Do you have any more car acquisition hopes in the future or are you good for now?

 

There are plenty of cars I hope to acquire eventually to fill all this new space. For the time being I will have to focus on outfitting the inside of the garage once it is finished so likely no new acquisitions for a year or two.

 

Was able to get some more work done on the fence this weekend. I built the fence as one piece to start to keep everything lined up.



I laid out the 12ft 2x4s so I could mark my vertical positions for my lap joints.









I really hate doing lap joints cause of the time they take but did speed it up a little over using a chisel by using my multi tool followed by a router set at 3/4in.













Laying things out for mockup.









Didn't trim the top rail so I could hang it to test fit it.







Monday was Day 1 of Stump Removal





The tap root on this pine was crazy. They normally don't have them but it went almost 4ft underground while still almost 1ft wide.













End of Day 1





Day 2 of tree removal
















They filled a 40yard dumpster with stumps





Managed to get the diagonal braces installed that night




Got a little relaxation in that night for once.

 

Installed a second camera so I can keep an eye on the project while out of town.




My supervisor taking in some sun


Final grading was finished yesterday












After work yesterday I was able to get the gate hung. Finally, be nice this weekend to get the temporary fence in around the construction area so I can leave the dogs out again inside a fence and not have to worry about things.




Once mounted cut the middle.




Need to get the latch mounted, cane bolt, and I am thinking of adding some support wheels as well since the doors are over 5ft wide.

 

Very nice. I bet you can't believe your project is underway. Looks good and can't wait to see the build photos!

 

Last Thursday the builder came by and got the perimeter stakes in place. Unfortunately, the footing guy wasn't available till this week. Hopefully, that gets started today.


Over the weekend I got my fence finished.




I paid too much attention apparently to the placement of the picket fence posts and not enough to the last post in my split rail. I put it 2in too far from the wire that is on the inside to keep the dogs in. Had to staple the wire to an old post and then use 4in deck screws to attach that to the existing one.


Was able to get all of my temporary fence up then to contain the dogs during the course of the build.






It was then I realized I was going to only have a gate on one side of the house for 6 months. That was bad enough for 2 months while I was building the new picket fence. I had an old chainlink gate left by the previous owners that I hadn't thrown out.


A quick look on Amazon and they in fact do make gate hinges for t-posts and a set arrived the next day.


I have a feeling this will be a rather appreciated addition to the temporary fence.


To add some car content that will be stored in the garage once complete. I finally got the call to come pick up my Cadillac back up after being down for 650 days. Will update my other thread on that later.

 

650 days!
Fence work looks good.

 

So happy for you, Caddy and the garage; can’t wait to see the garage progress!

 

So excited that you're finally getting this project underway! Loving the drone shots, can't wait to see the progress buddy!

 

Thanks man. Definitely exciting to finally have it underway after so much planning and issues along the way.

 

It wasn't more than 15min after I posted the update from the weekend that the crew to dig the footings showed up. They were not coming till Tuesday originally but ended up finishing a job early Monday and decided they wanted to knock it out then.

This being done finally gave me the first real feel for the size and location everything. Was a lot better idea than a few markers I had been laying out.

You can see the three markers in the back for the small porch off the back of the second floor. Will be interesting when done to see what my views will be. In the winter I might be able to see the lake across the main road.













Builder showed up yesterday and put in the pipe that goes under the footings for the septic and water lines





Couple more drone shots to show the placement. Luckily they will be able to leave the rest of the driveway till around the end of the project to keep mud to a minimum and allow me to also get the cars in the garage out.

 

Love it! Beyond jelly of your setup.

 

And I was stoked about my 10x14 shed with a loft...

 

Yesterday we got footings poured. Since they are trying to save the driveway till it comes up to be replaced in the end they brought the concrete in 3 smaller loads.

Was interesting to see how they made some supports to allow the truck to get further back and not destroy the footings that were dug.




Got the drone out while they were doing this to grab a few progress shots










I am really starting to be able to see the scale of it now






Not sure whether they are coming today or tomorrow to start the block work. They will not be pouring the slab until the walls are up though so as to be able to easier driver lifts inside the building to put up the beams that are needed and not have to wait 30 days for it to cure.

 

The fuck is this shit? I come here for fence updates. Not a damn garage build.

Unsubscribe.

 

I'm surprised they poured the footings straight into the trench rather than into a form like they do here. Probably related to climate and soil type in your area. Also interesting that they do block wall foundation rather than poured, again likely due to climate. Always cool to see the differences in construction methods from the location it's done in!

Don't they have to wait for the footings to cure anyway?

 

 

The clay is so hard here that it is considered strong to not put disturbed soil back and pour right against it from what I have been told. The inspector who came out to check the footing dig before they poured didn't even bother putting his probe in the ground when he jumped in the trench and felt how packed it was.

I could have had poured wall for more money than block but was told it doesn't really matter here cause rarely do we get a freeze and if so it is so short of a time.

 

so nobody is going to stick their probe in the ground at that property then?

 

Half lap joints are easy, just have a sliding miter saw with depth stops

 

What do your neighbors think of your project?

 

Sliding miter saw with depth stops?? dafuq?

Don't be a peasant, you need a full size 2hp table saw with a dado stack.

or a router.

 

I am with @SamDoe1 on this one with the table saw with a dado stack. I borrowed the dado stack from a neighbor back when I made my green egg table. Also already make a custom insert for my table saw for it and everything.

The issue in this instance was that they were not at 90 degree angles. There were at a 1in slope for every 2ft. I guess I could have done the dado stack for a smaller area and then cleaned up the edges but this way made sure I didn't make any mistakes. Definitely sucked though. I also had to remind myself while I was building the fence gate frame that it would be covered in pickets and it was to be functional and strong. I wasn't building a piece of fine interior furniture though. I sometimes lose sight of that on certain projects.

 

My one neighbor is also my builder so he loves it. My neighbor across the street is also a really good friend and he is excited for it as well as we will now have a great indoor hangout area when the weather is not great. The other 3 neighbors I have not heard any opinion from.

 

Adjustable miter gauge FTW.

 

While trying to support a 12ft long board? I guess with a really good table saw that would work but my contractor grade one not likely to have enough support surface. Honestly curious about this cause someday I may remake it cause I made the two gates slightly different lengths but wish I would have staggered them even more honestly. So someday I might remake the under frame again.

 

little chicken and the egg, his garage is still in progress. gonna be hard to store that table saw

 

You can rig up something to support the outboard end if needed. Also, make sure whatever table saw you get has a T shape miter slot, prevents the sled from riding up and you can clamp the board down to it.

I don't know what contractor saw you have but it would be fine with my contractor saw stop saw.

Honestly though, the way I'd do this is make a router jig at the correct angle and use that along with a router (obv) set to the correct depth along with a flat bottom template bit. A plunge base with turret stop will let you do a stepped plunge on multiple boards with a consistent final depth.

 

The contractor one I bought 5 years ago has been awesome. Packs up vertically with it's own stand. Definitely one of my better tool purchases. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Metabo-HPT-...Saw/1001279880 I am sure there is a time once I get the shop setup where I will have the desire to upgrade to something larger though and built it into a rolling work table.

 

I tried using my router free hand with the plunge set and that was a mistake. 3/4in was also too much to try and take out at one time.

 

When you said contractor saw, I thought you meant this, which is what I have except mine is a 36":


What you have is what I would consider a jobsite saw.

Oh yeah, that's definitely too much of a bite to take in one pass haha. A plunge base with a turret stop will fix your issues. They might make one for your router, take a look!

 

Yeah I guess I used the wrong name for it. Even the time I ripped a full sheet of plywood it helped to have an extra set of hands to steady it. Definitely going to need something more like that in the future. Or maybe something smaller but something I can build into my own able instead.

 

Not much to update. Yesterday the builder and his apprentice came by. They marked the lines on the footings for the blocks walls.



This morning the block and sand got delivered.






My builder also texted me later today and asked if I cared if the block guys got started on Saturday. Absolutely not. Let's keep this train moving.

 

 

Very excited for you, Jason!

 

Is it done yet?

 

Life has been crazy the last week. I am due for an update here. Hopefully, I can find some time today or tomorrow.

 

Life has been busy so the updates have gotten left behind a bit. Still taking pictures so when I find the time like now I can get them uploaded.

The foundation work has started and has also been completed since I last updated. The company that did the foundation had multiple teams but the crew assigned to mine was just a husband and wife team which I thought was cool.

Day 1


Day 2


Day 3






Grabbed some drone shots this time around






Day 4 - Finally starting to be able to see the full scale and perimeter above ground.

 

I was gone a few days for the annual dragon trip I do with a group of friends. When I got back they had finished up the rest of the foundation work and are ready to start framing this week.

 

That's some nice block work.