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December 30th, 2009 @ 11.04 pm

As we build the garage, we had the video camera off to the side capturing most of the action. With help from friends and family we were able to build the garage in under two months, all while going to our regular 9-5 jobs during the day. We couldn’t have done it without them (Thanks guys!). There were many evenings of work that didn’t get filmed, but the tasks done then were mostly the small details that wouldn’t be very exciting on video anyway.

It’s now the end of December and I still do not have electricity or a driveway, but they are in the works. But for now, I have a dry place to keep my car, and space to work on it which were the main goals. Sit back and enjoy the video of us doing all the hard work!

December 15th, 2009 @ 10.42 pm

The cute little red shed that was in our back yard did it’s job for probably 40 years, but it was falling apart. I kept the mower in it, but I also put a tarp over the mower to keep the rain off, and used anything solid to prop the doors “closed.” The sill plates were rotted out, the doors were about to fall off their hinges at any moment and decompose, and there was daylight visible through the roof. Once the garage was up, the mower had a new home, and the shed no longer was needed, and so I waited for a good day to take it down.

I could have carefully dismantled it. Or I could have taken a saw and cut it to pieces. Or even a sledge hammer to break it apart. But when I’m taking down an entire (very small) building, why not go all out and pull it down with a truck? I waited until I had a reasonably dry and sunny day to have fun, but it has been so wet this fall I still had trouble with traction. Oh well, it was still lots of fun tearing down the shed.

December 3rd, 2009 @ 9.57 am

September and October I spent every daylight hour I could outside working on the garage, and as of October 30th, the building was ready for final inspection. (Passed on November 12th) Whit and myself carried all of the roof trusses up to roof level one day, and then Beverly’s dad, Beverly and myself uprighted them the next. After that we finished sheathing the side walls, and then sheathed the roof to finish out “phase 1.2.” Read the rest of this entry »

September 21st, 2009 @ 10.05 pm

The foundation was finished with the pouring of the slab last Tuesday, and then on Wednesday the wood was delivered. I did a little bit in the evenings, but mostly I was able to organize everything and get ready for working over the weekend. On Saturday I had Beverly, Whit, my Mom, Madison, Jared and Billy all helping out for all or part of the day. We were able to get 2.5 walls done by Saturday evening. On Sunday we kept working and were able to get the rest of the walls and the header boards up. Thank you to everyone who helped out – I couldn’t have done it without you guys. Here’s a few pictures – the rest can be found in the gallery.

I do still have some more cripple studs to put in and sheathing to do on the front walls, but the heavy lifting is done until we lift the trusses up next weekend. Anyone interested?

September 21st, 2009 @ 9.56 pm

Once the electric was relocated I could finally focus on building the garage. I’d already drew up plans for a 24′x24′ garage to sit in the back corner of the lot, and only needed a building permit and foundation to build upon.

Permitting
I went down to the county offices on July 28th to apply for a walk through permit, but it wasn’t a walk-in and out affair. They were fine with the building, but the survey maps show a small stream behind the property, and streams have flood plains. The county was concerned that I’d be close to the flood plain, and wanted me to prove that the finished floor of the garage would be at least 2′ above the 450′ elevation point (flood plain level). Read the rest of this entry »

August 31st, 2009 @ 6.46 am

When we were looking for a new house, I had one absolute requirement: an existing garage, or room to build a garage. We ended up getting a house with a flat back yard to build the garage on. Originally I had planned to start building soon after we moved in, but like most projects, there have been plenty of delays. I want to put the garage as close as possible to my side property line, but that means the overhead power lines coming into the house would go over top of the garage, which I didn’t really consider in the beginning. Due to that, and an aging 100A service to the house, I decided to do a service upgrade and relocation. Read the rest of this entry »