Building My Budget Bike Garage

[yesterdayze]

Thanks, yeah it is getting there!

[yesterdayze]

We decided that it would be smarter to just have the heater in the storage room instead of the main room. The heater is rated 0 clearence on all sides so we framed an opening in the wall seperating the storage/bathroom/kitchen now /heater room, built a sturdy shelf and put the heater on it. It looked great and the bonus was that since the return is on the back it would pull the heated air back into the smaller room as well rather then just relying on the heat spreading out.

Here you can see the heater sticking through the wall.



Next we ditched the old heater. I sold it for $75 bucks on craigslist. The 75 bucks went to the piping and such needed to get the heater turned on.

Here are some more pics of the heater in it's new cubbyhole:







My buddy Dano, traumatized by how hard I was working him attempted to hide. I beat him severely and sent him back to work.



Oh, and yes, I know, I need to move the parts washer....



About this same time as it was getting warmer outside....yeah warmer just in time for me to finish insulating... good thing insulation helps keep heat out too... I decided that heating was nice, but cooling and ventalation were important too. I know that if the attic is cooler the room will stay cooler. So I went to Home Depot and low and behold they had a ginormous (picture doesn't do size justice) roof vented fan on clearence for 25 dollars marked down from 147 dollars.

Here is is installed (that is a thermostat wire, not a live wire you see with the wire nut on it):



Around this time interest rates plummeted so we figured it was a good time to refinance. Kristen (my wife) was getting a little concerned about the money I had put into the garage. Boy am I glad we refinanced. We were blessed to be able to get a locked 4.5% interest rate (down from 5.9%). Catch was we had to have enough equity in the house to wrap everything into the refinance, closing costs and all. When the gentleman who did the appraisail came he gave the house the once over then I mentioned the garage. He came out and looked around and told me that he was very impressed and that finished, workable garages are a huge thing right now and mine would easily add 20k to the bottom line for what the property was worth!!!! Needless to say Kristen was all cool with my work on the garage after that and God blessed us with awesome savings thanks to the intrest rate drop!!!! So hey, guys, if the lady tells you not to waste money on the garage just let her know garages are one of the number one equity builders after kitchens and bathrooms!!!

We wrapped up the sheetrocking on the last wall and it was good!!!!



Even put in some ceiling speakers for the front so we wouldn't take up any wall/floor space. The big speakers are hung off the back walls.



All the sheetrocking done it was time to make some room in the garage....

My buddy Anthony and my friend Jamie and my wife helped me blow through the place.





As I mentioned we put in a spot for a kitchen and bathroom. My father found a fantastic microwave for me. It has the normal microwave setup as well as electric oven coils on the top, bottom and back with a convection fan in the back so I can bake, broil, grill, toast or microwave with it. WAY COOL! 15 bucks used but in near perfect shape!!!!



Image looks a little odd cause once again I had to stitch two images together to make one. I really badly need to clean the space out but on top of the countertop above the fridge is a 2 burner stove, and a coffee maker. I also have a deep fryer. On the list is making a nice corner cabiner off to the side you can't see for cups and such.

The bathroom we got the sink for 5 bucks at a garage sale, looked brand new. Toilet was basically new and came out of a remodel. Was sparkling clean too so no comments... it was also free.









I installed a nice little electric baseboard heater the appropriate distance from water for bathroom comfort.



All the sheetrock is of course the greenrock stuff.

The inside of the garage was looking great but the outside was still 2 different colors, mostly didn't have an underlayment below the siding and had huge gaps where siding was missing... That had to change.

[yesterdayze]

Residing is pretty much residing... I tore the old crap off, threw it on the side of the road with a free sign and some very happy lady snapped it up.

No need to bore you guys with details (you know how it is, put down underlayment, make sure your siding is level and even all the way up, make sure seams are staggered and all that jazz) so pictures it is!



My wife was nice enough to help me do the residing at 10 at night when she was tired from a long day and had a headache. Thanks Lady!







All the windows were properly wrapped up:







Here you can see the door on the lawn and garden storage side of things. This is before I put the latch back on.



Once again my neighbours were great as I made a mess in my attempt to make things look better... They said after that it was well worth it.



Oh here is the cat house... radiant floor heating and all...gotta keep the wife happy....



Here is the side, you can see the motorcycle bay and door there. Still need to finish up the door moulding. I built that garage door too.



All done the difference was amazing!!!!

People that drive by each day actually commented to me on how dramatic the difference is

[yesterdayze]

That brings us up to about the last Month or so

About 3 weeks ago a friend GAVE me a milling machine. No, not a little one, a big freaking milling machine. Perfect working order, 15 different chucks, decking bit etc etc!!! SWEET!!!



Fortunately I had plenty of room since my father in law came up for my birthday and spent 2 days helping me clean the garage and take all the scrap and junk to the dump. 685 lbs of crap gone and I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!!!

In the last few weeks I have built new drawers to go in the new workbench. All ball bearing slides and solid construction:







These will end up getting painted all black with brushed nickel handles. Why? Cause it's cool.

Before I had regular roller slides that sucked. Put too many socket sets in and the thing wouldn't open. Now it is smooth as can be.

Some things I have done recently or breezed over:

Installed some new tube lights on the left hand side of the garage, installed a grill over the heater vent to better direct the heat and look nicer(still need to do molding around it), hung the speakers on the wall in the back. Put up a coat rack near the door along with a chalkboard for quick notes. Installed an intercom between house and garage. Put in that organizer bin set in some of the pics. That thing is great, about 100 bucks at Costco or something like that. Installed new garage door rails. Installed an emergency battery backup light. Lots of stuff I have probably forgotten...

I also put insulation in the back of the garage door I built. I hope to replace this soon..... Still looking for a 7ft high 10 or 11 ft (10 is standard, not 11) garage door that is steel, insulated and has no windows. A 12 foot one would also work assuming it is the flat type, that is it has grain but no raised or lowered panels or fake molding. If you anyone has one or knows of someone with one that would rock!!!



Tax free day I went over to Lowe's and bought new shingles for the roof. This Thursday I hope to prep the roof so that Saturday, if the weather holds we can get the roof all re-shingled.

It was great, John Oleen and I went up to Lowe's to get the shingles, we bought them and staggered out pushing our sled with 23 bundles of shingles on it.... yeah, heavy. Then I went to go rent a truck... oopps.... Lowe's in Essex must be the only Lowe's that doesn't rent a truck...@#!$!@#%$#

2 Hours later of sitting on the shingles outside calling anyone I could think of that might have a truck I got a hold of Bear, another biker most of you know, he told me to just come get the truck and I did very gratefully.

Now the shingles sit in my garage waiting placement.







I picked up an air conditioner today for $25. Energy Star rated, 10K btu with a remote in fantastic shape. In the background you can see that I started to paint the shelves.



I also got the perfect garage sign.



So there you have it, that is where I am at today.

Next on my ever growing list:

1. Re-Roofing
2. Finish workbench
3. Mud the ceiling and walls as well as install quarter round molding
4. Create 'cubby hole' shelving dividers for back shelf
5. Paint and trim out the back shelf
6. Insulate the attic (on hold due to needing to save up to buy the insulation, want to put in R38 at least)
7. Epoxy floor
8. Finish plumbing to the bathroom
9. Paint all the walls
10. Finish cleaning and organizing
11. Replace the front door (new door and frame, not reframing)
12. Replace garage door

Some of the toys we've worked on in here. I didn't take pictures of most that I worked on but here is a few *shrug*

So people aren't confused, most of these pictures of bikes being worked on are from LONG before where the garage is at now.

My Bike:


Dano's Bike (Head rebuild):




Another old one of mine (old pic BEFORE starting the garage work):


Freak's old bike (wtf did you do to this thing bro??? lol)







A bunch in there one day, JR's is to the left. That dude won freaking everything at the bike event last summer!



And many more....

Thanks for following along. I welcome comments and suggestions! I hope that this inspires some of you to build up your garages. Get some friends and go for it. So far out of pocket costs have been about $3300 but the majority of that was the addition. It is well worth it to me and I have easily seen the return on that already just with the refinancing. I couldn't have done it nearly as easily without the help of all the friends I mentioned, and some I doubtless forgot to mention. So kudos to them, and get out there and build up your garage!!!! And share your work on here! It is great to read about these things!

I will try to update this as I go along, but there will probably be long stretches of nothing.

[daviid]

looks good, but why did you mount a recess-able ac panel ?

[Mondo]

like i said earlier that is amazing...i want to do something like that you have no idea..

[yesterdayze]

looks good, but why did you mount a recess-able ac panel ?

Yeah, I went back and forth on that. The panel is 4 inches deep and technically they are intended for an inside wall. Since I didn't have the power coming in through an inside wall, recessing in on an outside wall would only leave 2inches behind it for insulation. So I decided to just go ahead and mount it on the wall instead of in it. I may still rethink that, I just don't want anymore low insulation points then I have to. I suppose I could put it in the wall and put a foam board behind.

[Dichotomous]

free slice of pizza for the first person (besides jason) who can find the happy face drawn with screws. I belive I had a fever that day, or a few beers

[Sheppo]

free slice of pizza for the first person (besides jason) who can find the happy face drawn with screws. I belive I had a fever that day, or a few beers

above the heater

[catamount]

You guys should check out a forum called the "garage journal". Its for dudes who lub their garage.

There are some INSANE garage builds in here. They've given me lots of ideas... ...or at least plenty of garage pr0n to drool over.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=7

[Dichotomous]

above the heater

good job, introduce yourself at donnies on tuesday and you get the pizza.

/was hoping it might take a little bit longer to find....

[markbvt]

Nice work, Jason!

--mark

[Sheppo]

good job, introduce yourself at donnies on tuesday and you get the pizza.

/was hoping it might take a little bit longer to find....

I wont be making it there. Pick the first kid under the age of 10 and make him happy.

[Tricky Mike]

Nice. If that mill is 3-phase get a VFD instead of a rotary converter. Totally the way to go for a home shop. It gives total variable speed, is cheaper to run, has a bunch of user-assignable features. That's what I did with mine. The little grey box under the DRO has start/stop, reverse, fast, slow.. Beats the snot out of changing pulleys and being stuck to the limited speeds...



Nice work. Here's what I started out with. Wish I had taken more in-progress pics.

[catamount]

I noticed that one thing is missing... a fridge stocked to the gills with cold beer.

[DocCola]

Very nice garage. I can't wait to buy a house so I can make my own man cave.

[yesterdayze]

You guys should check out a forum called the "garage journal". Its for dudes who lub their garage.

There are some INSANE garage builds in here. They've given me lots of ideas... ...or at least plenty of garage pr0n to drool over.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=7

Yeah, I was looking through that the other day, freaking amazing stuff!!!!

[yesterdayze]

I noticed that one thing is missing... a fridge stocked to the gills with cold beer.

I should have shown it with the door open I spose



Open that fridge and you have your Guiness, Long Trail, Sam Adams, Mike's and chicken wings...

[yesterdayze]

Nice. If that mill is 3-phase get a VFD instead of a rotary converter. Totally the way to go for a home shop. It gives total variable speed, is cheaper to run, has a bunch of user-assignable features. That's what I did with mine. The little grey box under the DRO has start/stop, reverse, fast, slow.. Beats the snot out of changing pulleys and being stuck to the limited speeds...

It is indeed a 3 phase. I am planning on getting a vfd down the road. For now trick starting it with 2 caps works, just not ideal. Glad to hear that those VFD's really do work, I have used plenty of milling machines but none of them had a VFD.

If the area with the milling machine is any indicator it looks like your garage came out great! Let's see some more

[Tricky Mike]

Some more here:

http://www.nestreetriders.com/forum/577644-post7.html

The house was the main project. It was a mess. Tore everything down to the studs, rafters, joists. Roof, siding, flooring, windows, doors, most plumbing... Everything had to go... The shop was my little side project for days when I just couldn't bring myself to work in the house after coming home from my actual job.

tons more here:
http://trick-photo.com/BeforeAfter.html

[yesterdayze]

Some more here:

http://www.nestreetriders.com/forum/577644-post7.html

The house was the main project. It was a mess. Tore everything down to the studs, rafters, joists. Roof, siding, flooring, windows, doors, most plumbing... Everything had to go... The shop was my little side project for days when I just couldn't bring myself to work in the house after coming home from my actual job.

tons more here:
http://trick-photo.com/BeforeAfter.html

Very nice!!! I like it! Good on you for putting in that much work on the house. It never ends does it? Least not till you go nuts on it like that. I've done a few houses that way, just not my own house yet other then a wall here and there. I need to get more shop decoration type stuff up myself. I want to get one of those tin classic jack daniel's posters. That and the MAD poster of Neuman with his bulldog and the some shocked old lady staring at the leash leading out of the bulldogs mouth.

[catamount]

Some more here:

http://www.nestreetriders.com/forum/577644-post7.html

The house was the main project. It was a mess. Tore everything down to the studs, rafters, joists. Roof, siding, flooring, windows, doors, most plumbing... Everything had to go... The shop was my little side project for days when I just couldn't bring myself to work in the house after coming home from my actual job.

Am I reading it right... you bought the house for $2700?

Really nice rehab. I know how much work that is.

[schleppy]

Jesus Mike, you did a hellova job fixing up that dump. Well done!

[Tricky Mike]

Am I reading it right... you bought the house for $2700?

Really nice rehab. I know how much work that is.

Yup... $2700+/- a couple hundred grand. The joke there was I thought I'd take a pic of some cash thinking it was the last I'd see it for a while (I was right).
All I wanted was the frickin garage

[Dichotomous]

I should have shown it with the door open I spose



Open that fridge and you have your Guiness, Long Trail, Sam Adams, Mike's and chicken wings...

the guiness is gone.....