Our First Really Big Project: The Garage!

With our former home sold, we could finally begin a big project.  I would consider many of our projects to date to have been "big"--digging all those trenches to the cistern, repointing the walls of the basement, building the retaining wall--but the garage project is the kind of big that has lots of dollar signs attached to it.

Construction began the last week of February.  We had a lot to do to prepare during the month prior.  Everything stored in the garage had to be moved to the basement, about half of the brick walk had to be disassembled and stacked, and the temporary fence had to be shifted to allow workers plenty of room but still have a small, safe space for our two dogs.

We used a web cam to record photos taken at one minute intervals, then created little videos of each day's progress.  This is what you will see in those videos: Initially, the existing roof was removed, then all but the side walls and a tiny portion of the rear wall were demolished.  From that point, the building commenced as one might expect: footers, foundation and concrete pad for the new, two-car section.  Next, the walls for the new section were framed then roof trusses were added. Once all the structural work was done, the rest was like icing a cake!

You can view brief time lapse videos from most of the days of construction here:https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rob+hayslip&;oq=rob+hayslip&gs_l=youtube.12...1985.5528.0.7355.11.11.0.0.0.0.186.1584.1j10.11.0...0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.ImqyL9JC0Sk

Sounds pretty straightforward, doesn't it?  But anyone who has ever undertaken a major project knows that there are always some unanticipated problems that arise.

Our first issue surfaced when the natural gas company decided they would like to move our gas line from under our garage.  Seemed like a wise move, and in the process we could eliminate the two meters in our basement and have a single meter placed outside of the house.

However, the gas company felt that our tap also needed to be moved, and that is a fairly expensive bit of work.  As they dug into our brick-paved alley around our tap, they began to worry about the stability of the utility pole located a couple of feet away.  Once they were able to indentify what entity was responsible for the pole, the gas company requested support while they completed their work.  So for a few days, a very large truck with huge arm was parked on the garage apron, propping up the utility pole.

Ah, but there's more!  The folks from the gas company accidentally hit our water line in the course of their work.  So we added the water department to the mix, and the hole in our alley grew considerably!

The water line was repaired, the new gas line was bored, and a spiffy new meter was installed on the north side of the house.  While this all took a couple of weeks or so to iron itself out, work on the garage stalled for only a short time.  With the basic structure in place, the roof was shingled, windows were installed, and exterior trim work began. 

We decided long before starting this project that we wanted to bring the electric service to the garage from the utility pole (the same pole that was propped up for several days) and run the lines underground to the house.  This would allow us to eliminate overhead wires from the yard and also free the side of the house of meters and lines.  This added some considerable expense to the garage project, but much of the electrical work would have been necessary eventually.

We did a pretty fair job of not letting various elements get the upper hand in our budget.  We did spend more to get taller garage doors, which we felt would enhance the carriage house feel of the garage.  We also splurged a tiny bit on half-round gutters with exposed brackets.  We chose a nice bronze color that imitates aged copper, and we took the time to connect the gutters to the cistern ourselves to save a little expense.

Perhaps the element we are most proud of is the little roof over the "person door."  We repurposed the roof that had covered the tenant entrance on our house!  The construction crew removed it from its home of 93 years and Rob and I stripped it, repaired a bit of rot with epoxy, and it was installed and painted.  I smile every time I look at that little roof!

I'm also relieved that the general consensus seems positive on the color choices.  The garage reflects the 4 colors we have chosen for the house trim, so positive reinforcement is a good thing!  No turning back now!