Un garage à la française

A little update... got the walk in door installed, window installed (hoping to get the trim on this weekend) most exciting of all though.... the garage door gets installed Monday! I am also hoping to pick up a wood stove Saturday, so all being well, by Monday afternoon it should look a whole lot more like a garage.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Ian (no, not me throwing a tantrum, the actual hurricane) I noticed a good bit of water coming through the wall on the right as you face the garage. Looking closely, it pretty much followed the grade and was seeping through right above where I had sealed it below grade. Dug a little trench out on the side there and plan to seal it about another foot or so higher than it is, additionally going to run gutter down both sides to stop water just dripping off the edge of the roof and splashing/soaking that side.

The guys came yesterday and did the final grading, so I can start to think about grass seed. Might be too late to seed it now though, we have had a couple frosts already here. I read about dormant seeding, so may try that with some cheap seed to maybe get a head start on spring and hopefully not end up with too much of a swamp if we get a lot of snow/rain over winter.

After that I just need to install siding, soffit and paint. I think. I hope!!
 
I have a garage door!!

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The difference between a new belt drive motor and the approximately 12 year old chain driven ones on the house is crazy. Might have to look into swapping the ones on the house at some point.

Been painting the siding panels over the weekend, which turned out to be more of a headache than it should...
Went to Lowes with color name and brand to match the house.
They no longer carry that brand.
Thankfully, they can mix it though.
Get a gallon, go home, manage to paint 8 out of 10 panels.
Go back to Lowes the next day to get more, they are out of the base and have no idea when they are getting more. They are also out of the base of the next 2 levels of paint (basic, better, best kind of thing).
The employee was really cool though, mixed me a batch in the only base they had left which was basically the top of the line and sold it to me for the same price as the lower one I had.
Get home start spraying, hmm this looks a little light, but typically paint will dry a bit darker.
Nope. Despite the codes on the lid being exactly the same, it's definitely lighter.
Get 8 painted and run out of paint.
:banghead:

Now I have to go get another gallon and hope that it matches this slightly lighter shade and I can get all 10 of the dang things painted.
 
I have heat!

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Yes, I do plan to relocate that wire running behind it.

I'm sure until I get the ceiling enclosed I will lose a ton through the roof, but at least it is something. Kind of funny really, I like to see the open roof trusses, just reminds me of an old barn, so will be sad when they eventually get covered.

Final inspection this morning, failed as I don't have the siding yet installed. But, everything else looks good. They said get the siding up and they will basically just do a drive by to pass it.
 
Final inspection passed, woohoo!!

naiku said:
Now I have to go get another gallon and hope that it matches this slightly lighter shade and I can get all 10 of the dang things painted.
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Siding paint saga continues, I went back to Lowes, they had none. So, I currently have 2 panels of siding much darker than the rest. Put those on the back, painting them will be easy, no need even for a ladder, just have to wait for Lowes to get any paint.

Need to get the ceiling closed in, soffit and some gutter installed. That's it. Been using it a bunch though, moved my office down there (which confirmed, I need the ceiling enclosed and some insulation) and swapped the rear end on the 67 Mustang. It's been great having a ton of room to work. Got a TV up on the wall, little fridge set up etc.
 
Started prep for the drywall to go up this past weekend, first installed these annoying foam baffles:

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Annoying, because they are made out of the same thing as egg cartons, but thinner. Look at them wrong and they split, the nails coming through from the shingles, they snag on those and so on.

Once I got those up, had to figure out amounting solution for the drywall at the ends as there is no truss to screw the drywall to. Thankfully, I had enough spare 2x4 and 2x6 that I was able to cut a bunch of short pieces that were screwed to the top plate and the last truss:

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Also, a slightly annoying job as there was no spot I could position the ladder to screw down both sides at once. So, a constant up and down and reposition of the ladder to get them up. But, with that done, I am finally about ready to put this up:



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Going to see about renting a drywall lift this weekend and knock it out. The idea of installing about 1,000 screws (depending what you read, a 4x8 sheet of drywall needs anywhere from 28 - 36 screws) does not sound appealing, but no other options!
 
naiku said:
Going to see about renting a drywall lift this weekend and knock it out. The idea of installing about 1,000 screws (depending what you read, a 4x8 sheet of drywall needs anywhere from 28 - 36 screws) does not sound appealing, but no other options!
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Worst case you can buy one for $259 https://www.harborfreight.com/drywall-panel-hoist-69377.html

Then sell it on craigslist for $150

Edit: It's actually on Black Friday sale for $239 until Wednesday.
 
I actually looked at that one, surprisingly you can pick one up cheaper on Amazon (even factoring shipping into the cost). I called a place last week and it's $50 for the weekend, Friday through Monday. Just need to decide whether to get it this weekend or not, might be busy Saturday and don't want to end up spending more than $200 total on the rental, otherwise buying that Harbor Freight one will be easier.

Shit though, if they have that one in town, I could start tomorrow. A few panels up each day would be nice.

Edit: Decided to check Facebook marketplace and Craigslist locally, nothing close by other than people asking almost the new price for used ones (and even most of those are at least an hour away).
 
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Putting up a drywall ceiling on your own, with no experience, is not fun, having said that...

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The job took ages, some pieces I wish were better (cut outs around the garage door motor, couple gaps here and there) but overall, it looks good to me. Putting it up was not fun, I ended up buying a drywall lift. $50 a day to rent one unless it was over the weekend, so I bought one for $250 and figure I'll sell it for $150 or so. It's a frustrating thing to use, the top that the drywall sheets lift on, does not lock, so it constantly rotates, which is a real headache. Up and down the ladder, adjust, repeat, put in a screw and the top rotates slightly meaning your gap is either too big, or it overlaps another piece and has to come down.

Still, it is done. The light improvement is massive, not that the lights were not bright before, but the drywall reflects the light down now. Additionally, once I get the insulation blown in I can put a few sheets of OSB down in the roof space and have a huge amount of extra storage.
 
Not much of an update, sold the drywall lift for $150 a while back. Opened an access door at the rear of the garage a few days ago and started putting in a floor so I can use it as storage. It's a huge amount of space that I can use for storing things that I rarely need to use.

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For now I just dumped in 8 bags of insulation beneath the OSB there. Need to pick up likely another 20 bags and rent a machine to blow the insulation in. Still need to also install gutters, soffit vents and facia. But, it's been cold. So, those things can wait.
 
Let's see, it has been a while, so I managed to get a bunch of insulation added to the attic, should be somewhere around an R-13 value but I may over time add some more. Also installed a QuietCool GA ES-1500 fan for ventilation and some cooling during the summer. It works OK, in terms of bringing in fresh (ideally cooler) outside air and moving the air around, but does not, unsurprisingly, cool it a whole lot. I think long term I will add a Mini-split system, but that's a back burner project for now.

Added a screen to the garage door, although I need to revisit that as the velcro is useless so it falls down continually, so for now, the screen is rolled up in the yard.

Installed fascia board and soffit vents down both sides, still need to finish up the front and back as well as get some gutter installed, too many actual house projects eating up time and budget.

What else, I moved the TV from a static wall mount to a swivel mount, which has made it far more usable, for example if I have a how to type video playing on YouTube, I can turn the TV to face me directly. Not sure if I ever mentioned it, but I bought a pair of JBL tower speakers cheap off Craigslist, a Pyle pre-amp from Amazon with Bluetooth and a friend gave me a 2 channel amp, which made for a really nice garage system.

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Added some Versatrack to hold larger tools and keep things a little more organized, I debate installing it all the way across 3 walls in a continual line, and then moving the electric wire to the little channel and having it hidden, but not sure yet whether I will. The biggest issue with doing that would be having to remove all the electrical outlets and wire and move them up about 10" as I don't want to lower the track system.

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It's pretty neat though, there are a ton of different hooks you can use and it's relatively cheap as well (the first pieces I bought a kit on sale for something like $50) a 4' section of the track is about $10 and the hooks range from $10-$30 or so. It also helps nicely to break up the cinder block IMO.


On the annoying side of things, the floor already developed a crack which sucks and there are some cracks in the mortar that I need to seal up. Eventually I want to paint the entire outside, but as I mentioned above, house projects are needing to be done first (both front and rear deck are due for replacement, house is going to need painted again either this year or next at the latest, drive needs a new load of stone and so on).

Oh, almost forgot, because I had a moment of insanity and thought I had unlimited time and money, I decided to buy this...

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It came with stock wheels, but the tires were dry rotted, so I bought new wheels and tires. Hoping it does not need much, fairly rust free other than the drivers floor board that I could tell. But, yeah, maybe I should have finished the Monte Carlo first. :lol: However, the truck does run and drive and will be handy with the 8' bed for a bunch of stuff.
 
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naiku said:
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It came with stock wheels, but the tires were dry rotted, so I bought new wheels and tires. Hoping it does not need much, fairly rust free other than the drivers floor board that I could tell. But, yeah, maybe I should have finished the Monte Carlo first. :lol: However, the truck does run and drive and will be handy with the 8' bed for a bunch of stuff.
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The least English thing you could have bought. :D
 
Accurate. We have had an F150 for about 20 years now though, so I am experienced in driving like a good ol boy!
 
I love your Garage. Just needs a toilet to make it a real "Dog House", for those days when your actually in the dog house. The truck is nice too. If I ever get a truck again it won't be the $60-80,000 one. I was always afraid to use it like a truck. Ideally I keep my Subaru and get a junk truck and a used sports car, but then I'd probably be back in the dog house.
 
When we were built it we did get a cost to run a water supply, but it was something crazy (COVID pricing) so that got knocked off the list. Initially as well, the plan called for about a 10' concrete apron out front, but again, the costs of stuff was stupid and I figure that will be something relatively easy to get added in future if I decide to.

I plan to use the truck as a truck, while it is a cool old truck and I have always wanted an old truck, I specifically did not want a garage queen. Of course, now I am torn on whether to install a low key system in there, but that's a real low priority for now.
 
naiku said:
Of course, now I am torn on whether to install a low key system in there, but that's a real low priority for now.
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Oops. Yeah, ended up putting a system in the truck...
Pioneer MVH-S522BS head unit
Kicker CXA 660.5 amp
Alpine S2-S69C, mid/tweeter unit is mounted in a plastic cup in the kick panel area, woofers are in cab corner mounts behind the seat.
Pair of Dayton DCS165-4 in about a 0.5cf sealed enclosure behind the seats.

Last summer I ended up replacing the majority of the drivers floor due to rust, as well as patched some holes in the passengers floor. Once that was done I painted the entire floor with POR-15 and covered it in some cheap sound deadener. I also had some Rockwool sheets that I never used in the Volvo I decided to jam in the truck doors. It won't win any SQ points, but damn it will put a smile on my face.

Next up with the truck is going to be repairing the exhaust on the passenger side (may just replace the whole exhaust) and take care of some rust starting to bubble in the truck bed before installing a bed liner.

As for the garage, nothing much, had a heat pump installed a couple months ago (DIY install on the electrical, mounting the outdoor unit, just had a guy come and mount the indoor unit and check the refrigerant charge), that has made it real nice to have both heat and cooling on demand. Before doing that I went around and made sure to patch up any cracks that had formed in the mortar, adjusted the garage door tighter against the weather strip etc. I may dump more insulation in the attic space eventually, but for now it warms up nicely in there.
 
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