". Okay fine, I was going to do that anyway. But, I was going to wait till after the final inspection and put some real nice ones up.

 

[rubberrodder]

I have all of my electrical boxes, switches and **** strung through out the garage. The panel is mounted on the wall and Saturday I PLAN on digging the trench for the underground feed into the garage. I used my motorcycle battery charger to power up my wiring and my buddy, Bruce helped out by letting me know if I had power where I wanted it. The first pic is of Bruce. His eyes light up when he finds a hot socket to plug into! The second pic is the temporary electrical panel. VERY temporary! And my neighbor across the street gave me my first wall decoration! Heeeres my sign!

 

[rixtrix1]

Cool!

 

[rubberrodder]

More pictures! this is the mess you see when you first open the door. second pic is the rest of the south wall. Picture no.3 is the storage area under the stairs. That couch in pic.5 was built here in Tacoma in 1900. Too bad my brothers cat used it as a scratching post. It now resides in the loft. Thank goodness for my son helping move it. That sucker is heavy! I saw somewhere on here about hanging jack stands out of the way on hooks. These neat little chrome jobs are pick-up truck bed tie downs. As you can see, they work very well. My boss at the time said "no longer a stocking item. make them go away!" There must have been 5 lbs. of them.

 

[rubberrodder]

Most of you will remember we had to put our dog , Bronco, down last month. Our other dog, Hannah, had been moping around real lonesome like ever since. Well... we found her a sister to play with. It was one of those "friend of a friend of my third cousins off aunt" kind of things that was just meant to happen. We had begun seriously looking for another dog when my niece said a friend of hers has a 10 month old golden retriever. They already have 3 other older dogs and one of them didn't like this young pup at all. So, now we have "Charlie". Hannah is the lab mix in the back. They both love running up and down the stairs to the loft and have discovered the couch up there!

 

[rixtrix1]

Good go with the dogs. Nice thing for all.

 

[ZRX1040]

You are going to love the storage up in those trusses. Only wish I had room for an inner stairwell. I'm about 2/3 done building something similar. Had the same height restriction to work around. A bit of a grey area in my case as the lower level is only exposed on 1 side. But when the city is being generous, take full advantage

 

[rubberrodder]

zrx1040,
Back on post #37 I mentioned "gray area" height restrictions. Also the "alley only access. I figure they gave me the height I wanted. I can give them the door way where they want it. a good trade off in my book.

 

[ZRX1040]

Here the code says no 2 story garages and 14' to the center height of the truss. My "alley" is actually a street, one block long, and a street has a much larger setback. My garage is technically too close to the pavement but since I agreed to exactly the same footprint and very little traffic, maybe 2 cars a week, they let it slide. Some places in town have a real challenge with snow removal.

 

[rubberrodder]

Still waiting to hear from the electrical inspector on a couple small issues regarding what qualifies for code. I want to get it right the first time, even if it means waiting to go "live". But, I'm still plugging along and starting to get stuff done. I did some maintenance on the daily. I surprised myself with how much room I still had with the car inside.

 

[rubberrodder]

I have POWER! BWAAHAAHAA!!! IT'S ALIVE! IT's A-LIIIVVVE!
Yes, The Wretched Mess Garage now has electricity! I have my electrical inspection scheduled for 5/22. Then I can schedule my final inspection.

 

[rubberrodder]

I had been saving the old screen door from our house for the loft in the garage. But due to budget and design constraints it wouldn't work...for the loft! It WILL work for the man door! I only need to trim the bottom an inch or two. It has 2 panels that go in it. One with glass for winter, one with bug screen for summer. Too bad I have to wait till after the final inspection and paint. I put up two shelves and started putting stuff away. It seems you forget how much S%^*# you have till you gotta move it. Sure glad I threw out two pick-up loads before we even started demo.

 

[Mike Miller]

It seems you forget how much S%^*# you have till you gotta move it.

Tell me about it Dave, my brother is moving and has stuff scattered all over the neighborhood in peoples barns and back yards waiting for it's trip to Idaho. I got off lucky with only a few tractor implements and three vehicles.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Just checking in, great progress to date

Having power on is one big milestone for any project and don't do moving stuff real well myself..

Cheers..

 

[55dude]

awsome dave!

 

[madoc1]

nice build, but I need to ask, why no steel in the slab?

 

[bcos]

Great building! Any plans for heat?

 

[rubberrodder]

madoc!,
by steel, do you mean re-bar? It all around the edges of the monolithic pour. since we dont have the severe weather swings and frost heave issues here in the p.n.w., it was not required for the floor.
bcos,
I was planning on a duel fuel kerosene/diesle torpedo heater. Then my wife found a couple of infrared space heaters that are good for 1500 square ft. each. They were normally $135.00 apiece and on clearance for $35 bucks. The jury is still out on how to heat this space. And lots of "heated" debate over on the warm garage threads. Time will tell. There is always electric hunting socks from Cabela's!

 

[rubberrodder]

Passed the final electrical inspection today. I have the {hopefully} final building inspection tomorrow afternoon. A couple of my nieghbors have been telling me horror stories about their inspections. "the guy was pissed off 'cause we put some furniture in the house before the inspection and wouldn't pass us till we took it back out" or "they won't pass you without putting up drywall for fire walls". My favorite,"You're bigger than the house". I call "male bovine filler" on that one!

 

[Mike Miller]

On the subject of heat, I put this system together last fall and stayed comfortable all winter, even when the temp. dropped to minus thirty. My shop is big, 1800 sq. ft. so you could get by with the four foot infrared down stairs and the upper floor would probably take care of it's self. In my old shop it kept the place comfortable even with out insulation. Word of caution, don't install the infrared directly over where you will be standing, it'll cook your brain, and not in a 60's way.

 

[rubberrodder]

The final inspection got put off till Wednesday! Damn it I want to get on with this project!

 

[rubberrodder]

Yippee! I got finalized on wednesday without ANY problems. I spent the rest of the day painting and putting stuff away. One of my coworkers gave me 2 REALLY nice cabinets. I dont know what they were used for originally. But, they have these drawers in them that are form fit for "stuff". some of them have little covers. Others have pull out holders for ????. they are 6 feet tall, and 1 foot wide by 1 1/2 feet deep with a frosted glass door. Going to have trouble keeping the wife from taking over one or both of these. I'll edit in pic's tonight. AND! One of my wifes best friends is going to remodel her kitchen. Guess who she said could have her old cabinets... MEEE! I'm as happy as pig in s%#@*!

 

[rubberrodder]

Here's the pictures of the freebie cabinets.

 

[rubberrodder]

I made some progress getting shi....umm, jun...uh, garb...hmmm,....STUFF!...yeah, that's the ticket, STUFF put away in the loft. AND, I fired up my old heap and took my granddaughter for a ride. Do y'all think she had fun in grandpaws old car?

 

[rubberrodder]

WooHoo! I got a $100 gift card from Home Desperate for Fathers day. I will buy some pegboard for the back wall. My plans are for osb on the lower 4ft. and pegboard for the upper 4ft. then separate it with a 1x4 board.

 

[Carl_WI]

Do y'all think she had fun in grandpaws old car?

I think Grandpa had a good time too! Very nice car!

 

[rubberrodder]

Thank you Carl. It's a 1950 Chrysler Windsor. Mechanically stock with a home grown paint job. My dad bought it from the original owner for $350 in February of 1968. I was 10 years old and fell in love with it. Now the "shop boss" loves it too.

 

[rubberrodder]

I spent most of my fathers day gift card on pegboard. 24 FEET OF IT!!!! 16 feet on the east wall alone. Then cut down the last sheet to fit above the workbench next to the stairway. Plus there is still a nice 2ft. X 4ft. piece for when I build the granddaughters kid sized work bench.

 

[rubberrodder]

I also wired up power and a light for the bench. I picked up the swing arm lamp on clearance from office depot for $3.99. Too bad it was the last one. I also have the compressor up and running. I still want to rework the plumbing on it. The pressure regulator and power switching is all mounted to the tank itself, as it was an old portable

 

[rubberrodder]

Out of the blue last night, my neighbor{who is moving} rings the doorbell and says he has some "stuff" in the garage he cant take with him and do I want any of it. 2 matching wooden storage units, a Hon metal bookcase, and a REAL nice metal storage cabinet with drawers. I will take pictures and post them tonight. Gawd I love free stuff.

 

[rubberrodder]

Sorry about no pic's or updates since last month. But, big holiday weekend, and granddaughters birthday got in the way. Anywhoo, here they are now along with the $10 REAL wood{not sawdust and glue}office chair. Goodwill scores again! Picture 1, I got two of these. One I let my daughter have for a dresser for "The shop boss"