Two Old Curmudgeons Construction Co.

STORY FROM 2010

GARAGE CONSTRUCTION

Cast from the same mold as Mike Holmes, Carol was calling us “Two Old Curmudgeons Construction Company.”

 “The slab is not level!”  Mark said peering through the transit.

“Crap!”  I replied, holding the stadia rod.

“Yeah, it is down about 0.5” in the northwest corner and high by about the same amount in the opposite corner.”

“That damn concrete contractor!”  I cursed.

That error led to Mark and I spending the better part of two days shimming the bottom plate level.  Another carpenter would have built on the slab as it was.  When we got done the bottom plate was within 1/8” of level in 60’.  The advantage was that we didn’t have to adjust for the unlevel condition of the slab for the rest of the construction and as you can see from the picture, the building is straight!

Mark is one of my climbing buddies and a good friend; we have known each other since we were on the swimming team in High School.  He lives in Hill City, about 25 miles north of our place and works as a carpenter – he is a gifted craftsman!  I hired Mark for a couple of weeks to help me put up walls and roof of the garage and shop.  I really like him because he is a pain in the ass about details – just like Mike Holmes on the TV show.  I am a lot like Mike Holmes too, so Mark and I had a great time being precise and doing it right!

The garage is built on a peninsula of rock that slopes off about 8’ in 60’ to the west.  At the high end is the garage, 28’ x 28’, with two 7’ x9’ garage doors on the east side and a man door on the south side.  The garage is going to be our home while we build the house so we installed a ½ bath and a dog wash (we had an issue with the septic system sizing so had to down grade the bathroom to a ½ bath without a shower so we could get the building permit.)

The shop floor is 4’ lower than the garage floor and is 28’ x 32’ with a 12’ ceiling.  There is a man door, a 10’ x 10’ overhead door and five fixed pane windows on the south face and a double man door  and two single hung windows on the west end.  There will eventually be a covered timber framed deck on the west end of the shop that will be accessed via the double doors.  The west edge of the deck will be 6’ to 8’ off the ground – the ground slopes away into a ravine – it will be great sitting out there in the evening quaffing a beer after a hard day of work.

The walls are 2x6 and the roof is framed with an asymmetrical truss, designed so the south face will accept direct application of solar collectors.  We covered the walls with plywood and I had a contractor put some paint on it the same color as tree bark, but the plan is to install vertical steel siding, a board and batten design with a wood texture and the same color as tree bark.  The roof was covered with roll roofing this fall but it will get steel roofing the color of the pine needles when the house is roofed.  The goal is to get the garage and shop to blend into the background of the forest.  So far, so good, from the road (about 100 feet) it is hard to see.

We started construction middle of May, 2009.  I had a contractor excavate the site, there was about a foot of soil across the site, but in one corner they had to pop (dynamite) the rock.  Carol and I built step footings down the hill, pinned into the rock.  I hired a concrete contractor to pour the concrete.  Then we built stem walls using insulated concrete forms (ICF), they stack like Lego’s, put down a row, put in the rebar, then another row.  At this point we were level to within an 1/8” in 60’.  We had the contractor fill the forms with concrete after we returned to Fargo.

We came back for a week over the 4^th of July.  Our objective was to install under-slab insulation, the PEX in-the-slab radiant heating system and rebar.  It rained for days!  We extended our stay by one day, worked until late and got back to Fargo about 4:00 am.

The slab was poured the next week.

We came back in August for two weeks, that was when Mark and I put up the walls and roof.

We hired a contractor to paint the walls and put up the roll roofing.

We came back for another week over Columbus Day.  We drove through a snow storm to get to Custer, there was 8” of snow on the ground at our place, the temperatures were hovering just above zero.   The first days on the job were pretty chilly, but the temperature continued to rise day by day and the day we left we turned on the AC in the truck as we pulled out the driveway.

Our next trip is planned for mid May, we have two weeks: one week to rough in the electrical wiring and get it inspected and another week to insulate and sheetrock the garage.

We plan to take another week later in the summer to finish up the wiring and insulate and sheetrock the walls in the shop.

I am retiring on the 30^th of November and on the 1^st of December Carol and I are moving to Custer for 2 months.  During that time we will complete the plumbing, install an antique Yǿtel wood burning stove in the shop and if the weather cooperates, start framing up the deck on the west end of the shop.