jbibler
Active member
Hey guys,
I'm new here, just signed up so please feel free to move this if it's not in the correct spot.
I purchased an old 1930's house here in West Central Florida.
The house itself used to be located on an old Plantation and was moved in the early 90's to it's current location a couple houses in from the water.
This is my second old wood frame cracker house and I absolutely love the character and style. Although it seems there's a never ending list of maintenance issues, I would never want a standard cookie cutter house.
This is also the very first house I've ever owned that did not have a garage.
I went from living with a 3 car garage to a zero car garage and what a nightmare. Long story shorter, I'm an avid boater and fisherman. I dive and fish and currently have two small sheds that are packed full in addition to my spare bedroom that is currently the man-cave.
I have been saving pennies for 2 years now and am making the move to build a garage. I recently started the preliminary work on the property to accommodate the garage. That included removing a massive tree that was hanging over my house and my neighbors. It was constantly dropping large limbs in the yard and I had to move my boat out of harms way every time a storm would come through. The trunk on this tree was about 60 inches in diameter.
After the tree was removed we (me and my father) also pulled permits to fill in the drainage ditches in the front of the property. Adding concrete culverts and bringing in 5 trucks of fill dirt to raise the grade. Most recently we had the power converted from overhead to underground in addition to updating and upgrading the main panel for the house which was extremely old and outdated. The box was almost completely full and while doing the work we found a breaker that was completely melted into the box and had never tripped. Could have been a bad situation there!
I am working on plans now and hope to start digging footers and pouring concrete in the next month or so. Unfortunately I can only do a piece at a time until I save enough money, so this will probably not be the fastest build.
The primary use for the garage is to store my 24' boat inside, out of the elements and away from the thieves. In addition I plan to make small office area in the back where I can escape when needed.
The garage will be 20' wide and 45' long. I wish I could go wider, but that is all the room I have on the lot. This will allow me to back the boat in with plenty of room behind the boat for a workbench, storage, etc.
Attached are the current plans, although I do expect to make some changes.
I already have the following changes in mind: floor drainage, attic trusses to provide storage above, additional outlets and lightning and a ventilation fan with humidistat for keeping the moisture out after parking a wet boat.
I plan to design the exterior to match the house and would love to decorate the inside of the garage with old boat/fishing/nautical themed pieces. I am saving old distressed dock boards to build shelving and other items when I can find them.
Please feel free to make any recommendations or suggest ideas that come to mind. It's certainly a work in progress and I can't wait to see the final product (one day).
Thanks,
Josh B.
The House
The current man-cave
Current floor plan at the moment.
Tree coming down... one piece at a time around the houses and power lines. That was not a fun job!!! We rented a lift and did it ourselves, but the 45' lift wouldn't quite reach the top.
I will update with more pictures as things progress.
Thanks,
Josh B.
I'm new here, just signed up so please feel free to move this if it's not in the correct spot.
I purchased an old 1930's house here in West Central Florida.
The house itself used to be located on an old Plantation and was moved in the early 90's to it's current location a couple houses in from the water.
This is my second old wood frame cracker house and I absolutely love the character and style. Although it seems there's a never ending list of maintenance issues, I would never want a standard cookie cutter house.
This is also the very first house I've ever owned that did not have a garage.
I went from living with a 3 car garage to a zero car garage and what a nightmare. Long story shorter, I'm an avid boater and fisherman. I dive and fish and currently have two small sheds that are packed full in addition to my spare bedroom that is currently the man-cave.
I have been saving pennies for 2 years now and am making the move to build a garage. I recently started the preliminary work on the property to accommodate the garage. That included removing a massive tree that was hanging over my house and my neighbors. It was constantly dropping large limbs in the yard and I had to move my boat out of harms way every time a storm would come through. The trunk on this tree was about 60 inches in diameter.
After the tree was removed we (me and my father) also pulled permits to fill in the drainage ditches in the front of the property. Adding concrete culverts and bringing in 5 trucks of fill dirt to raise the grade. Most recently we had the power converted from overhead to underground in addition to updating and upgrading the main panel for the house which was extremely old and outdated. The box was almost completely full and while doing the work we found a breaker that was completely melted into the box and had never tripped. Could have been a bad situation there!
I am working on plans now and hope to start digging footers and pouring concrete in the next month or so. Unfortunately I can only do a piece at a time until I save enough money, so this will probably not be the fastest build.
The primary use for the garage is to store my 24' boat inside, out of the elements and away from the thieves. In addition I plan to make small office area in the back where I can escape when needed.
The garage will be 20' wide and 45' long. I wish I could go wider, but that is all the room I have on the lot. This will allow me to back the boat in with plenty of room behind the boat for a workbench, storage, etc.
Attached are the current plans, although I do expect to make some changes.
I already have the following changes in mind: floor drainage, attic trusses to provide storage above, additional outlets and lightning and a ventilation fan with humidistat for keeping the moisture out after parking a wet boat.
I plan to design the exterior to match the house and would love to decorate the inside of the garage with old boat/fishing/nautical themed pieces. I am saving old distressed dock boards to build shelving and other items when I can find them.
Please feel free to make any recommendations or suggest ideas that come to mind. It's certainly a work in progress and I can't wait to see the final product (one day).
Thanks,
Josh B.
The House
The current man-cave
Current floor plan at the moment.
Tree coming down... one piece at a time around the houses and power lines. That was not a fun job!!! We rented a lift and did it ourselves, but the 45' lift wouldn't quite reach the top.
I will update with more pictures as things progress.
Thanks,
Josh B.
