Utimate Garage Build - Start to Finish
#1
09-11-2007, 12:58 PM
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Kennydale Hill/Renton, WA
Age: 46
Posts: 44
Rep Power: 19 
Utimate Garage Build - Start to Finish
So I bought this house about 2 years ago. Only reason I bought it was because it had a 24' x 30' garage. No driveway - no patio - crappiest house on the block - Perfect for a remodel and basically a empty canvas..
The deal with my wife was finish the kitchen, bathroom, and a few home improvement project - then - i can start on the garage.
Before we bought the house:
So the first thing I did was the driveway. I wanted a sweet looking stamped concrete. The colors we picked out were much darker as seen in the first finished picture. the colors ended up running and it turned blue. So we have to stain it back to the color we want.
During and after the driveway pour - 2 full weekends 12 hours each day
Next I bought the lift. I didn't plan on buying the lift until after everything was done, but I couldn't pass up on the opportunity for $1400 delivered.
After the 5 hour lift install
After installing the lift, I enjoyed the lift for about 8 months. After working in ±40º weather for 8 months I finally got the funding together to insulate and drywall the entire garage. I couldn't go though another winter with conditions like that.
I found some pictures on-line of other finished garages and figured out what i liked and didn't like about other peoples garages. I used this picture as a "inspiration room" and based my garage project of it:
Inspiration Garage
Since my garage was much taller than the inspiration picture, I decided that extra storage inside the over hangs (aka built in cabinets) and up top would be perfect, so I built them extra beefy. No one ever complained about too much storage.
So I started building the over hangs. Before I put the insulation in, I had to rewire everything, put in new outlet where my work benches were gong and wire in all new lights. So I proceeded to rip every wire in the garage out. I had the entire garage rewired. (Thanks to Dirt McGirt, who gets free lift time for life) During this process I put patio lights on the outside, ran speaker wire, RCAs for the stereo, and coax for the cable. I also made sure there was extra wire from the panel just in case I needed to wire in caned lights for the over hang / built in cabinets.
Finished the built in cabinets, installed all the insulation and most of the wiring done - 1 month work
So after all that was done, it was sheet rock time..... Lots of fun, NOT.
Started installing the sheet rock on the walls, not too hard, Just very time consuming.
Drywall going up 1-1/2 weeks of work
After installing all of the sheet rock on the walls, it was ceiling time. Some coworkers told me to get a few 12' 2x4s and use them to prop them up to the ceiling........... Uh, Yea. they've never done it on a 12' ceiling. So after one hour (thanks Freezermink) installing one 4'x8' sheet of drywall, I went and got a drywall jack at Homedepot.
After 6 hours of installing with the drywall jack & 6 hours of work the next day - finished
So after this, I decided to spend my money some place else to make the garage look better from the outside. (plus I was tired of lifting and cutting drywall for 2 weeks). My wife wanted a new garage door and windows, if you see picture #1 above, it looks like a crappy old industrial park garage. So I also had to make her happy and get something for her too.
The deal with my wife was finish the kitchen, bathroom, and a few home improvement project - then - i can start on the garage.
Before we bought the house:
So the first thing I did was the driveway. I wanted a sweet looking stamped concrete. The colors we picked out were much darker as seen in the first finished picture. the colors ended up running and it turned blue. So we have to stain it back to the color we want.
During and after the driveway pour - 2 full weekends 12 hours each day
Next I bought the lift. I didn't plan on buying the lift until after everything was done, but I couldn't pass up on the opportunity for $1400 delivered.
After the 5 hour lift install
After installing the lift, I enjoyed the lift for about 8 months. After working in ±40º weather for 8 months I finally got the funding together to insulate and drywall the entire garage. I couldn't go though another winter with conditions like that.
I found some pictures on-line of other finished garages and figured out what i liked and didn't like about other peoples garages. I used this picture as a "inspiration room" and based my garage project of it:
Inspiration Garage
Since my garage was much taller than the inspiration picture, I decided that extra storage inside the over hangs (aka built in cabinets) and up top would be perfect, so I built them extra beefy. No one ever complained about too much storage.
So I started building the over hangs. Before I put the insulation in, I had to rewire everything, put in new outlet where my work benches were gong and wire in all new lights. So I proceeded to rip every wire in the garage out. I had the entire garage rewired. (Thanks to Dirt McGirt, who gets free lift time for life) During this process I put patio lights on the outside, ran speaker wire, RCAs for the stereo, and coax for the cable. I also made sure there was extra wire from the panel just in case I needed to wire in caned lights for the over hang / built in cabinets.
Finished the built in cabinets, installed all the insulation and most of the wiring done - 1 month work
So after all that was done, it was sheet rock time..... Lots of fun, NOT.
Started installing the sheet rock on the walls, not too hard, Just very time consuming.
Drywall going up 1-1/2 weeks of work
After installing all of the sheet rock on the walls, it was ceiling time. Some coworkers told me to get a few 12' 2x4s and use them to prop them up to the ceiling........... Uh, Yea. they've never done it on a 12' ceiling. So after one hour (thanks Freezermink) installing one 4'x8' sheet of drywall, I went and got a drywall jack at Homedepot.
After 6 hours of installing with the drywall jack & 6 hours of work the next day - finished
So after this, I decided to spend my money some place else to make the garage look better from the outside. (plus I was tired of lifting and cutting drywall for 2 weeks). My wife wanted a new garage door and windows, if you see picture #1 above, it looks like a crappy old industrial park garage. So I also had to make her happy and get something for her too.
Last edited by Meister; 09-11-2007 at 01:03 PM.
#2
09-11-2007, 12:58 PM
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Kennydale Hill/Renton, WA
Age: 46
Posts: 44
Rep Power: 19
Morning after the garage door install
So I couldn't put the mudding and taping off any longer. Bigglesworth use to mud and tape for a living, so I traded him lift time, hour / hour trade if he would tape it all and get it ready for texture. 24 hours later, the garage was finished and taped. Thanks to Bigglesworth for all the help. Freezermink and I did all the 2nd and 3rd coats of mud, and did a lot of sanding.
I wanted a color that was neutral so it reflected color well, but not too much. Working for a printing company, we paint all our walls with Munsell gray #7. This color both reflects and absorbs that same amount of color and light - perfect detailing and lighting conditions. I also wanted black on the bottom so any hand prints from grease or dirt would not show up as well. Also in case something brushed up against the wall you would not see the marks as much. Chair rail in red would also be a nice accent color.
After paint
Black paint
So now it's race-deck tile time. Unfortunately I was out of money. So white_r!ce suggested I take a pool in the Pac NW forum. I said "no way is anyone gong to give me money for a floor" (early last year the same thing happened and the Pac NW bought rootrider a Nikon D50) So white_r!ce says, 'They bought rootrider a camera, why not you a floor), So I told him, if he wanted to post it, go for it, in exchange I will give free lift time for ever $20 people gave.............. 7 days later, they raised the $2000 and the race deck was ordered.
Race-deck was delivered by Jessica, a smokin' hot chick :thumbup:
http://www.yourgaragesolution.com/
Time for install (My 30th Birthday!)
Before
During
All it took was 5 hours to install then the drinking began!
All done
All that I need to finish now is install the rest of the brushed aluminum ceiling tiles and build the cabinets doors for the built in cabinets.
So I couldn't put the mudding and taping off any longer. Bigglesworth use to mud and tape for a living, so I traded him lift time, hour / hour trade if he would tape it all and get it ready for texture. 24 hours later, the garage was finished and taped. Thanks to Bigglesworth for all the help. Freezermink and I did all the 2nd and 3rd coats of mud, and did a lot of sanding.
I wanted a color that was neutral so it reflected color well, but not too much. Working for a printing company, we paint all our walls with Munsell gray #7. This color both reflects and absorbs that same amount of color and light - perfect detailing and lighting conditions. I also wanted black on the bottom so any hand prints from grease or dirt would not show up as well. Also in case something brushed up against the wall you would not see the marks as much. Chair rail in red would also be a nice accent color.
After paint
Black paint
So now it's race-deck tile time. Unfortunately I was out of money. So white_r!ce suggested I take a pool in the Pac NW forum. I said "no way is anyone gong to give me money for a floor" (early last year the same thing happened and the Pac NW bought rootrider a Nikon D50) So white_r!ce says, 'They bought rootrider a camera, why not you a floor), So I told him, if he wanted to post it, go for it, in exchange I will give free lift time for ever $20 people gave.............. 7 days later, they raised the $2000 and the race deck was ordered.
Race-deck was delivered by Jessica, a smokin' hot chick :thumbup:
http://www.yourgaragesolution.com/
Time for install (My 30th Birthday!)
Before
During
All it took was 5 hours to install then the drinking began!
All done
All that I need to finish now is install the rest of the brushed aluminum ceiling tiles and build the cabinets doors for the built in cabinets.
#3
09-11-2007, 12:59 PM
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Kennydale Hill/Renton, WA
Age: 46
Posts: 44
Rep Power: 19 
#5
09-11-2007, 01:45 PM
Registered User
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Chester County, PA
Posts: 5,897
Rep Power: 282 
