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!

 

 



Garage Addition

When we decided to build our house we had a short list of absolute "must haves". One of those was a three car garage. Since the floor plan was custom deigned, it was really easy to tack on a third bay to the house and have it look like it fit with the rest of the plan. We'd make it a through-and-through (doors at the front and back of the third bay) and it would be awesome. Yep, we thought we were so clever.

We were so happy to be moving forward once the plan was complete that we started construction guns a blazin'! But, uhm, take a look at the space behind the third garage bay. Yeh, that BIG, EMPTY space. Well, we realized after we moved in that it gets NO sunlight. Not such a bad thing, except we had planned to plant a garden and some bushes and creeping vines back there.

Darn it!! Not feeling so clever anymore.

Fast forward to this week. After countless ideas for the space while developing our landscaping plan, we finally decided that the best idea is to add to the garage and enclose the whole space. So, this week I am having a contractor come and give me a quote for the project, including the price to add a bathroom to the garage (think about it...no one running in and out of the house to use the facilites when having a BBQ, or cleaning paintbrushes in the kitchen sink).

On the down side, this will seriously eat into my landscaping budget for this year. On the plus side, we will have a four car garage, and will be able to right an error our contractor made by putting a basement window in the wrong location.

Wish me luck! For once, I have zero clue about what a project will cost. Yikes.

My Epoxy Adventure

It seems that all I've done this year is work in my garage!

A couple more projects and we'll be set for winter. I have already insulated the walls, organized my tools, moved my stairs, and did a major purge of all things unnecessary. Time to tackle the floor.

After much research, I decided to use an epoxy finish on the floors. I wanted them to look clean, and hated the look of the bare concrete. I considered having a pro apply a commercial epoxy but, when I found out that *all* epoxy will wear out eventually, decided that the cost wouldn't make sense, if I was only going to have to do it again in a few years. And that's a key piece of information: epoxy isn't permanent! I know, I know, I thought it was, too. Bottom line, it will wear down to the original surface simply from driving on it. How long that takes will depend in how much you drive on it. For the average homeowner, you'll have to consider touching it up about every three years. On the plus side, it protects your floors from all sorts of staining and pitting.

I picked up four Behr Premium 2 Part Epoxy kits from Home Depot. Each kit comes with everything you need to finish a single car garage, including concrete etcher/cleaner, roller and brush. As luck would have it, the rep from Behr was there at the time and was very helpful, with all sorts of good advice. First thing he recommended was to buy a little extra. I have a three car garage (about 1,000 sq ft) and each epoxy kit should cover a single car garage....buuuuuuuut they don't. Not really. So, he said I should definitely pick up an extra kit so I didn't run out.

Ok, I just have to mention this because it struck me as funny when it dawned on me...my garage is bigger than my first apartment! ha ha

I figured I would do the garage in two parts. The double side and then the single side. That way I can move all my stuff to each side of the garage and wouldn't have to take it outside.

With all the construction going on around us, the garage is always filled with dust so, before I started, I swept, vacuumed and pressure washed the floor.

The first step in the kit is to apply the etcher. Wet the floor, sprinkle it on, brush with a stiff brush, and let it sit for 10 minutes, then rinse the floor. This helps the epoxy bond to the concrete.

Once the floor has completely dried, it's time to apply the epoxy. Mix the epoxy according to the instructions, and then it's basically like painting a wall. Cut in around the edges, then roll on the finish. I am applying the colour chips they've supplied so I'll do my floor in 1 metre square areas so I can make the finish as consistent as possible.

Wait about 24 hours before you move anything back onto the finished floor, four days before you drive on it. The Behr rep recommended laying down cardboard where car tires will be driving, for the first few weeks. And here's my finished floor (well, half of it, at least)!

I hope to tackle the other side next weekend, as long as the weather Gods keep being good to me.

Moving Stairs

Among the valuable lessons learned during construction of our house is that, often, common sense isn't all that common.

Exhibit A: Our garage stairs.

Given that our garage is laid out like this (note: this is not to scale, just to give you a general idea)...

...and given that our contractor understood that one of the vehicles we drive is a big-ass truck, I am at a loss as to why they would have put the stairs encroaching on the one parking spot that would have accommodated our truck. Ugh...men.

As a result, we have had to resort to parking the truck at an angle that takes up the ENTIRE double side of our three car garage. Aaaaaaaaaaaannnnnd, because we have three vehicles (ridiculous, I know, I know), it means that one has to be parked on the driveway. That sucks rocks when you live in a climate that gets to
-40 in the winter (uh, yeh, that's a bone chilling 40 degrees below freezing) and an average annual snowfall of 60". Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...............

After living with the garage this way for almost two years, I finally got on this project. I thought I should wait until the outside temperature was eight-hundred million degrees and the humidex was hovering around 99% and I had no one to lend a hand; cause that's usually the best time to do this sort of thing (please note the intense sarcasm). It took some muscle, and my potty mouth got the best of me at times, but I managed to reconfigure the stairs to face the opposite direction. It's a huge improvement!

Logic...gotta love it!

I've got another garage project on the go as we speak, I hope to update soon!

Look ma, garage doors!

Ahhh, after a 3 week delay and a few adjustments, my carriage style garage doors are finally in. Hmmm, unfortunately they are *not* the colour I ordered (they came a shade or two too dark), but Dallas likes them so we're not gonna make a fuss.

I love the look of these doors! I saw them on a house nearby to where we're building and I just knew I had to have them! It's always a surprise to me why so many people get the same old, same old garage doors - there are soooo many to choose from!

The rear garage door is the same design as the front 2, but without hardware. I was a bit surprised to see that both the front and rear doors on the 3rd garage bay are on one continuous track...where to find a garage door opener that can open both ways? On the hunt I go!

The possession date for the house has become a bit of a joke to us...although not a very funny one. Due to the shortage in the trades, and some errors on our contract's part, our possession date has been pushed back yet again, this time to June 15th.

Is that your final answer?

I kept telling everyone who cautioned me about the huge number of decisions I'd have to make not to worry, that I have a vision and I wouldn't have an problems. WRONG!

We have been through more siding, trim and paint samples than I care to think about. And each one left me more and more dewildered. Dallas isn't much help either, telling me that, "As long as it's not ugly", I can select what I think is best. So, after muh deliberation, we've decided on our exterior colours.

We have decided to use a fiber cement siding instead of vinyl for a few reasons. It's longer lasting, it looks better, and it's friendly to the environment. Here's our pick for siding:

Our trim:

Our garage doors: