As I was scrollin through and reading it was all looking very nice until I came to the end and realized there is no more...Guess Ill have to wait till its done to see the rest. Lookin good.

LOL....love leaving the cliffhangers for everyone!!

Work has really ramped up with everything. Framers are now in the house tearing everything up to install some new windows and skylights. The house is 1920's vintage, and its really leaky and loud. We live one house away from a big freeway in LA, so you can guess that it gets noisy.

In the short time that has passed between updates, the garage is almost 95% done with framing. All of the OSB sheathing got put on, windows were cut out, blocking installed on the seams, and it feels like a garage for once!

http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/500/8_2_07_019.jpg

Front of the garage with the big pile of scraps. I cringe seeing all of that wood I paid for, but my friends tell me it gets worse when I have to tile the bathroom and put hardwood down. Oh boy.

http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/500/8_2_07_025.jpg

Looking out the new doorway and window.

http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/500/8_2_07_006.jpg

My new backyard....or what's left of it. Its about 8 feet from garage to the new addition and then it wraps around a bit as you go right around the corner.

http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/500/8_2_07_020.jpg

Here's the power pole located on my neighbor's property line. If it was just 1 foot closer to my side, I'd have to have a 5 foot easment for it and thus a smaller garage. Sometimes it is worth hiring a local architect and a local surveyor who are familiar with zoning/building requirements. This pic shows the rear of the garage and the space I have to store my engine hoist and bulky things outside.

http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/500/8_2_07_022.jpg

Her's the side door and window cutout. Picture is decieving, but the door is an 8 footer and the window is 64 inches off the floor.

http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/500/8_2_07_023.jpg

Windows are due to arrive tommorrow and I just ordered up my metal, industrial door. Roll up garage door people still have to give me a quote, but it should be coming in soon.

I'm getting all anxious.....

-Jimmy

Forgot to add...

The skylight framing was finished and the section cut out. Here's the stairway (ladder) to heaven...

http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/500/8_2_07_003.jpg

-Jimmy

Damn thats nice. We have to build a garage at our new house. But i think my dad is gonna get his friend to build it. as long as it has a pit in it im happy.

Strange how America builds stuff out wood. here in SA its all bricks and cement

Thats 10-8! =>)

Update 8/6!

Window amigos arrived today to put in windows for the addition and the garage! They'll be busy retrofitting the rest of the windows in the older part of the house. Hopefully, that means less traffic noise and warmer winters.

http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/1058/8_4_07_058.jpg

http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/1058/8_4_07_085.jpg

Our plumber was busy too. Putting in the Noritz tankless today and updating the gas lines from 3/4" to 1".

http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/1058/8_4_07_086.jpg

More doo-dads to arrive and more money coming out of the loan!!!

-Jimmy

I want tank-less for our house...

A/C in this thing I presume? Hopefully I didn't miss it, I would guess perhaps you are getting a mini-split or the like.

A/C in this thing I presume? Hopefully I didn't miss it, I would guess perhaps you are getting a mini-split or the like.

Yup...mini-split will probably be going in after drywall is up. Funny thing about our area is that they don't like seeing folks living in or renting converted garages (too many people, traffic, no taxes, etc). So after all of the inspection is done, I can finally insulate and drywall the garage. The big irony is that I'm probably the only guy in the whole neighborhood using the garage as a real garage.

Originally I was trying to get a big sliding metal door (think of a big barn door) for the side that has the window in it. City planning official didn't like the idea since they thought it could too easily be turned into a patio door for a living space.

Ughhhh.

-Jimmy

Yup...mini-split will probably be going in after drywall is up. Funny thing about our area is that they don't like seeing folks living in or renting converted garages (too many people, traffic, no taxes, etc). So after all of the inspection is done, I can finally insulate and drywall the garage. The big irony is that I'm probably the only guy in the whole neighborhood using the garage as a real garage.

Originally I was trying to get a big sliding metal door (think of a big barn door) for the side that has the window in it. City planning official didn't like the idea since they thought it could too easily be turned into a patio door for a living space.

Ughhhh.

-Jimmy

That's retarded. If you want to live in your garage that's your own business! Pretty stupid that you can't build a "dream garage" just the way you want to build it. Oh well, you're still going to have better than most! I will have a mini-split in my garage as soon as we buy a house. Working on my car lately in 95 degree heat w/ humidity galore has beat me.

That's retarded. If you want to live in your garage that's your own business!

Sure its retarded....but you got to think of the way the City gets involved. Here in California, we pay property taxes on occupied spaces. If you made a garage into a livable space, it is then subject to property taxes and the assessor would take the square footage of the garage and add it to the square footage of the house. For me, that's an extra 500 square feet of space....and at 1.5% of assessed value of purchase price, it'll be expensive -- annually.

In my area, all of the garages are detached when they built these things 90 years ago. I imagine at least 30-40% are now livable, rentable spaces. Parking around here sucks, and with extra tenants, I've got no place to park anywhere on my street.

Its a two way street. I agree, it sucks. But with all of the development, crowding, bruden on utilities, traffic, parking, etc...I can see the City's point. Anyways....I'll do a bunch of stuff after inspection anyways. Its more common than you think....even commercial builders do the same with handicapped sinks and toilets. Once the inspector signs off on something, its all shitcanned and the "nice" stuff is put in.

-Jimmy

. Its more common than you think....even commercial builders do the same with handicapped sinks and toilets. Once the inspector signs off on something, its all sh*tcanned and the "nice" stuff is put in.

-Jimmy

Its more suprising when this doesn't happen on a major remodel.

Wow, I guess my Midwestern self just isn't used to those west coast ways! We just don't have those issues here I guess :)

I take it they are doing the addition in the same steps? I would expect the garage to be done in less than two months. I guess not if they are keeping in step with an addition though.

Whur's my updates?! :running:

Damn thats nice. We have to build a garage at our new house. But i think my dad is gonna get his friend to build it. as long as it has a pit in it im happy.

Strange how America builds stuff out wood. here in SA its all bricks and cement
A lot of houses are still built that way elsewhere, but in CA, it's usually either wood or steel. Why? Earthquakes. Brick buildings aren't as strong and flexible as their wood/steel counterparts.

The only exception to this is cinder block structures, but these are built really carefully. Usually, they stack and mortar the cinder blocks, then run rebar through them for reinforcement, then pour concrete into the void inside the cinder blocks for additional strength. Because of the expense of this and fewer options for finishing, etc, this is generally reserved for industrial buildings (warehouses, etc) or for hillside house foundations like my parents' house.

A lot of houses are still built that way elsewhere, but in CA, it's usually either wood or steel. Why? Earthquakes. Brick buildings aren't as strong and flexible as their wood/steel counterparts.

The only exception to this is cinder block structures, but these are built really carefully. Usually, they stack and mortar the cinder blocks, then run rebar through them for reinforcement, then pour concrete into the void inside the cinder blocks for additional strength. Because of the expense of this and fewer options for finishing, etc, this is generally reserved for industrial buildings (warehouses, etc) or for hillside house foundations like my parents' house.

Oh ok. It was always in the back of my mind why they do it that way. in the form of earthquakes we maybe get a tremor over here like 1 once a year. Thanks for the info

Nice project. That garage is gonna be sweet!

I take it they are doing the addition in the same steps? I would expect the garage to be done in less than two months. I guess not if they are keeping in step with an addition though.

Whur's my updates?! :running:

Har! Sorry for the lack of recent updates...been busy with work and took a vacation last week to get away from all of the dust!

So we took the kid to Monterey to look at some old cars...

http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/1058/VentilatorPics_mov2_032.jpg

http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/1058/VentilatorPics_mov2_024.jpg

http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/1058/VentilatorPics_mov2_027.jpg

And while we were away, the electricians did alot of work moving old boxes around and putting in new, shiny, wires.

Here's the new 200 amp panel Sparky moved to the back of the addition. The weatherhead is required by code to be that high. We are so happy that all of the overhead power wires and phone cables got moved to the very back of the house. Not only did it clear up the overhead view, but no more birds perched up on there to crap on the cars!

http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/1058/MontereyPics_Garage_136.jpg

Here's a boring pic of the back wall of the garage. 4 outlet (2 gang) boxes are in each receptacle location. They're at 48" high, by code, and should be high enough to be accesible over my workbenches.

http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/1058/MontereyPics_Garage_140.jpg

There's also an outlet up high (8 feet) so I won't have cords hanging from my LCD TV going in up there. I just went to my local BestBye and saw some killer deals on "open item" 37" LCD's. Now I gotta figure out what kind of cabling to bury in the walls. Any hints? I'm not going for HiDef....just a middle of the road 720p 37" wall mount on DirecTV so I can watch Speed and novellas. Coax? HDMI?

-Jimmy

A few more shots of the power supply...

200 A panel.... for the house and the garage.

http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/1058/MontereyPics_Garage_137.jpg

One of many trenches to get power and communication to the house without overhead power lines...

http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/1058/MontereyPics_Garage_131.jpg

The 125 amp subpanel in the garage. I have two 50amp, 220V circuits that are in metal conduit (per code). One for the welder and the other for the lift. The lift has the outlet on the ceiling. My electrcian looked at me and wondered why the hell I would need so much juice waaaaay up there. After I detailed my grand plan, he was more than happy to accomodate. He's even wanting to do a bunch of things I haven't thought of to make it a nice working garage. Its hard to find an electrician that is enthusiastic about your project, but Sparky is all on board with this one!:biggthump

http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/1058/MontereyPics_Garage_141.jpg

And finally, a view of the relocated comm wires from the pole. Everything now enters our property from the very back walls of the garage and the addition and no overhead wires are visible. Compare this with the early pics of what it looked like before the demo. I now have phone, CAT5e, and cable TV running through the back wall of the garage. You can see how the electrician was all gung-ho about this garage. He doesn't get to do this often....

http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/1058/MontereyPics_Garage_135.jpg

Oh....I almost forgot...here's a pic of the new toilet drain in the addition (4" -- shouldn't be able to plug this one too easily). I wonder why I have a 110V plug back there behind the toilet tank? Hmmm....

http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/1058/MontereyPics_Garage_151.jpg

-Jimmy

Heated toilet seat?! :rofl:

As far as the in-wall tv cords, I wouldn't mess with it unless you are doing surround sound, in which case you should run some speaker wire. For your DTV receiver I would just get a wall-mounted shelf for it to sit on below/next to the LCD.

Could be fancy like below, there's cheap metal ones too.
http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/yhst-2728692162660_1964_329692

And you might as well do HD - the HD DTV receivers aren't that much these days.

Heated toilet seat?! :rofl:

Damn! You got it on the first try!

http://www.designerplumbing.com/Merchant2/pics/toto/S400_lg.jpg


As far as the in-wall tv cords, I wouldn't mess with it unless you are doing surround sound, in which case you should run some speaker wire. For your DTV receiver I would just get a wall-mounted shelf for it to sit on below/next to the LCD.

Well, I planning on doing a bit of surround sound on the cheap. I'm planning on running wires behind the drywall to speakers that are up high on a little perch or mount. Guys are telling me to run HDMI, but its way expensive for a 25 foot run. Coax is way cheaper, but I lose out on the hidef. Can I get a decent hidef picture on a 720p TV?

And you might as well do HD - the HD DTV receivers aren't that much these days.

Do you think I'd be able to tell the difference when standing below the screen 8 feet? I dunno if I can just get away with a regular satellite reciever and coax to the LCD.

I gotta think about this before the insulation goes up.

Thanks,

-Jimmy