I was thinking of putting something right over that smaller door... and that will do just fine. :D

WE really need to focus our energy on the larger expanse first. Maybe a 3X life bronze statue on wheels of GW in the Heisman pose to break of the expanse of the big door and a tasteful coordinating bronze "a**holes Garage" plaque over the smaller door?

Like most things -- life is a compromise. I'd prefer the door be on the side of the house... but there's no way to make that happen. The fact that Gwen is letting me spend a million dollars building a garage to store a truck in is good enough for me.









You just pipe down!!!


LOL







Interior to bottom of poured in place concrete beams is 16'.... then the house floor is fir'd up off that so they have place to insulate and run plumbing / heating etc.

This wasn't dubbed the "garagemahal" by the builder for nothing.... the entire "dig" has the whole f'n town stirred up! The "what if you have to dynamite" up there... the floor slab thickness (had to get axle weights from Freightliner)... the size of the footings (8' wide)... and on and on....









There's a hidden compartment where the rock flips open and a laser guided Dillion Aero is mounted there -- Oh -- did I mention it's also outfitted with facial recognition software??










Please re-read the above message in response to your other nefarious post. I do like the Aholes garage plaque idea though!! Had Stella trained at SOB Farms... The trainer told me that stands for "south of Bellevue" when people have to ask. We get along swimmingly.

You gotta have the "A-holes Garage" sign somewhere! :lol:

"Home Sweet Home" signs are overdone.

I have two of them in the shed now -- two separate "gifts" from two separate "friends".


Haven't seen either one of them since.... wonder what ever happened to them...

Here, let me refresh your memory.............

http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/a...ix/file-14.jpg

:welcome3:

:lmao:

G Dub's my daddy! Dats Right! Dats who me daddy is!

Think about this just a minute.... I haven't had a drink for 29 YEARS!!!





http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/a...s/IMG_1121.png

OK I've thought about it. Gwen had an easier time talking you into a glass of wine as apposed to Viagra.

HAHAHAHAHAHA

No wait......That's Mr Potato head with his angry eyes on

HAHAHAHAHA

:lmao:

I'm envisioning a similar look to that on the faces of numerous gas station attendants when Dave and Rob pull in.

Oh man I love it LOL :lmao:

Amazing setup btw!

Back on topic a bit, well not really on the original topic...but the new topic...

Greg, you mentioned that you are setting the garage up with the ability to wash the vehicles inside. Are you sloping the floors to drains in the centers of the floors or slanting all of the floors towards one end or the garage doors perhaps? I've seen it done both ways with varying degrees of success and unsuccessfulness. Just curious if you are that far along in the planning stage and which way you are leaning?

When I first saw your plans, I was thinking the shop area was going in the building up by the motor court, but now I can see that it looks like that is going to be the "finished car garage" and the shop and work area is going to be under the house by where the toterhome and the daily drivers will park.

If that is correct, are you concerned about fumes from the shop getting into the living areas... Paint, welding, parts solvent etc?

There's so much SNOW here -- that all the houses are built with drains in the floors so that the snow melts and has a place to go. The shop will have SEVERAL drains for water to run to.

The garage/shop area is being treated as an S2 Commercial building (even though it's part of the house)... and it has it's own ventilation system - separate heat - and A/C.

It will also be built with "make up air" system.

It's all solid poured in place concrete -- including the ceiling of the shop - forming basically a big ass cement box. There's separate mechanical spaces to serve the house so there's no penetrations thru the ceiling into the house areas. That's why there's a sub floor on top of the concrete roof of the shop.

I didn't really understand your question about parking.... so I'll just say -- the shop is the shop -- for the toterhome and trailer -- and my track cars and hot rods -- There is a SEPARATE 4 car garage for the daily driven stuff up and to the left with it's own driveway etc.

Most of the time - after being serviced - the track cars go back in to the trailer - ready to go. Since they're not capable of being street driven - having access to them isn't a requirement... and I'll NEVER park my pick up truck in the shop unless I'm loading or unloading something. We just did a mock up drawing showing spaces so I could have an idea of access etc. That was so we could get the support columns in the right places (to hold up the house but not be in my way!).

NO DAILY DRIVERS EVER GO IN THE SHOP.... only cool stuff goes in there. My trailer is a 3 car stacker -- so it can take 3 of my 4 cars.... and we have 3 daily drivers -- so the 4th "hot rod" can go up with them in the other garage if I'm doing something that requires all the floor space I can muster...

Lance ---


This is the SEPARATE (from shop that's UNDER the house) 4 car garage... for the normal stuff. Note there's no mechanical stuff in here -- no hot water heaters or furnaces etc. Those are in their own mechanical rooms in various locations in the house.


NOTE TOO --- 4 drains. One in the center of each space --- under the cars to catch the snow melt.






http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/a...eld/Garage.jpg

I gotcha... that makes sense.

They started building suspended floor garages around here a few years ago, mainly due to fill reasons but it morphed into a feature. Basically they build a subgrade concrete room and form and pour a floor above it which becomes the floor for the normal attached garage. This gives the home a fully concrete room below the garage to use as storage, safe room (think tornadoes), wine cellar, whatever. At first I was leery of the suspended garage floors and their strength but they seem to have all that figured out and it works real well.

Sounds like you are going to have kinda the same deal, only you'll have doors on the end of it to drive your stuff in and out of.

Do they do any geothermal heat pumps out that way or is it all gas or propane forced air heat?

Yes they do -- and in fact -- they can be REQUIRED... depending on the size of the house etc. I'm not sure whether or not we'll have that requirement but we don't expect to.

We did have a discussion this week about SOLAR but solar is not really suited for the winter temps here... so it's only used as a "supplement" to the "sow melt" systems for driveways and walkways etc -- and these still require boilers.
Our house has no South or Southwest facing rooflines to install Solar on -- just due to the orientation of the rooflines - so we don't plan to use any.

The roofs on houses here are built so that the SNOW DOES NOT MELT..... weird because that means you have a big snow load on the roof.... but what they don't want is melting snow running all over and then it freezes and turns to ice -- so they construct the roof area to be COLD. Go figure.... but it makes sense once you're here.

Love that you have built in accommodations for your dog(s) Greg, we are dog people too and understand that completely. Looks good... can't wait to watch as it goes forward.

The "mud room" -- which is really necessary over here with the hiking and mountain biking etc... is dual purpose -- to clean poor little Stella off --- and maybe need to leave her there to dry... but then we realized we should be able to leave her there and have her be able to get outside for business.... Gwen already has plans for one additional Lab and perhaps two more (for 3).... so we MUST accommodate the menagerie!


One of the main - in fact THE main reason we switched cars out -- is to be able to have Stella with us. We go - she goes.

What is that wall around the dog run consist of and what will the floor\ground in that area be?

It looks like that is also where the only "people door" around there to enter the house from the outside is?

We incorporated a people door into the side of our garage and it is the most used door in the house. All of our friends know that is the door we use to come in and out (when not driving a car in) and they use it as well.

That's TBD -- since it was kind of a last minute add on. There will need to be a separate dog door.... and yes that's a man door.

The back of the garage is into the hillside or I'd have a door back there... So what happens is the front of the garage is at ground level -- but the two bedrooms above it are 2 story - but they end up at ground level on the back side and have sliding glass doors out to a patio area. You'd have to see the crazy ground this is being built on to really see how it all works -- but there's three or 4 completely separate elevations. The garage is one level - the living space (kitchen etc) is up about half a story - our bedroom area is up another half a story - and the junior suite is on the same level as the two guest rooms above the garage even though it's behind the living areas "up the hill". The ground has a big ass draw through it - and we used that draw as a means to access the house and build the shop etc.





http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/a...ey/file-27.jpg

GW - Food for thought - You might factor into the interior designs strategic view points for Stella to keep watch on the perimeter of the property. Might sound silly but Labs (and other naturally protective breeds) need that. I didn't give that enough though when designing out place. If they can't visually confirm certain perimeter areas they'll get a little over-active to outside noise when contained inside. There's a couple "dark" areas around our house that lead to Rev demanding to go outside to inspect since he can't visually confirm.

It's 1.6 acre lot.....







http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/a...d5fad5fd93.jpg

We didn't have enough roof for our solar soooo.......
(obviously with your views, not something you would want to look at)

http://pic40.picturetrail.com/VOL267.../408537348.jpg


Also, you said this is to be the forever home and yet it's multi-level? What are your thoughts/plans for the inevitable bad knees and busted hips?


Jeff-

For the dog run area having a low masonary perimeter wall capped with steel fencing and a "jail" style door might work well for the dog and be visually appealing from motor park area. Then install a dog door in the mudroom exterior door for convenience.

Installing a perimeter invisible fence has been one of my better moves. Being able to let the dogs out when ever they want and not have to worry about them breaching the perimeter is good peace of mind. And after a couple months they don't need to wear the invisible fence collar to obey the perimeter.

http://www.sportdog.com/in-ground-fencing

Rev and Tucker seem very content to stand watch for hours at a time at the front of the house.

A) That kind of solar install ain't going to happen!



B) The drawings don't produce well enough to show details on here via JPG's -- but there's a 3 story elevator going from the Shop - Main floor - Upper floor (bedrooms).

Funny, I said the same thing for over a year. I lost. Now, instead of a beautiful forest view out the back, I have power station.



Knew you had the magic conveyance but thought it was more of a main house lift, didn't realize it could service the whole tri-plex. :headspin:


BTW, I'm sure everyone is going to enjoy all that you are willing to share on this adventure. Especially the hiccups.


Jeff-

I'm 100% positive that SV Corp -- the folks that own most all of town and this whole plat... would NEVER let us put that kind of deal on the property. If we could get it on the south facing roof yes - but not freestanding like that. And with 5 and 6 feet of snow --- frankly it just doesn't work worth a dang in the winter. Our living room floor is at 6272' feet above sea level.



So re: Sharing the build.


Sieg and I had talked about this earlier --- and frankly it wasn't really something I was going to do. I feel a bit funny about sharing what I have already. I think it kind of gives the wrong "impression" and I know that there's lots of guys here who are just saving up for wheels -- and here I am showing off this house with an elevator...

But the other part of me says -- well hell -- we're all sharing whether or not we're having a car built at the Roadster Shop or Ironworks etc -- or doing it at home in a single car garage.... and I personally enjoy ever damn one of them. So I don't know....

The only reason I started at all was because Jody asked the question - being funny I know - but to me -- THE SHED part of the build is the most interesting and then of course it leads to all the other questions about how it fits in etc.

So I'm just rolling with it as it relates to "CARS".... and shop etc.

Many here may have seen them already, but if not, here is a review of solar shingles.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...solar-shingles

TAX SHELTER: Recently solar shingles have become price-competitive with bolt-on panels, and are getting much more popular accordingly. On top of that, federal, state and local incentives can bring the cost down considerably more. Pictured: solar shingles from the Dow Powerhouse line.

Dear EarthTalk: I’m getting my roof redone and have heard about solar shingles. Are they available—and are they practical for the Northeast?—John Denson, Glastonbury, Conn.

Solar shingles are photovoltaic cells designed to look like and integrate with conventional asphalt roof shingles. First commercially available in 2005, solar shingles were much more costly than traditional “bolt-on” photovoltaic panels, and thus were used mainly by those wanting to go solar but maintain a traditional roofline. But more recently solar shingles have become price-competitive with bolt-on panels, and are getting much more popular accordingly. Eco-conscious home and building owners might find solar shingles especially attractive when they are re-shingling anyway since the solar shingles also double as functional, protective and weatherproof roof shingles in their own right.

The biggest name in solar shingles is Dow’s Powerhouse line, which uses cutting edge Copper Indium Gallium Selenide solar cells (aka “thin-film” solar) to turn sunlight into electricity via a supplied inverter box. The Powerhouse shingles generate 12 watts per square foot and are “grid-tied,” meaning they’re designed for structures already connected to the power grid and can send excess power back to the grid. They are wireless, snap together and can be installed by regular roofing contractors just like (or alongside) conventional asphalt shingles (an electrician needs to set up the inverter box).

Dow reports that a typical residential cluster of 350 solar singles on a roof could slash one’s household electric bill by 40-60 percent. Such an installation can cost a homeowner over $20,000, but federal, state and local incentives can bring the cost to half that in some areas. Powerhouse shingles are currently available (from Dow-authorized contractors) in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Washington, D.C.

Another leader in solar shingles is building products manufacturer CertainTeed. The company’s Apollo line of grid-tied monocrystalline solar shingles and roofing tiles offers efficiency similar to larger “bolt-on” photovoltaic arrays at around the same price (and incentives similar to those for Dow may also apply) but with less bulk: Each Apollo tile is less than an inch thick and will integrate with, replace, or lay on top of existing asphalt roof shingles or tiles and generate 12 watts of power per square foot.

CertainTeed says a typical installation will save homeowners 40-70 percent on their electric bills. Their Apollo products are available across the U.S. but the company recommends using one of their authorized roofing contractors to make sure they are installed properly.

Now is an especially good time to go solar—shingles or otherwise—because costs have started to come down and the federal government is still offering 30 percent tax credits with no cap on the purchase of solar electricity equipment. Twenty-seven states and several cities offer additional incentives that can get pricing on solar gear and installations down even lower. For more information check out the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (DSIRE), a free online resource provided by the North Carolina Solar Center and IREC with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy.

It's going to be so cool to see this go up. Awesome setting.

Well thank gawd I have Charley selling cars so I can fund the dump!

Greg, thats a pretty cool place. I like the shop under the main house idea.

Thanks Eric!!! We've worked on this place pretty hard to try to get it right. This is the famous "last house ever".... HA! So I'm going to get everything I ever wanted packed into it.

Nice shack Greg! I wouldn't lose any sleep about sharing (showing off) the new place. I cant afford a pro built car but I can get great ideas and learn something from the build threads. I'm at the opposite end of the money scale, saving for not only wheels but trusses and a new roof...it's just money right?

It's always entertaining reading about your builds, as the kids say, this is going to be epic!
Is the shed big enough to load/unload inside?

:cheers:
Dan

YES IT IS

Weld,
You need to do the build thread on this. We can always put it to a vote for ya:idea: :secret:

Bill

Thanks Bill --- But I'm really thinking it's inappropriate... Maybe the shop portion of the house -- 'cause that pertains and could be interesting to others... but I'm not sure I want to share the rest of it. That just doesn't feel right to me.

I agree...and you know there's a chance I'm right.

:D

I say to hell with the house, that's private for the most part. I'd be interested in seeing the concrete box being built, mechanicals, lighting, yada yada.

Share what you want and what you feel comfortable with, I'm sure it's not the first time you've been inappropriate!

:buttkick:
Dan