Garage: Finale Part 2 January 17, 2011

Hard to believe this was a garage just weeks ago.  This room is now connected to the galley kitchen through an 8 foot opening of the former garage wall.  With three windows and a 9-light door, there is plenty of natural light.  The separate heating valve allows the family to compensate for the heating differences that are bound to come with an extension to the original structure.  You can see the painting that started it all on the far wall, here. 

I applaud M for not playing it safe, and for adding some wonderful color and pattern to some very clean lined upholstery.   Bother the greens and blues came directly from the inspiration painting.  Although they stessed a bit over the painting, in the end they created a modern and classy outcome with two choices; an oatmeal color for two walls, and the matching green carried over from their kitchen for the remaining two walls.   As M said, she was making decorating choices for months, sometimes with a very loose reference to the last choice she made, but because she had a strong vision and an inspiration piece, all of her choices ended up working really well together.

M may have gotten her beautiful painting and upholstery, but J revels in his new 3-D HDTV and surround sound.  With wiring thought out before the walls were closed up, M & J have plenty of options for lighting, sound, and even a phone jack strategically located in the middle of the room, just under the end table.

They both say that the opened view from one end of the house through the kitchen all the way to the other end is what this house needed.  Funny that sometimes you make a space more cozy by making it bigger but better connected.

The details in their construction are really wonderful.   The single step down in to the new family room was well done, with a near seamless blending of existing and new hardwoods.  The railing that separates the living space from the steps leading to the basement are artfully chosen wrought iron, which accent the room just like a chunky fashion necklace would accessorize an outfit.  You don’t see it, but there is an outlet placed behind the mirror (above), which may come in handy someday. 

J says that this was a really good experience.  They still have a good relationship with their builder, and that is the hallmark of a good project.  We’ve been capturing the fun stuff, but in reality there are just so many details in any project of this scale.  J’s advice is that you can’t be too specific in your written agreement with your builder.  If it isn’t in the contract, there’s too much room for interpretation, so be prepared to write it down up front or pay more for it later.   In the end, the time that you spend planning before a hammer ever hits a nail is worth much more than you probably realize.  After all, it usually costs nothing to move walls, electrical or windows when they are only lines on a page.

Congratulations, M&J, on your new space.  I know your family will continue to love it more every day.

Garage: Finale Part 1 January 14, 2011

This garage makeover is drawing to a close.  The new garage is just about as cute as I’ve ever seen any garage.  The car parking lift is in.  The word I use to describe it is elegant.  With just 8 bolts on the floor, the frame has enough stability to lift an entire car and keep it in the air indefinitely.  I just think that is amazing.

One car is suspended, waiting for another car to pull underneath.

The biggest problem that J now has is where to locate his stops on the floor so that no one hits the rear wall of the garage. 

The garage foyer (who has a garage foyer, anyway???) has been classed up with wood floors, oak handrails, and oak treads up the stairs. 

The upper floor, which was to be unfinished, now has baseboard heat, low profile lighting, and is cable/internet ready.  I think J will be spending time out here sooner than the original plans called for.

Above all, the structure from the outside looks as if it belongs to the house and the neighborhood.  The family and the construction crew took care to add details like lighting, appropriate door styles and dentil molding that blend this new structure with neighbors that have stood nearby for nearly 100 years.  When a visitor sees this structure, they won’t immediately notice that this is the newcomer on the street.

Next time, we’ll look at the inside of the old garage (right side of this photo above), and see how it has changed in to a warm and functional modern family room.

Garage: Feline Fiasco January 10, 2011

Moppet is in the doghouse.  This week M and J saw a lot of changes in their new family room.  The floors went down, but before the finish could dry on their new dark stained hardwood, they wanted to take one more peek through the side door.  Their resident kitty, curious as cats are, streaked in under their feet to see the new room, too.  He was determined to leave his mark, as the drying polyurethane was stamped with cat prints. 

Construction delays, weather, and all that could have gone wrong amounted to small potatoes compared to the havoc the family pet can do.

The new furniture was delivered the next day and is still under wraps, since it all has to be moved out to allow for refinishing the brand new floors to remove paw prints.  For now you’ll get to see just the paint colors and the long-awaited unobstructed view in to the kitchen. 

M & J, I know you won’t miss that plastic wall!

Garage: Welcome to the Clubhouse January 7, 2011

Clubhouse, doghouse, or whatever he’s calling it, J has a sweet little space set aside as his office.  Up on the second floor of the garage, there is an office that will eventually be J’s home office and man cave.  (Can it still be a man “cave” if it is on the top floor???)  He enters through the side door of the garage:

…past the storage space and up the steps

…up to the landing and storage closet

…finally entering his space with three dormers.

While the footprint is pretty large, the awkward ceiling slopes are going to make furniture placement a bit of a challenge.  But by opening the space on to the stairwell with half walls, and with a window in each dormer, the space seems like the perfect treetop hideout that we all would have wanted as kids. 

I love to see projects like this.  With just a little bit of extra planning and a few extra details, an ordinary garage now becomes a really special place.

Garage: Interior Perspective January 3, 2011

J got his garage toys recently.  M is getting her turn now.  The family room is starting to really take shape.  You can see by these pictures that the room now looks more like part of the house than a former garage. 

Testing colors in the new family room

Almost connected to the kitchen!

M is looking forward to seeing the floors go in, but before they do, she’s testing out paint colors.  Since this project was started almost a year ago, she’s had her inspiration painting under wraps.  Her brand new furniture is still on order, waiting to be delivered.  She’s got to make this project hang together with the final color and materials choices that she makes now.

It’s a good thing that the space is completely enclosed and heat is just about to go in, since the project should be wrapping up before the cold weather sets in.

Garage: Lift and Load December 29, 2010

I never thought I’d get this excited about a piece of garage hardware.  The lift arrived this week, and it is gorgeous.  Lest you forget what this project was all about, M&J were stealing their former two car garage to make a family room, and that means their cars have to go somewhere.  Since the lot could only accommodate a one car footprint, the new space is getting a lift, literally.  The blue hardware you see below is the car lift, designed to “park” one car on top of the other.  It is a surprisingly cost-efficient and modern way to solve a space problem in this one-hundred year old neighborhood. 

The parking lift has arrived. Cue the theme music!

After the lift is professionally installed by the garage door mechanics, it will require an electrician’s attention.  It also requires a heater mounted in the garage, since the hydraulics require a temp of at least 41 degrees to operate.  The operation is surprisingly simple, J to set the stop so that the car parked on top and the car parked below both have enough space.  This a 12+ foot ceiling, both cars will fit just fine.

If you are asking, like I was, do you have to be a gazillionaire to own one of these things, the answer is no.  The gadget costs roughly $5K, which is reasonable, especially if building another bay simply is not allowed by code or physics.  I can’t wait to see the cars using it!

Garage: Brick House December 14, 2010

Due to technical issues, this wasn’t published on time, but here it is to catch you up to date. 

I almost ghasped when I came around the corner and saw the brickwork.  Every major addition now makes the structure seem more real.  Of course, things are progressing roughly according to schedule.  But taking a patch of grass and creating a whole new solid structure is not something to be taken for granted.  This is a Project with a capital P.

Garage Rear Wall Brick Work going in

One of the details that M&J took a bit of care with is chosing the bricks.  It turns out that new bricks aren’t nearly as expensive as reclaimed (used) bricks.  And bricks from different eras and different lots have different shades.  So M&J used a combination of new bricks and reclaimed bricks that are roughly the same age as their home to create the right look here.  By mixing the two, they are hoping that their new garage looks like it has always been on the property.  An addition is done well when it looks original to the century old home.   Stay posted.  It kind feels like we are on the downhill swing of activity at this point.

New Family Room Front Wall

Garage: Put a Lid on It December 13, 2010

This post is coming out of order due to some technicial glitches, but I didn’t want my loyal readers to miss it. 

This is what we’ve been waiting for.  It seems like things are moving now.  We’re past the rain storms, and all hands are on deck.  The roof is on.

Work is starting on the inside.  The wires, pipes and temporary supports have been moved.  The old steps have been chiselled out, and the former garage floor has been leveled and prepped.  Where a solid wall of plywood has been for many weeks, we now have a properly studded wall with two new windows to compliment the original structure. 

Inside the former front of the garage. No longer a garage door, now it resembles a room.

All of this is happening just in time.  The weather is starting to turn cold, so there is a need to get the structure sealed so the family can turn the heat on.  While all the pipes were being moved during the summer, the hot-water heat was drained, so it wasn’t even functional.  But within the next few days, M&J will want their heat running.  As soon as the framing is inspected, J will take a day or so off of work and insulate both structures.  Having done this myself, I can tell you that this is a great DIY job that will save a few bucks.  If you have a chance to do a project like this, you might take this on yourself.

 

Now I’m jazzed.  I can’t wait to see things move quickly now.  The revised schedule has the project ending around the end of November.  M&J still hope everything is done before the snow flies, and there is a good chance they might make it.

Garage: Where’s the Drama? November 22, 2010

The project would not make a very good reality TV show, and that’s a good thing.  The new garage construction and garage-to-family room conversion is going largely according to plan.  The work is being done roughly on schedule, with just a few delays for weather and uncontrollable issues.  The original plan has been slipped a few weeks, but this was all communicated to the homeowners in writing, as it should be.  Inspections are going as planned.  The changes to the work plan are relatively minor and improvements, not concessions.  The work crew has always been courteous to both the family and neighbors.  What more could we ask for? 

Garage front porch. Cute as a cottage.

This week we saw a beehive of activity, as the brick continues to go up, final framing and electric is done, we we await the next round of inspections so the insulation and drywall can go in.  

The garage is starting to look like it’s own little cottage.  I was impressed with the entry way, now that some of the finishes are starting to be applied.  It looks like Hansle and Grettle could move right in.  But don’t be fooled by it’s sweet appearance.  J and I are both eagerly awaiting the high tech toy, the car lift, that is scheduled for just a couple of weeks from now.  Stay tuned.

Brick is going on the outside, and things are going according to plan.

Garage: Space to Spare November 4, 2010

Future 2nd floor closet in Garage on the landing

This project has so many moving parts to it, and it will really add value to M&J’s property.  But all I can think about is where their storage spaces will go.  I’ve been eyeing up the small space under the stairs in the garage, because I really want that area to be very functional storage.  J gave me a tour of his future office this week on the second floor of the garage, and I was thrilled to see that the large area on the mid-level landing is being outfitted as a large storage closet.  This will be a great storage closet for seasonal decorations or J’s archived paperwork.  You can see in the photo the wire that is being run for lighting, which will be needed in this stairwell space. 

The man room itself sits in the peak of the roof, and is chopped by the gables and valleys of the roof.  There literally are no straight walls to add any storage to.  Furniture selection and placement are going to be a fun challenge in this unique room.

And in the new family room, there is still some discussion about how to best make space for coats and “stuff” that will be coming in the new back door.  

Remember that this project is severely limited by the lot lines and small footprint available for the garage.  The biggest space saver will be the car lift being installed in about 5 weeks.  This is a good example of picking your battles and using what you have.

Garage: The Rising November 2, 2010

We have stairs. Actually, not stairs, just the treads, and not quite all of them, but this is the first chance I’ve had to check out the second floor. The structure is just a shell, but every week it comes closer to being a solid structure.

The Stairs in garage leading to the second level

Inside the new family, there hasn’t been a lot happening lately. The biggest change is that the electrical wires have been moved and cleaned up to prepare for the work to come.  This process just seems to drag on and on.  But if I sound like I’m complaining, I’m not.  It’s just part of the process.  Unfortunately, the weather and heavy rains have caused delays in work.  And because the subcontractors working on this job are also on other jobs, when the neighbor’s job gets delayed, that means that this one will as well.   The roofer, mason, electrician, even the town inspectors get backed up and it affects all schedules.

Garage: Window Well October 28, 2010

Windows! Yeah!

M and I agreed that this week the garage started to look like a real building. The big change was the windows, which were installed earlier in the week. If the eyes are the window to your soul, then the windows are the eyes of the home.

We had our windows replaced earlier this year, and you can read how that went at an earlier post. Although we are enjoying the benefits of windows that are a big improvement over our original models that were one hundred years old, we just this week continue to have installation and service issues with them. Like doors, windows should usually be installed by a professional with experience, because just the slightest adjustment can make the difference between correct and incorrect operation. There are also quite a few tools specific to the job that many do it yourselfers don’t have.

M & J only have four windows in this garage, but they still had to choose models that were going to be functional and energy efficient because, remember, J’s private office will be on the second floor, which we’ll be learning about before too long.

Garage As Still Life: What to Do in the Downtime October 20, 2010

Don’t tell M&J, but this week was pretty boring.  As I watched the progress and got the update, I really wanted more.  Several weeks in to the project, framing on the garage continued, and the stuff going on inside just didn’t seem all that exciting. 

Time to Decorate. Or at least plan for it.

Of course, this is all a matter of perspective.  If you love the details, then the inner secrets of your plumbing, wiring and framing are fun to keep tabs on.

But as M&J stand in the doorway blown out between the former garage and the kitchen, we are having discussions about where the breakfast table will go and how the step down in to the family room will look.  Our eyes keep drifting to the ragged paint swatch painted like a flag on the far wall.  And, oh my, we are both consumed by the fact that there is no coat closet at all on the first floor.  We want to get to the DECORATING! 

Now, M is already there.  She bought her inspiration peice, a large painting, in one of her favorite shops months ago.  She has furniture selected and already on order.  She’s keeping tabs on the changing shape of her new family room so that she can pounce on any decorating decisions.  (No, thank you, we won’t be keeping a small patch of exposed brick.) 

This is the time to keep planning.  Decorating magazines and websites can still offer plenty of input to her emerging plan.  Custom furniture and accessories can sometimes take 6-8 weeks.  Desired items can be on backorder for waht seems like forever.  So as the foundation work continues, this “downtime” is still useful for planning, ordering and testing combinations of items.  Of course, she has precious little space to store things when they come in, but this is temporary.  The end will be here be here before you know it.

Zoning and Other Pesky Details September 23, 2010

I am fascinated by the process of zoning and permitting.  This is probably a little more that I should share about my natural deference to authority, but I just think zoning is cool.  In theory, zoning and permitting exist to protect both the common good and the personal safety of a homeowner.  In M&J’s project, both zoning and permitting will figure heavily.

Let's Inspect- It may not be pretty, but it is necessary.

J’s advice is to get a property survey done before you ever start mentally plotting a project like his.  In Pennsylvania, oddly, a property survey is not mandatory at the sale of a property, as it is in some other states.  So when M&J started, they had an idea but no clear boundaries of their actual property.  On their city lot, existing tree lines and demarcations where men politely defer to their neighbor’s mower  rule the land. 

But when you are planting a new structure, you’ve literally got to know where you stand.  On this project, although a standard two-car garage would have been the original ideal, the lot lines wouldn’t allow it.  A detached garage must be no closer than a certain number of feet from the lot line and from the house.  It turns out that a one car garage is the only thing that can fit in the existing lawn of M&J’s property, so a one-car garage it is!  And since there is literally no wiggle room, the contractors had to be very careful to put it in exactly the right spot, which reqires a property survey and pins.

The other thing to keep in mind is that permits have to be obtained on a job like this, and that means that township inspectors will have to come out and inspect the contractor’s work at critical junctures in the process, like after rough framing, plumbing, concrete and electrical work are completed.  With an experienced, quality contractor, you won’t expect that there will be anything to “catch” during the inspection, but it sure is a learning experience.  I personally like hanging out with the inspector because they will tell you what’s going on inside your structure, which you’ll probably never see inside again.  And because you have to meet with the same inspectors that all of the other renovating homeowners will be meeting with, sometimes the inspections can slow down the plan by a few days or even weeks.  It’s been known to happen.

My latest guilty pleasure on TV is an HGTV show called Holmes on Homes.  Want to know what happens when things don’t get zoned, permitted, and inspected properly?  Mike Holmes turns this whole process in to entertainment.  But for your sake, I’d like to see the messes that he uncovers on your TV and not on your project!

Designing for the Sexes: Garage Version September 21, 2010

M & J are creating two new spaces, and that means there is something for both of them.  I am impressed with how well these two homeowners, who have very different talents, are coping through this complex project.  They are a model for any married couple who wants to build big and still be married at the end of the project.

art or instrument of torture?

J is an engineer.  He reads the blueprint plans like he’s reading the morning newspaper.  He models different versions of the proje on his computer just for fun.  He gets excited about how and where the plumbing lines are.  He’s been late to work several times because he’s hanging out with the construction crew, chatting about the details.

M is very visual.  She is building her new family room around the painting that she bought just for this room.  She picked her paint color out 6 months ago.  She gets excited about where the furniture is going to sit after all the demo and dirty work are completed. 

M pointed out their different styles to me when she admitted that she can barely read a map, while J thinks they are works of art, worthy of framing in fact.  She just finds this incomprehensible. 

But both homeowners are staying on top of the details, each in their own way.  M is the one who noticed, before anyone else, that the garage windows had been framed too high this week.  Things just looked out of scale to her.  After checking with J and the architect, it was agreed that they were, indeed, framed too high.  Although she admits that the plans were a mystery to her, she had a good sense of what things were supposed to look like.

Once you’ve planned and plotted, gotten engineering clearance and hired a trustworthy contractor, it’s easy to think that they are executing according to plan.  At this stage of the game, the couple is treading a delicate line.  The structure is beginning to take form, and they need to stay on top of small things so they don’t become big things that could cost them additional money down the road. Catching construction mistakes makes sense and saves money.  But at the same time, they realize that seeing the actual structure in real life is different than seeing it on paper.  As their architect counseled, “At this stage, it’s hard to imagine the finished product.  Trust the plan.”  I run in to this often when I’m working on a decorating project.  It is hard, maybe impossible, for about 80% of the population to see a completed design project.  That is why home staging is so critical, because home buyers can’t always imagine potential that a home may have hidden.  So engineers, designers and regular folks can all coexist by keeping the lines of communication open.  Hopefully the end result comes in on time, on budget, and within scope.   Hang in there, M, you’ll get to decorate, soon!

Don’t You Love Demo Week? September 3, 2010

Demolition on the inside. Pipes are rerouted through the new opening from the former garage in to the kitchen (hidden by dust tarps)

Framing on the outside…

M & J were getting the heck out of Dodge, and for good reason.  While the garage structure was starting to rise up from the landscape, some pretty heavy work was going on inside.  The garage, which had previously been a functional but not pretty space, had been home to overhead water, waste, and HVAC lines. And once demo started, two additional pipes for the hot water heating system were discovered in the walls that also had to be moved out of the way.  In order to create an open space from the main house to the garage cum family room, all of these mechanical services had to be disabled and rerouted. 

So summer vacation for the family was strategically planned as a demo work week for the trades.  The family kept tabs on what was going on back at the ranch by checking in.  And only three weeks in to the project, they needed to keep tabs.  Before they left, they got word from the project engineer that not one, but two areas of the project had to be framed out in steel beams, which was not in the original plan.  That added cost and complexity to the project, but so it goes.   Their written contract was a garden variety, which means that this added costs was something that had to be borne by the homeowner.  Unfortunately, at this stage, abandoning the project isn’t an option, and safety and codes required the change. 

Did I mention that basement steps, previously leading off from the inside of the garage, are going to have to demolished?  This is where, for me, this project really departs from the norm.  Although it’s done all the time, I think of moving a staircase as heavy duty construction.  I’ll be interested to see where the new staircase end up, and whether M&J make use of a found void to create some additional storage.  Contractors will neatly close up a space like this, but I see any couple of feet as a potential storage cubby.  To quote J, “I think every project has some changes that were unexpected, so it is good to have some funs set aside for new situations. ”  Collective wisdom: plan for 25% more time and 25% more money than your contract calls for.

When M& J return, their existing 3′ doorway to the garage will become a gaping 10′ opening from their kitchen to the garage, and their breakfast nook will, at least for a time, be completely gone behind the dust tarp, which will be all that separates the two spaces.  I can’t wait!

Bring on the Concrete -OR-Watch Your Contractor August 30, 2010

The foundation for all that is to come

  

I am so jealous.  About five years ago we built a garage at a former home.  I swear the blood, sweat and tears that we endured over the concrete debacle, which tooks weeks to resolve, can still be seen in the pad.  M&J, on the other hand, got concrete this week, only two weeks in to their garage/family room project.  How is this possible?  I am taking it as a good omen for their project.  

The Front Door to the new garage

  

They are bound to have good results, though, because M&J are watching their contractor.  They took care to select a contractor that came with good recommendations and who worked locally so they could see examples of their work.  But they are also in close communication with their contractor.  In fact, J has had to hustle to work after spending too much time in the mornings hanging out with the contractors.  But being this close with the crew means that they’ll be able to catch little things.  Like the first day, J ensure the foundation for the structure wasn’t too built too close to the lot lines, since there was only one place that the structure could go to meet the code requirements.  If the contractor laid the structure six inches too close one way or another, the problem would only have been found after inspection, causing costs and delay in the project.  So advice from M&J is to keep close tabs on the details, and don’t assume that your contractor has it all perfectly aligned at all times.  Nobody cares about your project like you do.  And You don’t actually get what you pay for.  In my experience, when it comes to contractors, you get what you manage.Fortunately, M&J haven’t run in to any problems yet.  Let’s hope it stays that way.

Is This Your Dream Garage? August 18, 2010

Bring in the big toys and let the construction begin!

New Garage Site

  

M&J are building a garage.  Not just any garage, this is a very exciting project.  I am almost more excited about this project than they are, so they agreed to let me snoop around, take pictures, and write about their roughly year-long journey.  But don’t worry, you don’t have to wait a year to see the results.  They’ve already done months of planning, plotting, and prepping, so now you get to read about the three months of construction that just started.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.   

Why is this garage project so special?  M&J, like many of us, have a nice house with an attached two car garage.  And although they love their house and their neighborhood, things could be just a bit better with a few tweaks.  So they’ve decided to renovate their existing two car garage in to a new family room, opening up their floor plan and creating some much needed family space with an open kitchen.  

Garage today, family room tomorrow

But with that change, that leaves all of their three cars out in the street, so to speak.  They’ve decided to build a freestanding garage.  But the footprint of the property only allows for a one car garage, so they’ll be adding a car lift to the one-car garage, which will make it a two car garage.  And they’ll add some additional space to the garage to create a separate man den (ahem, I mean workspace) for J.   

They started planning last January, about 7 months ago.  They just broke ground, and things are happening fast.  M&J are going to let me hang with them, and they’ve offered to share the process, as well as the problems and pitfalls that come with any large-scale project like this.   

Why would you care about this project?  Well, I can tell you that M&J are not your typical homeowners.  J is an engineer and a bit of a car buff.  And Melissa has lived in enough homes to know what little tweaks and twists will take a home from nice to great.  Oh, and she has great style, did I mention that?  These two together have thought through some very specific issues that most people might not consider when taking on a project like this.  For starters, how many people consider installing a lift to increase the size of the garage?  That was brilliant!  And as far as home improvements go, they are doing some things that are very cost-effective.  It looks to me like they are on the path to getting a very high quality product from a moderate renovation budget.  There are also a lot of moving parts in this project, so they are going to cover a lot of ground, literally and figuratively, before they are done.  They will have to deal with everything from setting foundations to moving staircases, plumbing, and finally- the fun stuff-storage and decorating.  I hope you will subscribe to this feed by clicking here to get updates on how this project is progressing, and hopefully getting inspiration and guidance for your project or dreams.