I Need More Wiggle Room... And An Updated Home

[HOrnbrod]

Why is it that carpenters in the '60s loved to do stupid stuff like put a window in a shower? Yup... IN the shower. To keep it dry, the previous owners had a short shower curtain to cover the wood frame and trim. This was nothing less than an annoyance everyday. Air warms up... gets behind the curtain... starts to rise up and out... sticks to your arm... ALL THE FREAKIN" TIME!!! Ugh... anyhow, my solution was to get a little creative with some pvc 1x6, some glass blocks, and some pvc trim.

Looks good! I had a bath shower just like that too. Back then as it is today the bathroom had to have a vent (window or fan). And if the shower interior wall took up the entire outside wall, they usually stuck a smallish window high up in the shower for ventilation rather than using an electric fan. I wanted to keep a functioning window so I knocked out the wood framed window and put in an all vinyl window then tiled the entire shower enclosure.

 

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[neohic]

^ That's the ultimate goal. Eventually, we'd like to tile the shower and do away with all the moisture-sucking drywall. I think for now it'll work. Yours is beautiful! Diggin' the color choice!

 

Onto another note, my concrete guy is stopping over today to set up the rebar. Hopefully pouring tomorrow! :banana:

[neohic]

A big update is needed here. Siding is done... windows are done... doors are finished minus the storm doors... just finished wiring up the new garage... all in time for winter! I'll snap some pictures in the daylight.

[Pete M]

it's not fun installing windows in the snow. :D

[Sir Sam]

Any reason you went with two single car garage doors instead of a double on the new addition?

[neohic]

Any reason you went with two single car garage doors instead of a double on the new addition?

 

Mostly just for appearance. If it had been the other way around that the double stall was close to the house, then I would've gone with a double. The way it is now, the only thing I would've changed would be pushing the new stalls back a couple feet just to break up the roof line and add some dimension to the front of the house. Eh... maybe next time.

[Sir Sam]

I understand the aesthetics issue of going with 2 singles, I just dislike the single car doors on the garage so much. I'm one of the few in my neighboorhood that has a 2 car door.

 

Besides cost, is there any reason you didn't make it much deeper than you did(already appears to be pretty deep). What is the dimension of the new garage? If you don't mind me asking, what did various major ticket items set you back.....excavating, concrete pouring, etc. It always the things that I just cannot do myself that make projects like this hard for me to pull off.

[neohic]

I knocked over a 12'x24' to replace it with a 24'x36'. I wanted to go further back as well but I would've run into the drain field behind the house. I could be no closer than 10' from the edge of the field so I pushed it as far as I could. What I did do was push the ceiling height up as high as I could to over 10'. Even if the floor space is filled up, I can keep the small things up on shelves... hopefully what I'm working on tonight so I can finally put away a few vehicles that keep migrating around the property.

 

As far as price, it's really tough to say since it was way more than just putting up a stand alone garage. Also, I have the advantage of being "in the loop" with so many people who knows someone who knows a guy who has some equipment and knows how to use it that I got by fairly cheap on the work that was farmed out. The dirt work, removal of the concrete, and hauling in all the fill came in around $2500. The highest price tag was the concrete work at over $7000.

 

If you were to do a stand alone shop without a foundation, that's where the cost gets cut way down. I had enough to do on the house already and the cost of running power to another structure didn't make sense right now. Overall, I'm extremely happy with everything!

[Pete M]

I love it when a plan comes together. :D now where are those pictures?

[neohic]

I know... I know... I work from 7:30ish to 6:30-7:00 Monday through Thursday. I've tried to skip out a little early but the sun seems to beat me everyday. Friday? We'll shoot for Friday... probably.

[neohic]

Here you go, Pete. Let's compare:

 

 

Ran out of time for this year, but come spring time the plan is to build a porch/deck on the front of the house:

 

...steps are temporary.

 

Put the shelves from the old garage back up. Might add more:

 

I'll get some more tomorrow when it's all wrapped up for winter. The old stall is still a mess but at least there isn't near the stuff just sitting around. Progress!

[Pete M]

very nice! :clapping: I assume you're going to insulate?

[ftpiercecracker1]

man, :drool: wish i had a shop that nice. Excellent work my friend :clapping:

[neohic]

very nice! :clapping: I assume you're going to insulate?

 

In the new 24'x36' garage... no. I wish, but no. This was put up more for just storage. One vehicle sitting outside? Fine. Three vehicles sitting outside like last winter? Absolutely not! The plan is to insulate the original stall which is why I put a door between the old and the new. It probably won't happen this season but if I can pick at over the winter I will. Fortunately, with the door shut the smaller stall heats up really fast with the torpedo heater!

 

man, :drool: wish i had a shop that nice. Excellent work my friend :clapping:

 

Thanks dude! The shop portion of the garage got a little attention today in the form of organization, cleaning, and moving everything out that didn't need to be there. Shovels, rakes, and the like were all properly moved over to the storage side. Wiring in the new section was finished up as well. I put a halogen spot light over the center garage door which should be nice for those snow removal evenings... but if I don't get any this year, I'd be fine with that too! For the occasion however, I'm ready to go. In the old stall, I couldn't really decide what I wanted to to for lighting so I just went with some cheap florescent fixtures.

 

 

Not totally happy with them, but I think if I were to do it again I'd go with bigger fixtures that get hard wired in instead of getting plugged in. See, last winter I played around with cheapo halogens that, for whatever reason, didn't like keeping bulbs in them. I wired in a couple outlets to plug them into. They worked out for the old lights but for the new they were just in odd places. I'm sure that'll change whenever the ceiling gets insulated. More stuff that got done was the last door that needed to get changed.

 

 

At this point I asked the wife if she'd be interested in adding to the garage in the other direction and move the doorway back into the house further. She wasn't in favor of the idea. Instead I put the new door in and abandoned my grand idea of slowly turning the entire house into garage. Anyhow... I've got a thing for colorful doors. Both doors facing into the shop stall got the blue treatment.

 

House to garage:

 

 

Garage to garage:

 

All in all, it was a productive day. Everything was almost looking clean and orderly for a while however this is how everything was left for the evening:

 

 

Maybe it'll be livable tomorrow.

[Pete M]

now is the time to insulate! quick! before the walls become blocked by stuff :yes: It's not that much more money or time if you do it soon. later on it becomes a real pain in the butt. (can you tell my garage never got insulation? :( )

[neohic]

It's not that much more money or time if you do it soon.

 

That's the sentence that's gotten me into trouble over the whole house project. :roll:

[Pete M]

having the propane heater on full blast and still freezing my butt off is why I'll never not insulate. but it wasn't my garage at the time and I didn't have a vote. :fs1: Now the shelves are up, the bench is in, the garage is full of a decade's worth of stuff and I cringe at the very thought of moving it all to add insulation. :(

[gogmorgo]

Those fluorescents might get interesting when it gets cold out. Good thing you've got a heater in there.

All in all looks great! Wish I had garage space...

[ftpiercecracker1]

Those fluorescents might get interesting when it gets cold out.

 

 

Now that your mentioning it, I have some fluorescents in my barn. An 8ft and a 4ft, and when ever it get cold (F* < 60*) the larger 8 footer is dramatically dimmer, pretty much useless, but the 4 footer has never had a problem no matter the temp. Got any ideas?

 

sorry for the highjack.

[neohic]

I really wanted to avoid florescents due to the cold, but for the price I'm hoping they'll work out. I did look around at a few fixtures and I got good local reviews about the ones I got. Fingers crossed I don't have a bunch of stinkin' liars who shop at the same Menards as me.

[Pete M]

insulation + some heat = florescents work fine. :D (hint, hint)

[neohic]

... Then there would be the need for a steady source of heat. See, I've got this bad problem of one thing leading to another. Yes, I'd love to insulate right now! But if it were insulated, I'd want to look into a permanent heater for the stall. Giving a mouse a cookie type of deal, if you will. I did it last winter with very little space and an uninsulated garage stall. The way I see it, I'm moving up from last year! If not over the winter, it'll be for next year.

 

In know that it's bad to be putting more stuff up on the walls, but I couldn't resist just a little garage art!

 

[gogmorgo]

Now that your mentioning it, I have some fluorescents in my barn. An 8ft and a 4ft, and when ever it get cold (F* < 60*) the larger 8 footer is dramatically dimmer, pretty much useless, but the 4 footer has never had a problem no matter the temp. Got any ideas?

 

sorry for the highjack.

I'm not 100% on the science behind the way fluorescents work, but it has to do with electricity stimulating mercury atoms in vapour form, and the way they interact. With a cold bulb, some of the mercury vapour condenses into liquid, and the rest of the vapour is moving around less, so there's less contact between atoms, which means a less effective light bulb. My guess is the increased distance between electrodes in a longer tube makes the effect of cold worse, since the energy has to go further from the electrodes to get all the mercury excited.

 

I've seen different solutions, if you're looking for one, from higher-power ballasts to some sort of heating device put on the bulbs, all of which work with mixed results. There are some bulbs that are marketed as cold weather performing, but my experience is that even they won't work when it gets cold enough, whereas most other types of bulbs usually work. Incandescents (if they're still available) have the added bonus of providing a small degree of heat to the space. As a kid we sometimes used a trouble light to keep warm inside the snow hut/cave/igloo things we built in the back yard.

[ftpiercecracker1]

:hmm: hmmmm, sounds plauseable. We just replaced the ballast and both tubes a few weeks ago, as far as i can remember it has never had a problem with the cold before, the same fixture has been in the barn for about 25 years. Sooooo :dunno: .

I will see about the higher power ballast, or if all else fails i will just take a hair dryer out to the barn whenever I need to work after dark. :laughin:

 

What are the alternatives to fluorescents, since they are so cold collard?

[gogmorgo]

I guess incandescents, various other gas-filled lights, like halogens, sodium lights, etc, but those are usually intended for exterior use, and might be a bit bright or strangely coloured for indoors. LEDs are a better alternative if you're trying to save electricity. They cost a lot, but last pretty much forever.

Usually for me lighting has been a choice between fluorescent and incandescent, don't really know too much about anything else.

Personally I'd recommend going with incandescents, but they're increasingly unavailable in the US, as I understand it, and use a lot more electricity for the light they give off, since they just pump electricity through the filament until it gets so hot it glows. Ironically enough, when my parents switched to cfl's, their power bill went up a lot because we've got electric heat, and the lack of heat from the lights near the thermostat meant the furnace came on more often. So they switched back to incandescents to save power. But YMMV.