Build journal – The garage roof is done!

Yikes, just realized that my last build update was when we finished shingling the garage back in June. Lots to catch up on, starting with the garage roof.

Right from the start, we knew that we wanted a metal roof on our garage and house. Our original colour choice was antique bronze, but then we found out last fall that the colour was discontinued. GAK! But things worked out fine, because we decided to go with a slate blue instead, which looks awesome! As usual, we started with the back of the garage….

Then moved to the front. I say “we”, but the roof was all Brian. I’m too afraid of heights to go up that high. So YAY Brian!

All done!

The concrete floor in the garage is being poured this week. Then we need to build and install the stairs up to the second floor, choose and install the garage doors, and fill in the screw holes and add spacers to the trim. And then the garage will be DONE!

Pretty excited that the garage is almost finished, but even more excited that the house is really underway! That’s up next :-)

Build journal – Garage shingling is DONE!

Wooohooo! Yesterday Brian hammered on the last nail way at the top of the north-facing wall. WOOT!

Here’s Brian up on the scffolding… I tried to get up to the third level, but I just couldn’t do it.

Progress…

Ta-da!

And all the other sides…

 

Now there’s just the little matter of shingling the roof…. that’s totally a Brian job, I just can’t bring myself to climb all the way up there!

Catch up time – Garage progress

Eeek, it’s been few weeks since my last post. But, there’s a good reason for that – LOTS of exciting stuff has been going on and Brian and I have been crazy-busy. Time to play some catch-up!

First, let’s get up to speed on the garage. Last time I posted pics, we were working on the shingling. And we’re still working on the shingling. We might be shingling for the next three years - this garage is one big sucker! But we’ve gotten quite a bit of shingling done since my last garage update…

May 6th – Back side – DONE!

Then we moved to the south end and front of the garage…

May 18th – Front side – DONE! And if I may toot my horn just a bit, I did almost all of the shingling on this side myself :-) This is also around the time I started losing my marbles and kept repeating “Puppy Monkey Baby” over and over and thinking it was the most hilarious thing ever. Don’t ask me why!

Meanwhile, Brian was making good progress on the south end of the garage…

And the front & end together…

Some random shots from around the garage…

May 18th was a big day for another reason – that’s up next!

Build journal – Where did spring go?!

Holy Crap, it was cold out there today! So what kind of work did we do on the garage? Why. screwing and nailing, of course – the kind of work that requires at least one bare hand to hold the screw or nail. We got a fair bit of work done, but man my fingers were frozen! Vent grid is now attached to the front of the garage, and other than two screws, this was all me :-) Girl Power!

Once Brian puts the trim around the garage door openings, we can start shingling this side of the garage. Meanwhile, we’re still working on the north end. I officially can no longer reach high enough from one level of scaffolding, so I’m going to have to try to suck it up and climb up two levels. *GULP*

Some progress shots from  few days ago – see, I really AM up on the scaffolding!

 

I’m really wondering why we’re building such a freakin’ tall garage…. and we’ll need to do this all again for the house and then for Brian’s workshop. GAK!

Build journal – It’s a pass!

The garage passed the inspection – WOOT! Now it’s full steam ahead with installing the trim and siding. We’re going for minimal maintenance, so all the trim is all PVC and the siding is cedar shingles.

I’m not entirely sure why we put up the scaffolding first, seeing as we have to work from the ground up. But here it is 25, feet of scaffolding going up…

Brian added some detail to the corner trim to give it some interest. The holes will be filled with little plugs.

Brian made the window trim too so we could have the exact design we wanted.

We selected 2nd clear shingles, which have some knots. First row of cedar shingle. The knots add some character and interest. First row of cedar shingles in progress…

 

First row done! And it only took an hour :-O

 

And the second row, which pretty much covered up the entire first row!

And the third row, which is kind of the second row.

Up to the windows.

Our friends Kim and Bono came out to help…

Good job team!

 

Lots done, but still s much more to do! I think we’ll be shingling for the next 17 years!

Build journal – Inspection day!

Just when I finally got all caught up with our garage build, I got delinquent about blogging about our progress. Bad me!

Thanks to the continued decent winter weather, we’ve been able to keep moving along with the build. And now we’re at the point where we’re ready for the inspection – YAY! If the garage passes the inspection today, then we’ll be able to move onto installing the cedar shingle siding and metal roof.

Before the inspection could happen, we had to put on the Ventgrid and install the door and windows The two garage doors haven’t been installed yet, but they aren’t required for the inspection.

Ventgrid is basically a plastic grid that goes on top of the wrapping to create an air gap between the shingles and the structure. This allows any moisture that may get in behind the shingles to evaporate, rather than sit there and potentially cause rot. It’s pretty easy to install – a power drill and screws and you’re good to go :-) Except it was kind of cold, and my fingers turned into little icicles! I keep trying to thaw them out by sitting in my hands in the car with the heated seats turned on.

Source

The windows were actually quite easy to install as well. Although I had my doubts that Brian would be able to heave the biggest one up the ladder! But he did… here they come!

I was inside the garage to help guide the windows in place and screw them into place temporarily so Brian could do the adjustments to get the square and level.

 

This view is why we went with a big window instead of the small window in the original plan :-)

 

The windows on the north wall are over the stairwell, so I had to make a little platform to reach them – my levitation skills are a bit lacking ;-)

 

Now bring on the inspector!