Above 1200 Sq/FT Thomas' garage projects (Canada)

[racer-john]

TomcoPDR: "I bet you’d even remember when radios aren’t even invited.
No but I had a radio/recordplayer in my bedroom.
Drives: Not only keeping up with many forums, but also doing a rusteration (underside) of a new-to-me "06 Chevy Mini van daily, weather permiting. Just started back at it yesterday.

 

[Bob Heine]

Thomas, my mechanical engineer daughter and her mechanical engineer husband were moving from Cincinnati, Ohio back to South Florida and asked me to help for a weekend. Her husband invited his brother up for the same weekend so I rented a car at the airport and carpooled to their house. Upon arrival they were almost done but realized they underestimated the number of Pods needed to hold their stuff by one. Before I left on the trip my wife (the under-educated housewife) told our daughter to reserve the biggest trailer available at the local U-Haul, just in case. Derisive laughter turned into Ah$hit the day I arrived. The three able-bodied people got in my daughter's pickup and went to get a trailer. My job was to stay behind and move the contents of the exercise room on the second floor to the garage. I ended up carrying each dumbbell and weight, one at a time until all 78 pieces were moved. I finished my 156 trips up and down the staircase as it went from sunset to full dark. The three returned from their tour of all three Cincinnati's U-Haul rental locations with an 8-foot enclosed trailer, meaning that they would have to drive to Florida with some of their stuff and make a return trip to Cincinnati a week later to pick up the rest. I ended up driving with my daughter while her two sons rode with dad and his brother.

This would be a stupid story by itself but four years earlier my wife and I made the trip from Florida to Cincinnati to help them move in. They converted the living room into a library because they don't have friends (odd???) and the partially finished basement was not going to be used. The previous owners had a relative living in the finished bedroom and full bath down there. They had emptied most of the moving boxes and thrown them on the floor of the unfinished part of the basement. I spent four hours sorting and stacking the boxes in some crude shelves and was told I was wasting my time. I mentioned the price of moving boxes and suggested having them for a future move could save them several thousand dollars. After telling me they were going to burn them anyway, I suggested they take a look at what I had done and how much work it would take to take them upstairs.

Years after they returned to Florida my daughter mentioned how great it was that they saved the boxes. Because you love your children you do these things but had it been a friend, I would have been sitting on the deck enjoying an iced tea instead of stacking boxes or moving weights. I should mention, throwing the weights out a second story window crossed my mind but there was a questionable wooden deck below the only windows I could use.

 

[TomcoPDR]

Bob thanks for the story (I read it twice) and confirmation... it is amazing having generations that are your age, Drive’s age, to help us kids of the ‘80’s learning our ways. And of course as my generation age, the more we hope the next will listen to our experiences... and we have to try choosing who/whom we volunteer our precise time helping.

I guess speaking of burning time... since I’m getting paid, someone that’s been waiting on me (a hail damage, insurance chasing dent tech to be in their off hail season); to clean up some door dings on this modern classic del sol. The Honda version of the Miata. Lol... yes, the customer/friend of a friend owner is a guy.

 

[drivesitfar]

I know I am not quite old enough to be your dad even though my step sons are 46 and 44 now, but i'm happy to share any knowledge i can that might help you or others.

that VAULTS really does shine and I bet you are liking going there to do a little work and then maybe a steam shower before you head back home?

I hope this COVID BS woe and worry is over soon so we can all get back to some sort of normal even if the world was a bit crazy prior to it.

keep moving and thinking and working hard doing what you love and you'll enjoy your life.

take care!!

 

[drivesitfar]

RACER-JOHN: you deserved your own post even if on Tom's thread cause at 88 I'm very happy to see you not only posting, but still being active. what is your secret?

feel free to join my GET HEALTHY THREAD and post up a few good words and stick around cause we'd all like to know the secrets you have to share even if not so SECRET.

sorry for HI JACKING your thread Thomas, but RACER is older than dirt and needed some recognition.

cheers!!

 

[drivesitfar]

I know you’re probably busier than a bull in mating season but wanted to send you some well wishes and hope you enjoy Thanksgiving even if it might not be a Canadian holiday.

 

[racer-john]

RACER-JOHN: you deserved your own post even if on Tom's thread cause at 88 I'm very happy to see you not only posting, but still being active. what is your secret?

feel free to join my GET HEALTHY THREAD and post up a few good words and stick around cause we'd all like to know the secrets you have to share even if not so SECRET.

sorry for HI JACKING your thread Thomas, but RACER is older than dirt and needed some recognition.

cheers!!

 

[racer-john]

Thanks drives, I am thinkingabout it, but don't have the time. Lol.

 

[drivesitfar]

So let's see what happened to you? you leased your 1968 shop? sold the Vaults? bought another condo in your building next to yours and blew out the wall to create the biggest unit in the building and you got married and are having a baby? any of that true or enlighten us?

just wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas and here's to a great 2022!!

 

[TomcoPDR]

Drive, All: So So sorry for MIA / missing-in-action. Been pretty hectic, let me chip away garage related topics to update. (i.e. the missing 15-20 months posting, because I live downtown, and community folks have me volunteering, playing sports, condo gym with them, hikes, etc.)

Ok, here's a teaser what triggered me needing to update GJ... (I'll back update the missing 15-20 months of property related actions in the months to come)

 

[drivesitfar]

Good to see you sending out a smoke signal letting know you survived another winter.

So tell us (if you’d like to) are you still an owner of a vaults garage condo, 1968 shop and at least one condo? Or are you selling all to get a brand new unit at the vaults?

Hope all is well and check in on us too. I bet this GJ is helping my memory so I don’t end up with dimentia and Alzheimer’s like my dad who just passed hence me checking in on a lot of the guys and a few gals here when I have time. 4am is quiet a good to catch up then?

 

[TomcoPDR]

So let's see what happened to you? you leased your 1968 shop? sold the Vaults? bought another condo in your building next to yours and blew out the wall to create the biggest unit in the building and you got married and are having a baby? any of that true or enlighten us?

just wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas and here's to a great 2022!!

Drive: Really sorry again for the MIA, ok chipping away on the 15-20 months missed updates.

- haha no baby, got dumped from a 1 year relationship... Earlier this year in January, went to Hawaii for the first time in my life as a middle age man. Met up with my California brother's family and his toddler kids (lucky kids travels more than me being few years old)

Good to see you sending out a smoke signal letting know you survived another winter.

So tell us (if you’d like to) are you still an owner of a vaults garage condo, 1968 shop and at least one condo? Or are you selling all to get a brand new unit at the vaults?

Hope all is well and check in on us too. I bet this GJ is helping my memory so I don’t end up with dimentia and Alzheimer’s like my dad who just passed hence me checking in on a lot of the guys and a few gals here when I have time. 4am is quiet a good to catch up then?

Drive, All: indeed. Sorry again for the mia. Ok I’ll chip away at the catching up, pardon I may be skip hopping a bit here and there.

- was in a 1 ish relationship. But got dumped. Outta all that, earlier in year. Visited hawaii (Wakiki) first time in my life being a middle age dude. Met up with older brother from California’s family. His kids are only under 36 months. And already had more travel miles than I.

- hahaha yupppp end of 2021, sold my Vaults NORTH (by airport Calgary) location. Here’s how it looks after paying professional cleaners before the buyer took over

- yup. I’m still loving owning 1968 cinderblock 2,000sqft. But it’s been leased out to a neighbour for the past 2- 2.5 years smoothly now. (Once I got done timing floors and painting everything. Upgraded electric panel; neighbour was pounding on door to rent it. As they run a successful business, and they just use mine for STORAGE/ warehousing lol)

Continues…

 

[TomcoPDR]

Here’s how the 1968 built cinderblock 2,000 sqft with 2 garage door looked. And turned over for tenant use. (Give or take March 2021 ish)




Continues…

 

[TomcoPDR]

In between (the missing posts to GJ); me and mom just pick up some condos (this was during the covid weirdness era; our local government went thru like 3-4 waves of shut down, reopen, shut down, soft reopen, shut down, etc etc). So condo pricing in our downtown core took a hit

Me and mom was able to pickup another studio condo and that was an era of gf, no more Vaults north, 1968 cinderblock leased out nothing needed to do times

 

[TomcoPDR]

The condo rentals are ran fully furnished, inclusive utilities, internet, Netflix etc

just little projects I’d do whenever I get a unit back.

 

[drivesitfar]

I tried out a few (girls and women) before finally finding my dream girl that I’ve been sharing a life with since 1986. That said if you asked any of my 5 kids they’d probably shake their heads and wonder how we are even still together.

It’s hard finding a companion so best of luck with that and don’t give up cause if you keep working hard on improving your life I’m sure someone will notice that you’d love to share your life with.

I thought you’d be selling your vaults cause it seemed like you hardly used it snd great to hear you’ve got an almost perfect tenant for your shop.

Sounds like your busy and I know you’re handy so if you don’t want to show us all your cool repairs feel free to check my thread and other members to help us cause you’ve got skills!!

Enjoy the good weather while you can and best of luck with the condos cause sounds like you and mom invested wisely.

 

[TomcoPDR]

Drive:

- Oh yeah, I definitely look up to you 1950-1970's men out there that can keep a manly household. Of course don't want to dilute GJ page with relationship topics... but the modern dating scene sure feels weird TO ME, something I can't master truth be told. I do read some relationship forums, some guys take it for what it's worth (even if it's against their morals, but they still let things happen, just for the sake of keeping a relationship, which seems weird to me, imo).

- Drive: Oh yeah, as always, I'm loving your new trailer build... and the current concrete pour, impressive my friend. Your daily grind to keep busy; I'm so hot and cold, either it's motivation whenever there's a shiny new project then I'll go balls to the walls; then I'll get all pissy it's a never ending project, get it done, then rest doing absolutely nothing (then rinse and repeat the cycle)

- Ok, one more photo blast with small handy projects before talking about the new Vaults Garage Condo (central area of my city pre-sale purchase)

- So this is the in between missing 15-20 months GJ era. (i.e. gf time, family time visiting California brother since he's got new borns trying to be cool uncle, the pre/post Covid void (2021 ish?) residential real estate purchase before post covid inflation of EVERYTHING...)

- Even started a apartment facebook resident group (so I hate being in the politics of "H.O.A." such as being on the board; but if the owners/people get together, it just makes sure HOA board and management company knows we're all watching fairness is spread around, and we can all rise up as rebels calling for special meetings, yes basically being a KIND man, of letting people in power know we can stir the pot if the need arise); So during that in between pre/post covid emptiness pre hyper inflation of Q4 2022+, I even offered other residents I can help with 5 minute craft (my friend refers it to 5 minutes or under it's free; not 50 minutes and above)... Our downtown condo consist of like 9 towers, that houses around 600-750 households; with a divison of 5-6 ish H.O.A. boards

- This one resident reached out to me, cause her solid core closet door is busted, she was going to pay a contractor (big money), to replace the doors. I basically (through multi 5-7 mins mini sessions); re-doweled her door jambs, fillered the chipped door, etc. And the reason with that plastic City event credit card fillering plaster, is because after selling Vaults (original North) garage, and leased out 1968 cinderblock warehouse, I had to tuck away in our small 3'x6' condo cage or gave away or sold all my handyman tools and couldn't find my plaster drywall stuff, so had to improvised using the condo lady I was helping and asked for a credit card as a putty knife.

I tried out a few (girls and women) before finally finding my dream girl that I’ve been sharing a life with since 1986. That said if you asked any of my 5 kids they’d probably shake their heads and wonder how we are even still together.

It’s hard finding a companion so best of luck with that and don’t give up cause if you keep working hard on improving your life I’m sure someone will notice that you’d love to share your life with.

I thought you’d be selling your vaults cause it seemed like you hardly used it snd great to hear you’ve got an almost perfect tenant for your shop.

Sounds like your busy and I know you’re handy so if you don’t want to show us all your cool repairs feel free to check my thread and other members to help us cause you’ve got skills!!

Enjoy the good weather while you can and best of luck with the condos cause sounds like you and mom invested wisely.

 

[TomcoPDR]

Ok, one more post about "mini-craft" stuff during these +15 GJ missing months.

This is still during covid supply chain shortage era around the apartment (sold Vaults garage North, leased out 1968 cinderblock 2,000sqft; slow for regular job, just around and about the apartment but busy somehow), the hinges at mom's condo unit shower glass door was binding for the longest time. (restrictive opening degree, if you swing any more, feels like it'll shatter glass where the hinge clamps). Due to supply chain finding parts, and most likely hard to find the EXACT hinge brand that this developer used on our 2010 built high rise(so they would had ordered 2007-2009). And I'm pretty OCD about REPAIRING, instead of just chucking stuff out for the sake of chucking stuff out, waited for mom to go on her America months long visits... overhauled her shower hinges lol. (so those springs are rusted and stuck, when you open the glass door they wouldn't compress; all I can do now is add some lithum grease)

 

[TomcoPDR]

The last stretch sage of verbiage sliding into the New Vaults Central pre-purchase journey.

(going to purposely mix-up the numbers a bit so I don't get accuse of NDA breach for industrial "Garage" real estate DD that didn't materialize for me)

- During the time waiting on Vaults North contractually-sold phase, there was a 6,000 sqft cinderblock 12'-14' total height (that's the height for that era of builds mostly), standalone, 1960 built, 5 garages at 1,200 sqft each, fully tenanted building on sale $1.6-1.75 mil (Cdn$), but since I was taught from the boomer generation, don't count your chicken till they hatch (i.e. till money is actually IN your bank account, regardless if it's firm sale), you never know what could go wrong (Vaults North sale), so I didn't want to go too deep paying for environmental, submit mortgage app, submit offer. Pretty insane though, this multi bay 5 small garage plex sold within 2 days, there was no way I had my ducks in order anyways. (2021-2022 era)

- Looked at few small bays 2,000-2,500sqft. Condomium/ HOA controlled, with some the books were poorly kept to in eyes, low reserve funds for older building, etc. 1950-60's built, or some of the 1980-1996 builts uses 2x6" wood frame and old school stucco (i.e. mold/moisture/envelope issues)

- Then looked at another standalone investment sale, $2.0-2.3 mil, 1960's built, 5 bays, 1,500sqft each bay, 7,500 sqft building. Put my offer IN for this one, but then vendor/seller's agent wanted me to engage in a bidding war. Too deep for me to get into as a parttime handyman investor (i.e. I was going to hop from 1,500 sqft bay to 1,500 sqft as each tenancy expires and freshen them up). So no thanks to being pulled into these bidding wars


For these missing GJ months, the hustle-bustle/bored-sadden as post covid inflation rises, real estate in our small city starting to be attractive to bigger city folks moving here or investing, my old detached triple car garage bungalow got listed by the person that bought from me, they lived there for 2-3 years ish, saw the listing; boom got sold 1 day listing, full asking.

Just when I thought the odds are against me (Not going to chase R.E. bids, I'm scare of real estate bubbles), one random night, just went onto Vault developer's website, and there it was, they've announced a launch to a new central location Calgary Vault's II second site series.

Reached out to my Vaults contacts... The rest was history.


Next post, I'll map out the location...

 

[TomcoPDR]

Onto GARAGE condos, and Vaults

So over the past 10-15 years, there're now about 7-8 garage condo developments in and around our city.

- The Dens, should be our city's very first Garage Condo (not counting industrial warehouses turned mancave)

- Stables Signature Bays in a small town name Cochrane, North West of our city (new build, still being listed)

- The Stash, small town name Okotoks, South of us (some units still listed for sale as new)

- The Grotto, industrial area to the East of us, should still be within our city limits (new build, units listed for new sale)

- Element42, within our city, pretty central "42" (name of an Avenue it's on), (new build, still pre-selling)

- Vaults North

- Vaults II (central), new build, still pre-selling


Next post, I'll talk about my Garage adventures/ new Vaults central. It's funny, posting these updates on GJ, and looking thru old posts on local car forums feels so different. When the first sets of Garage condos first got advertised by builders, most car enthusiast posters were not fans, mostly waiting for them to fail with most commenting "what's the point". But obviously the real estate aspect of these are still surviving with proven results.

 

[TomcoPDR]

This map involves Garages I've had experience with.

- Vaults North (Sold, had it around 4-5 years)

- Blue area, downtown apartment condo, city centre

- 1968 cinderblock warehouse bay 2,000 sqft (leased out)

- New Vaults central. 1,500 sqft 30'x50' with 500 sqft mezz (pre-selling)

- There's one more 2,500 sqft condo warehouse bay in the South area I had about 15 years ago (owned it 3-4 years; sold), in some of my earlier photos in this thread

 

[TomcoPDR]

Here's the land where the new Vaults central will comprise of, a little under 2 acres.

Drove by after re-connecting with the Vaults developer team a few days before their public launch.

 

[TomcoPDR]

After the public launch, I just wanted to be the first commitment, lol. So met up with developer team, and handed my required pre-sale deposit and signed my contract.

I love memes, always on Insta more than I should, figured even though this is a proper business transaction, but I'm sure we're now at a stage that can mix a little laugher with business.

 

[TomcoPDR]

A week after their public launch, the "land for sale" (by realtor) sign came off, and the official Vaults II central pre-sale sign planted. (few days ago)