Just a little shop renovation

[PICTUP]

In the heat of our 2021 summer we moved into the house my parents vacated in the spring. It was always the plan to move here, but with household chores catching up and surpassing what my parents were capable of, it became clear they needed more than just my care and home care. So spring of last year they agreed to move to a local assisted living. We put our 1/2 duplex on the market and got lucky with a sale in the middle of summer. We got a little settled in, but it took some time to deal with and organize my parents possessions and somehow deal with ours as well. Then there was that room and bathroom downstairs that was recently constructed seemingly without the use of a square nor level. Trimming it out took me far too long while I tried to mitigate the glaring mistakes. I now know never to leave a project alone, trusting the worker(argh!). Needless to say, I have most of my projects and associated tools etc now in storage. Thanks to the generosity of Russ, my Saab resides in his little garage where I should be working on it. It has now been a year since I started the process of my garage "renovation". Now of course a year later one would think it's all done, right? Nope! It took 8 months to get a variance from the town and another three to get the building permit. And the latter was only because my builder holds sway in this town.

Work started in earnest at the end of July. At this point I was trying to minimize the impact on the yard, yeah, right, good luck! Lol! Even though it is my basic shop design, fleshed out by an independent designer, I was reluctant to admit how much destruction was going to happen. I guess I am just a stick in the mud. But full steam ahead!

Down comes the shelter


Next is the asphalt shingling from the roof of the old garage and the carport I built a number of years ago. We did this on the hottest day of the year, of course


Then the carport is all of a sudden no-more


Then the machines move in. Holy crap can you imagine doing this kind of thing by hand?


Bye-bye non-load bearing soil


Footings, column/footings(to make up for a lack of proper footings on the old garage>>something that wasn't investigated previously by me nor anyone else (town, builder, engineer),and slab cut-outs all visible here. What a lot of digging. My chiropractor was on speed dial during this part. I hate digging(doesn't everyone?) and did far too much! Oh well, the apprentice, Steele at 21 years old didn't seem to deterred by the amount. He probably found it amusing watching me toil in a younger man's job.


The footings get their concrete


Then a little while later the foundation walls


A column/footing stripped


The now form-stripped and insulated building outline.


After the building was filled in, it was time to dig the trench to the house for the electrical and water. Bye bye sidewalk


Now, magically, the new construction outweighs the old. The alley wall was the only thing that remained, but had to to make it a technical renovation. Stupid. All so I could keep my setback and save the trees in my yard without infringing upon my sewer line, but still having usable space dimensions.


More later....

[1hotvw]

looking good Don, you might consider going to the steel scrap yard or buy new, a steel I- beam that runs from wall to wall and mount a trolley and hoist. i mounted mine before the trusses went in, and had a small machine just lift into the wall pockets for the beam. real handy to have.

[Volktales]

The pictures make the new shop look HUGE! Glad it is getting done. Somebody does need to get cracking on that SAAB, however...

[tony]

Holy cow what's that gonna' cost you per square inch?😲

[PICTUP]

Nov 2, 2022 21:02:02 GMT -8 tony said:

Holy cow what's that gonna' cost you per square inch?😲

My soul. Forget first-borns, that's child's play

[PICTUP]

Nov 2, 2022 18:22:55 GMT -8 1hotvw said:

looking good Don, you might consider going to the steel scrap yard or buy new, a steel I- beam that runs from wall to wall and mount a trolley and hoist. i mounted mine before the trusses went in, and had a small machine just lift into the wall pockets for the beam. real handy to have.

Design considerations wouldn't allow it even if I were to have tried to do it during construction(as you will may see in subsequent photos) . Too far along now. But I do get what you mean, sounds like you made the right call on your shop though!

[1hotvw]

well how far along are you. if your walls are not drywalled yet you can still do it. jack one side up at a time, then build the pocket.you make it from the same size as your walls say 2x6, space as many as needed for your width of the beam, maybe a spacer from plywood if needed and place one 2x6 on each side of beam. not going to move. i had a little machine onsite for other work and had him grab the beam and put it in place.the beam is nice, as you put your bench along the wall under the beam and hoist stuff right onto the workbench. a back saver.

[PICTUP]

Nov 3, 2022 18:07:14 GMT -8 1hotvw said:

well how far along are you. if your walls are not drywalled yet you can still do it. jack one side up at a time, then build the pocket.you make it from the same size as your walls say 2x6, space as many as needed for your width of the beam, maybe a spacer from plywood if needed and place one 2x6 on each side of beam. not going to move. i had a little machine onsite for other work and had him grab the beam and put it in place.the beam is nice, as you put your bench along the wall under the beam and hoist stuff right onto the workbench. a back saver.

I was going for a larger and taller empty space, so I don't think a beam was in the cards.

The upper outside wall goes up with added effect from a yard blower blowing away the building dust



Mezzanine roof joists in place and the tall near wall ready to accept its joists



Special 2 foot shearwall(courtesy of the engineers needing to cover their *ss in case of earthquake) in place in the center wall and the high roof joists starting to go on



Starting to get a feel for the end result



A better sense of proportion from the road



A little while later



Before the rains came, the shingles got here. Initially we wanted to go with metal roofing, but mounting costs nixed that idea



No metal siding either, it's going to be cheaper wood board and batten by "Smartlap", but at least the building was Tyveked before any rain. Here is a view from our yard



From the corner of 5th and the alley



The decision was made to "do it right" when it came to the slab. This necessitated removing what was left of the old slab. That wasn't fun. Most of the cutting and jackhammering work was borne by Steele, the young apprentice, but I did have a fun afternoon picking up the broken concrete chunks and throwing them into a bin. Ugh, I hope it was all worth it. I think it will be... The whole floor will now be new and heated. Seems pretty high-brow, but I have been assured it will be an efficient way to heat the structure.



Looks cool, but needs drywall and proper lighting



Concrete happened today starting a 7am. I am sure glad it warmed up a bit and was not in the minus temps today.

[tony]

Looks like a good ceiling height to get full use of a hoist! 👍😎

[PICTUP]

Nov 26, 2022 13:19:27 GMT -8 tony said:

Looks like a good ceiling height to get full use of a hoist! 👍😎

Almost...it was as high as I was allowed to make it. The plan is to look into one of those single post hoist that is moveable, which would allow me to keep it as close to the peak as possible. I didn't want to go thru the hassle of figuring out exactly where a bolt down hoist would be going what with the in-floor heating and all, what with the touch and go ceiling height in center span. It's not like I need a heavyweight hoist and I have made the space as big as possible, but it is still smaller than I would have liked , so I think the single post will suit my car and heavy e-bike needs, especially considering I will be able to move it around.

[CrazyBrit]

Very nice. Heated too. I make do with one of those Costco dish heaters. Emphasis on "make do".

[PICTUP]

Nov 29, 2022 10:46:55 GMT -8 CrazyBrit said:

Very nice. Heated too. I make do with one of those Costco dish heaters. Emphasis on "make do".

While under construction I keep having the builder tell me I am having it, "built for the next owner". I beg to differ, but just keep my trap shut and let them think what they want.

On the topic of heated floor, it wasn't "the plan", but it became the obvious decision to remove the old floor and heat the whole thing, instead of just half. It was a lot of work, but in the end I think it will be worth it, for me and for the next owner....after I am DEAD!

The youngster on the big hammer



So what about all the pieces? Well, I picked up well over half of them, the other nearly half being removed by the building team. It was grueling work that took a couple of days. The following week the youngster took most of the week off, apparently the work having wasted him...that and a big weekend of partying, lol!!

This bin was 3/4 full(ie maxed)when it was all done.



I was 1/2 done when I looked like this. Funny how this looks like nothing... I was VERY sore after this day.



Almost the end of my day that day