FINISHED IN 2020! Sharward's Partial Garage Conversion

Awesome and congradulation keith. Youve earned every bit of that permit and thier respect. And now you can start dedicating more time to MY design...more beer for me.

I went to the pizza place with my laptop at lunchtime today to do the concrete illustration. It's 766 pixels wide -- a bit beyond the rules for the forum, so I shrunk it down to 75% here so it looks chunky and jaggy. The full size version looks much cleaner. Hopefully this will be good enough for their purpose! :roll:

Keith, moving along VERY nicely; BTW, I'm now firmly convinced that you've been secretly paying all your "Northern California Obsessive Studio Droolers Club" members a penny a hit to just sit and click on your thread over and over and over and over - 13,368 views :shock: - c'mon, fess up; you actually set up a "bot" to run up your count, din'cha? :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: Seriously though, glad you'll actually be able to play yer drums before too much longer, 'way cool. Doni, if you're reading this (and I know you are) WTF is a "cat" ??!? Never heard the term either (other than the 5 that share my space, that is)... Steve

knightfly wrote:

Keith, moving along VERY nicely; BTW, I'm now firmly convinced that you've been secretly paying all your "Northern California Obsessive Studio Droolers Club" members a penny a hit to just sit and click on your thread over and over and over and over - 13,368 views :shock: - c'mon, fess up; you actually set up a "bot" to run up your count, din'cha? :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Ha! :lol: Yeah, you'd think that were true, huh? ;) Actually, I've noticed that the "daily hit count" on my thread has gone from about 100 to about 200 per day, just over the past week or two. Not a lot of posters, but definitely a lot of :roll: lurkers :roll: . It's cool -- I can only hope that people are learning from all my missteps and incorrect assumptions, however difficult they have been to follow.

Seriously though, glad you'll actually be able to play yer drums before too much longer, 'way cool.

Well, I wouldn't block out any dates for the grand opening anytime soon -- holy crap, I've got my work cut out for me! :shock: And it's going to be expensive -- that mini split and the ventilation system are going to set me back about US$4,000 alone! :shock: Thanks for the well wishes, Steve. You know you're going to be "right up there" on my Opening Day speech. :mrgreen:

Steve, Pretty sure that a "cat" is a horizontal brace between two studs about half way up the wall a.k.a. stringer or noggin (UK). Helps keep the wall frame rigid. Keith has drawn these in his framing diagrams. Hopefully Doni will confirm. Marc

PhiloBeddoe wrote:

. . . a horizontal brace between two studs about half way up the wall . . .

Correct. Doni confirmed.

Keith has drawn these in his framing diagrams.

Had. I removed them. I'll add them if the city makes me. :)

Steve wrote:

Doni, if you're reading this (and I know you are)

LOL to funny

Steve wrote:

WTF is a "cat" ??!? Never heard the term either (other than the 5 that share my space, that is)... Steve

As Phil said a horizontal brace between 2 studs to help keep wall frame rigid. What can I say it's a framing term. Although I have never heard them called stringers or noggins before but then of course that's in a different part of of the world. And we'll have to start referring to the cats that share yours and Kieths space as the 4 legged kids To me a Stringer is part of a set of stairs and a Noggin is what my kids give a headache to as soon as I walk in the door from work BTW Kieth awesome man can't wait to start seeing some framing progress

DreaminDrumBeats wrote:

. . . can't wait to start seeing some framing progress

Well, the first "progress" you'll see after I get my permit will be (in somewhat chronological order):

• Ripping off existing wallboards
• Beefing up existing outer leaf walls
• Cutting concrete
• Breaking up and removing concrete
• Hauling away concrete
• Moving some earth
• Prepping the soil
• Setting forms
• Setting rebar
• Pouring concrete

So, as you can see, there's a lot that needs to be done before any framing can happen -- and, oh, by the way, have I mentioned I'm not experienced in any of this?! :shock: Holy crap! Am I really doing this? :roll:

I dropped off my plans at the permit center today, along with my $103 plan check fee. I asked the guy what he thought my chances of getting a permit after the first round were. He said probably around 40%. It's somewhat expected that there will be some corrections or requests for clarification/documentation, but given that the person who will be doing the plan check is already quite familiar (and generally supportive) of my project, it's likely that any such things will be minor. I predict that by the middle of September, I'll have my permit in hand! Cross your fingers and toes, peoples! --Keith :mrgreen:

good luck. Do you have to pay that fee every time you submit a plan?

Ballgame wrote:

good luck. Do you have to pay that fee every time you submit a plan?

If it's just minor corrections/clarifications to something that's already been checked, then I don't think so. Here's my city's residential plan check fee schedule. The fee is based on the valuation of the project. With the assistance of the counter person, we declared the value of my project at $10,000. This does not count the $325 permit fee, any inspection fees, and other various (mostly small) fees and surcharges.

Good news -- I just got voice mail that "my plans are ready for pickup" at the permit center -- which I'm assuming means there are some corrections to be made. Bad news -- I have to wait until they open on Monday morning to see them! :evil:

You for sure have a ton of patience. I don't know how you've mananged to stay sane knowing that you are as close to starting as you are but then having to wait for one more thing that pops up.

Teacher in an adult sex ed class at a local community college - "How many have sex every night?" (3 hands raised) "How many have sex every OTHER night?" (7 hands raised) "How many have sex at least twice a week?" (14 hands raised) "How many have sex at least once a week?" (12 hands raised) "Twice a month?" (4 hands raised) "Once a month?" (2 more hands raised) Realizing there were 43 in the class and only 42 hands so far - "How many have sex at least once a year??" One guy at the rear of the class, bouncing up and down in his seat, grinning, raises his hand - Teacher, perplexed - "Why are you so happy when you only have sex once a year?" "IT'S TONIGHT!!?!..." Sooo, Keithers, you bouncin' yet??!? :wink:

Steve, Mrs. Sharward and I got quite a kick out of that! :lol:

I take it she's the CUTE one on the ball of yarn, right?? :wink:

Ladies and gentlemen... Boys and girls... Hear ye, hear ye... I have an important announcement to make. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: I GOT IT! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: And, much to my surprise, there were no corrections noted! It feels great to have reached this critical milestone in my project! My thanks to all whose contributions have made this possible. Next steps: Interviewing concrete contractors, tearing down wallboard, and beefing up outer leaf walls.

Congratulations. Looking forward to more updates.

RIGHT ON MAN CANT WAIT TO SEE MORE PICS

I've got two concrete contractors lined up for on-site consultations, one for Wednesday and one for next Tuesday.

• The "Wednesday" guy has 16 years of experience and is just starting his own business -- still working on getting his contractor's license but he can (supposedly) work as a sub under another company to satisfy the legal requirements.
• The "next Tuesday" guy is a recommendation from the company that did all concrete work at my house, but he has a 500 square foot minimum so he may be too expensive (we'll see).

500 square foot minimum - Just tell him it's really 500 square feet of his usual thickness, but in three layers... :wink:

Ha! :lol: Just when you thought I was done doing nifty drawings... Here's my plan for the concrete. Doing the outer leaf wall area first seems to make the most sense, so that the perimeter isolation board can be the forms for the isolated pad. Those with even a tiny bit of knowledge of concrete -- please post your feedback! :roll: Don't let the pretty colors fool you -- I'm clueless when it comes to concrete!! :shock: Hopefully this drawing will help me communicate the needs of my project to the concrete people. Or maybe, just maybe, I'll tackle most of this myself. :?

I met with the first concrete guy this morning. I really like him. He seems to really know his stuff and is very eager to do the work and knock my socks off with his purported commercial-grade quality and attention to detail. He's flexible, willing to do as much of or as little of the work as I wish, allowing me to save money by doing much of the work myself. And the "as yet not in writing" numbers he was contemplating aloud were quite reasonable. The only hitch is that even though he's been doing concrete for 14 years, he's new in operating his own business, and he has yet to secure a contractor's license. (He's waiting on state bureaucrats.) Fortunately, he partners with a couple of other contractors/buddies in town and it's possible that I'll be able to work through those entities in order to meet the legal requirements. Or I might hire him as a "consultant" to guide me through the work. I made it clear: if he does the work, there has to be a license (and insurance of course). But I may let him consult me without the license.

Woo-hoo! 8) I broke ground today, tearing all the gypsum wallboard off my east wall. Unfortunately, I made a few unfortunate discoveries:

• The OSB is actually 3/8" thick, not 7/16" or 1/2" thick as I had believed. But that's the least of my concerns, because...
• The OSB stops just a few feet south of the vents! :evil: So instead of having OSB all along that wall, it covers only about a third of it! This means I'm going to have to cleat in some OSB as my first beef-up layer along most of that wall in order to have a surface able to be screwed into for subsequent beef-up layers. :cry: I had planned on doing this method for the other two walls, but now I have to do it for all three walls.
• There are quite a few areas where what I assume are chicken wire screws missed the stud, so in order to apply a beef-up layer, those very thick staples (they're like nails) have to be cut off, ground off, or something. :roll:

Where you see black paper, immediately on the other side is (what I assume to be) 1" of styrofoam, and on that is (I assume) chicken wire and about 1/2" of stucco (if I'm lucky). :roll:

keith, congrats on the wall-breaking! don't you love surprises? get used to it :) :) at least styrofoam is flat ... 8) ... for a minute there i thought you were gonna have "wavy stucco syndrome." dan