SamDoe1

Holy shit. It's astonishing to think this was a hole in the ground two weeks ago.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

went from the ground to the wall.

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

Crazy how fast the framing came together.

Love seeing this project come to shape, I know how many years you've been wanting to build this Jason

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

nice new extra house, rich man.

CCColtsicehockey

Continuing to move right along. The framing should be wrapped up this week for sure the way things are going.





Monday - The second floor roof got wrapped up as well as the first of two bent beams installed in the second floor loft area.







































Tuesday - The breezeway finally went up. I had been waiting on this for a while and it came out as good as I had hoped. We actually ended up going with a steeper pitch than originally planned to account for my dryer vent tube and I think it would have been the right call even without having to go up for the vent. The taller roof I think looks better between the two tall sections.

CCColtsicehockey

Earlier in the build I learned that when the builder had his window contact come out it was suggested that the upper window on the front of the garage be ordered at the same height as the rest of the windows on the project but keep it narrow like the upper window on my house.

This had been done without my knowing and ordered this way. I had to scramble and edit my renderings to figure out the placement of this window so that it would look right since it couldn't be installed where I had wanted the original one.

Windows for comparison with the hole in the new garage the size of the expected window.




The windows got delivered yesterday. Well turns out guess he never updated his order from the original specs and low and behold the window the size of my original plans was delivered. I had come to terms with the size of the new one. Being the visual person I am I now went back and made placement changes to my rendering again testing sizes of fitting the window in the hole that already existed now.

This one essentially centered


This one is slightly up which is closer to what the house garage is


Still being the visual person I am. This morning before they arrived I put cardboard over the opening to size it to what the window would be. I went with this placement then as I feel it best matches the house. From the inside of the garage it isn't the most ideal as it is only 3in from the ceiling but I feel in this case the outside placement is much more important.





So on to today's progress

Wednesday - All the standard windows were installed. The large custom 5.5ft x 8ft window for the back should be here later this week or early next.














The opening for the attic lift is framed out


The bent beam for one side of the loft


The bent beam for the other side of the loft

SamDoe1

Awesome progress! Have they done framing inspections and passed yet?

Also, are you using sketchup? If so, any advice/tutorials you'd recommend for how to learn to use it? I see it used all the time and would love to learn how to use it. I can CAD all day in Solidworks but would love to have something to use on my personal computer vs work...and I cannot afford a license for Solidworks lol.

BreezyTL

iTrader: (8)

Outside appeal would be more important. I think you made the right call on the placement of the upper window.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

ur garage is nicer than anywhere I've ever slept.

CLtotheTL32

iTrader: (3)

Absolutely incredible.

CCColtsicehockey

No framing inspection yet. We are still likely a week out on that still but getting close.

Yes, I am using SketchUp. I have been using it for a couple of years now for my larger woodworking projects. This is the first thing of this magnitude I have ever designed. I started off just winging it and learning it on my own. I have used AutoCad for several years back in high school and a teacher then gave me access to a learning license that lasted for a long time but I honestly rarely used it. But that stopped working in like 2010.

Once I started on the house project I ended up needing to figure out a way to do something better/quicker than I was and I found this guys videos pretty good. https://www.youtube.com/@Thesketchupessentials

I am still just using the free version but I think I should have paid the yearly for the past two years for this project it might have worked a bit better. The problem is it still is expensive at $350 a year. There is a new version called SketchUp Go that works on iPad and Chromebooks for only $120 but I have had no issues with the web version working on my Chromebook even. So I just continue to manage with the free version.

SamDoe1

Thanks! I'll take a look at those videos. I definitely want to start using it for my woodworking stuff too, based on what I've seen it seems better than solidworks for doing those tasks.

CCColtsicehockey

There is not as much flashy big stuff to see today. Although that certainly makes providing an update easier.

The shingles I chose on Tuesday were dropped off today as I managed to pick something that was in stock. The roofers are going to work tomorrow and Saturday. They are hoping to knock it out in two days. There is a third pallet but they put that one out back.



Concrete guys came to prep the pour in the shop area and for the footings for the back deck. The builder had hoped to pour that early next week but apparently, the place is short drivers and he was told he couldn't have a truck till Thursday.




They also finished up the last of the framing today. The last few loft ceiling joists were put in place. They also put up the temporary railing. We will have the framing inspection next week.

CLtotheTL32

iTrader: (3)

When's the stripper pole being added to the loft?

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

Motherfucker, I thought you meant catwalk when you said "breezeway"...
Dammit...I was excited about a path to your mancave FROM the upstairs bedroom in your house.

ACCURATEin

I have always been a peasant, but now, after looking at what is happening in your thread, am much more of a peasant. haha

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

I make every day opposite day. I'm poor.

CCColtsicehockey

The roofers came out bright and early and got underway. The builder was hoping they would get finished before the big storm that was coming through this past Sunday.

Roof Day 2 - They started by finishing up the underlaminate from the first day they were here.




Here I thought they had to carry all that shit up there. Should have known there was a better way. I had never seen it though before.


















They worked crazy late. I was outside talking with a neighbor when I finally heard the lead guy call it quits. It was pretty dark out for doing work in my mind. I have no idea how they were seeing the nail lines on the shingles. Hopefully no issues. It was darker than what this picture shows.


They had worked so late that I had to wait till the next morning before they arrived to grab my drone shots of the previous day's work.










Roof Day 3 - They knocked out the rest of the roof pretty quickly. It did start to lightly rain before they were able to finish.












They ended up running out of cap shingles which may be the same that are used on the ridge. Not really sure. The only reason I say that is it seems some of the spacing on the back ridge is not exactly even and you see some of the underlayer black as gaps at some places. I know you will never see it though other than this drone shot.








They have to come back to finish this small section as well as replace about 10ft of cap on my existing roof that blew off in a storm a while back and has just had a patch over it for the time being.


I am extremely happy with the look of the Certain-Teed Landmark Pro Weather Wood shingles I went with. The definition is so much better than the existing roof although the house roof is 18 years old. I really want to replace it so they match but the fact it is still functioning and the price to do so right now I am going to try and hold off for a few years. Hopefully, waiting like 5 years won't make the two look all that different.




The storm came Saturday night but the biggest part wasn't till Sunday. I had just cleaned this gutter off this week and it didn't matter it couldn't hold it at points.


Not having my driveway drains right now is fun.






Some more came through last night


This was 6am this morning. It was the highest I saw it while awake.

SamDoe1

Damn dude, clean yo guttahs.

Roof looks awesome. What do you mean by ran out of cap shingles? Isn't the top ridge just one big roof vent?

CCColtsicehockey

Crazy thing this time of year. I cleaned those gutters 2 months ago just before this project started.

If you look at the ridge on the breezeway it is just the plastic vent. The cap shingles then go on top of that. The cheaper ridge vents are just a softer mesh material that can eventually compress and be less breathable over time. The newer middle grade stuff is made of plastic that fits over and then you nail the cap shingles on top of it. It is also sturdier against tree branches falling onto it as well.

SamDoe1

Yep, I noticed that but thought you mentioned something about the back side having missing shingles too or did I just misread?

1StGenCL

Looking fantastic and man, the drone shots really emphasize how big it is.

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

Damn that roof really starts making it look like a finished structure, looking good bro! Also that is a crazy storm, tons of water! Good test for the new roof though lol

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

I bet if you do some spray and forget on your current roof, it'll clean up nicely.

CCColtsicehockey

I mentioned I thought they spaced the back side ridge out more than it should have been cause of running low on the cap shingles.

I have not lost any shingles on the back side of the existing roof.

CCColtsicehockey

Yeah, I am going to try and clean it and see what happens. Not sure a lot a lot of it isn't sun fade though.

CCColtsicehockey

I have been working on my electrical plan in depth for the last couple of weeks before meeting with the electrician this week. While meeting with him a few things came up that he suggested changing. One thing he wants to do is add a sub panel in the garage to limit the number of home runs back to the main panel. The main reason for this is that the main panel will be in garage bay 1 from the plans. The garage has 22ft ceilings at the peak. With all the support beams you can't really go around the side walls so you would be going up there and across the ceiling and back down for every run on the other side of the garage. We are going to stick the sub panel in the workshop. I would really prefer to only have one panel but at the same time this does make a lot of sense to limit the amount of wire needed. It also will put all of my breakers for the wood shop which is likely to be the most chances I have to trip anything much closer to where I will be working. Obviously, I hope everything is sized right and I never trip anything.



The next thing he suggested is since my high bay UFO lights will be at around 14-16ft that I should switch from 150w to 200w.







The high bays are the blue dot lights. These lights are roughly about 7ft off all the walls. With the electrician making these suggestions I decided to request a lighting diagram from Hyperlite. I was hoping for one of the 150w and the 200w but they only gave me the 150w one so far. I will have to go back and request the 200w one as well.



I have been planning on the Hyperlite HERO lights. https://hi-hyperlite.com/collections...31821953531967



This is what they came back with.















Based on these though I believe I likely need the 200w to get closer to the 90-100 range. Also with the hottest spot being in the middle and the walls being 20 lower, I am thinking maybe I should move the lights out further. Maybe put them only 5.5ft from the walls so that I can get more light reflection off the walls.







Meanwhile, concrete work should start tomorrow or Friday with the corner shop pour. The same crew will dig the trenches for any of the plumbing work that will go under the main slab. The main slab will also hopefully get poured before the end of the year. The electrical work is then schedule to start the first or second week of January.

SamDoe1

Damn dude, you're putting a ton of effort into lighting. I just put a shit load of lights on the ceiling and called it a day lol.

CCColtsicehockey

Since there is going to be the loft looking over the shop area and parking area along with the place having 22ft ceilings I want to make sure the lighting is adequate and also doesn't create shadows.

CCColtsicehockey

Last week we finally got some concrete poured at the end of the week.



They put down some wood as they would be moving the concrete back to the back room by machine.




It somehow got lost in the scope of things but I realized right before they started pouring that no one had come by earlier in the week and set the conduit for my floor outlet in the shop area. They had to rush out and get the parts for it while slowly working on what they could of the concrete till they got that done.








Time to wait a while


While they waited for it to set a bit they dug out one of the bays and the dirt in front of it to get it closer to level. This would turn out to possibly be a mistake.






They ended up a little short on concrete as they were also hoping to fill the footings for the back porch posts. They used what little left and just added it to the slab and instead, hand mixed 30 bags for the 3 footings.


They also framed in the front of both bays to try and keep water out for the rain coming over the weekend.


Just before dark I got a call while I was inside working from the foreman asking me if I had any lights. Thankfully I have a good amount of lights around so they could keep working. Lately, I have been buying a bunch of these rechargeable LED square lights. They are extremely bright for the small size. They are even more powerful than my old halogen work light set.




They stuck around till almost 8pm so that they didn't have to come back to cut the relief cuts

CCColtsicehockey

The problem with them digging out the future working garage bag before the rain this weekend was it made that area the new lowest point on this side of my property.



The boards tried to hold for a little. I even went out in the rain and shoveled a bunch of dirt behind them to try and help keep the water out.


It all ended up being for nothing as there was just too much water and the ground was just too low now.








The plan for this week was to dig the trenches for the sewer and water lines in the main garage and then pour that concrete. I am not sure the ground will dry enough for that to happen now. I sent some pictures to the builder and he said they are going to bring a pump and try and pump it out. I don't know enough about concrete but my mind says that you shouldn't put down concrete on ground that is that wet even if they pump the water out. The forecast also shows another 1-1.5in of rain coming next Monday and Tuesday possibly. We had a great spell of dry weather during the foundation and framing part of the project. It seems mother nature has not decided to play catch up.

Gryphon

Great catch on the in-floor electrical. Thinking about your project, and my much smaller project, and how it would be different if we didn't live/work on-site. They ask me questions everyday about certain things, and I'm glad to be working from home to be here to talk with them. If you didn't live there, and instead only visited the build site every once in a while, I'm sure a lot more would be missed. Sometimes I worry about being too involved and coming across as annoying, but I'm still glad to be hear to bug them and ask questions.

BreezyTL

iTrader: (8)

Gonna need one of those amphibious cars now!

CCColtsicehockey

Yeah, I can't imagine not being on site with the number of things I have caught so far. Ended up canceling a work trip because of it and thankfully my manager was understanding. I am worried about traveling for the holidays even and I will only be gone a short time and most of that a weekend and the holiday. I don't think there is much that can be missed on this next slab pour thankfully which is likely the only thing they get done while I am gone if it doesn't get done before I leave. I worried about being annoying with the asking a bunch of questions and always being around for like a day into the project. Then I came with the mindset I am paying for this to be done so I better not have any regrets by the end so if that means staying on top of all it and seeming that way to them then so be it.

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

Damn, good thing they caught the conduit runs before they poured the concrete, yikes

BreezyTL

iTrader: (8)

You are not only paying for it, but you have to live with it. No corners should be cut and hopefully nothing missed. I was the same way with my house being resided and roofed after our hail storm. The guys must have hated me but I caught stuff every day I came home for lunch. Thankfully I did.

Gryphon

That's a great point. Knowing what I'm paying for my project, I can imagine what you're paying. In the end, being around and inserting yourself into the project is probably saving them money with not having to fix mistakes.

CCColtsicehockey

On Friday I requested some updated lighting diagrams from Hyperlite. I wanted to try 200w lights at the current location and a new location. I also had them do the readings at 3ft vs ground level like they had been doing since that would be more likely closer to working height. The current locations with the 200w lights upped me from mid 40s to mid 50s in the corners and 90s in the middle up from 70s. It still was only giving me 60s along the walls.

The next design was to move the lights to new positions. From 6ft 9in to 5ft 3in off the front and back walls and from 6ft to 5ft off the left and right walls. This would bump the numbers up considerably.







They are still not exactly at 100FC but might be close enough. If I need any extra light I can always turn the cans on with them at the same time. Although the cans are only going to total half of one of the high bays so maybe will make no difference.

CCColtsicehockey

Not a ton to report as of late as we continue to have a ton of rain just timed perfectly to fall right when it finally dries out from the last rain as well as with the holiday mixed in as well.

We have now had 3 fairly large rain storms in the last 20 days or so all with 1.5-2.5in of rain in a 24hr period. Nothing dries quickly when with the 50 degree or less temps and the Carolina clay.

I did finally get to make some progress on one of my tasks. I am using scrap material to fill in the attic space with platforms and then will also be building a catwalk over the two garages.

During framing, they end up with a bunch of scraps as you would expect. I saved the larger pieces from going to the dump to use for the attic. Getting them up a ladder with not stairs was an interesting task I had never done before.


I got started on the flooring up there. Also left a spot to the left of the one piece of zip panel at the end where I am going to box in for a drop down staircase.


They came and dug some small trenches to try and help drainage


Made much more progress on the attic the second day as I had planned out a lot of it the first day.




On the third day, I was able to finish up the rest of the main area and even install the first piece over the one garage bay. I have 5 more full sheets of zip panel which should get one of the remaining garage bays done but I will likely end up having to go buy some OSB then to use to finish the other side.




While I was gone for the holiday they came and delivered the lumber for the deck and the large custom window for the rear.






We also ended up with another rainstorm on Tuesday.


At least the grading around the house is good so this never got closer than this during the worst part of the storm.


It once again pooled up out front of the garage but the little drainage ditches to get the water to the single drain line did eventually help it all drain out in the next 24hrs which is much better than what had been happening.

Gryphon

How will you mitigate all the water pooling after the project is complete?