Garage Progress

We've been making slow progress on the garage. Because of the tremendous amount of local housing construction, our little project hasn't been high on our subs priority list. It's taken a few weeks longer than expected, but here's what's been going on...

We had the soil dug up for the grade beam. This frost wall is super important up here where we have lots of freeze/thaw cycles that can compromise the structure. The bobcat accidentally hit the line for our outdoor electrical panel but, thankfully, it didn't do too much damage and was a quick fix for our good buddy the electrician.

Next up, the foundation forms and re-bar for our concrete. Once this passed inspection, we had the grade beam poured.

Next was our garage pad. We had to remove an existing basement window (local code won't allow this opening once the garage is up) and the sill sat below the finished pad, so it had to go. I asked the contractor to give the pad a brushed finish so the epoxy I plan to apply will adhere better. Because the pad was a few inches higher than our patio, they created a rounded transition from the garage door.

The rest of the garage went up pretty quickly. The trusses were delivered right on time and the guys got to work. Before we knew it, we had walls and a roof! This is the point where I got the most excited, it really is going to make an awesome area for my workshop.

The original soffit and fascia on the rear are still in place, and I think I may just leave it. The ceiling will eventually be drywalled so it won't be seen anyway. The existing garage door will be removed and reinstalled at the entrance to the new addition and we'll remove the existing light fixture.

The electrician comes tomorrow to rough in our lighting and indoor and outdoor outlets...time to shop for an outdoor fixture! The original was just too small for the space and really didn't shed much usable light. Because this rear light will now provide light to the east side of the patio, I want it to be more practical.

Our exterior contractor is super busy and is going to squeeze this job in as soon as he can, he's on deck for next week. Stay tuned for more!

Garage Addition Saga

In construction it seems that, no matter how much you plan, things will inevitably go awry.

I posted quite a while back about our garage addition and the construction quote I was waiting for. When the quote came in, it was high. Much, much higher than I had hoped. It immediately put this project on hold.

After feeling sorry for myself for a few months, I called up my cousin (a custom builder) to see if he could help me out (or at least call in a few favours with his subs to save me some moolah). I didn't expect him to take on this project himself. He builds very high end homes, and I knew that my little 14' x 19' garage addition wasn't something that he'd likely be interested in taking on.

Much to my surprise, he offered to have his crews complete it for me for less than half what other contractors had quoted me. Yes, you read that right...less than half! The catch was that we would have to find someone to complete the exterior.

Quick like a bunny, our architect complete drawings, the engineer finished the foundation drawings, and I had building permits from the town.

That's when things got frustrating...

The engineer required enormous footings for this addition. Much larger than were required, in our opinion. It almost doubled the cost of the build in concrete alone. It also would have required us to tear out half of my brand new patio and create a huge mess which would drive my neighbours nuts. There had to be another way....

After a lot of discussion with the engineer, he agreed that we could use 3 1/2" x 16' screw piles for the foundation (traditional concrete piles were not an option for us; our soil is far too sandy to drill as deep as we needed, and it still would have been a messy job). We still had to cut the patio, but only 12", I could live with that. Armed with this new set of foundation drawings, I had to submit an amendment to our building permit.

Tick tock.

Thing is, folks, 16' screw piles are hard to come by, and we ended up having to have them custom manufactured.

Tick tock.

Yesterday, these piles finally got installed. It is a slick process. It's super simple, the guys were hilarious, and they had all 5 in place in less than 3 hours. After all the drama, I was so happy to get this show on the road!

 

As long as the weather holds, we can expect the grade beam to be poured next week. Then walls and roof...we could have a closed in garage in less than 2 weeks!

 

 



I love the smell of concrete in the morning

Ah, I love concrete! Having our basement floor poured means that we are that much closer to getting the house done. Now that the floor has had a week to cure, the furnace can be hooked up to the ductwork, which will allow them to heat the entire house, which will allow the drywallers to get the mudding, taping and sanding done, which will allow the painters to prime and paint...and on and on. Meaning...that we have officially entered the "finishing" stage of this project!

We already know how we plan to use the basement once it's finished:

Future bar and lounge area:

Future bedroom and bathroom:

Future utility and craft/sewing rooms:

Bummer

I was so enthusiastic after the progress we saw last weekend that I drove out to the house this morning fully expecting to see a second floor on the house. Much to my dismay, the only thing done this week were the bases of the garage walls. I kept saying to myself that they couldn't go ahead with the second floor until this step was done, but I secretly hoped that they would somehow **magically** speed up the process and have something more tangible for me to see this weekend. On the UP side, having the base of the garage poured gives us a really great idea of the scale of the house and a great vision of what it'll look like from the front once all is done...and I think it's gonna look amazing!

I'm gettin' out the tap shoes, I've got a floor!

Slowly but surely the house is coming together. They ran into a few issues with some beams and had to re-order them, which caused delays. But I am assured that things are back on track and framing should take about 4 weeks.

Let's go fellas...

With the cold weather closing in, I am hoping that framing of the house goes as quickly as possible. I just can't imagone these guys having to do that kind of work in the snow. This is as far as we've gotten...

Extra! Extra! We have a hole!

After countless delays, we finally have a hole...and a valid building permit! Now work can really get under way. There are still no services, but that doesn't prevent the contractor from moving forward. It's so exciting!