KristinaB's Garage Conversion

I am starting this thread so that I can post the pictures as the construction goes on. Right now, we are waiting to get the building permit, but I have the pictures from where we emptied out the garage.

For those new to the story, we have been living with MIL and her house is too small. I have 5 in my family. that's mother, hubby, myself and our 2 teenagers, 1 girl and 1 boy. MIL has on her 2nd lot, which is now in the names of hubby & I, a 3 bay garage that also has storage area. It is 1344 sq feet and has 11 foot ceilings to the rafters. Father-in-law had at one point a pontoon boat, a SeaCraft boat for salt water and then hubby's Allison bass boat, there were also 2 John boats and 5 canoes in there along with all of MIL's outdoor Christmas decorations.

We are converting the garage into a 4 bedroom 2 bath home. It will be deaf accessible. Since we live on the flight path to an International airport, we are required to have special windows for the noise and also hurricane safe glass.

Now, on to the pictures. To begin with, I have the ones showing some of the boxes and stuff we had. Keep in mind, we moved our family from out of state and had packed a 26 foot Ryder truck and most of that stuff was in the garage.

So where did you put all of that stuff? Must have been quite the exercise going throught it, and I assume sorting and tossing where possible in preparation for this.

It's going to be fun to watch this happen.

Beach girl said:

So where did you put all of that stuff? Must have been quite the exercise going throught it, and I assume sorting and tossing where possible in preparation for this.

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All the stuff went to a storage facility that is 1/4 mile down the road. And no tossing or sorting was done as we had already done that before leaving Missouri.

I do have more pictures, but it takes a while to get them uploaded. Also, didn't want to post all the stuff we had.

Thanks for the pictures. They help us visualize your project and progress. I'll bet you're excited now that things are happening.

Very interested in watching this progress. I worked for a company that did construction, real estate and rental property for their own account and as property manager for others for over 30 years. Thus, am also interested in seeing the floor plan.

What I couldn't get over at this stage is how many of the boxes are dented. I hope you did not find damaged things inside.

Kristina for sharing this with us - what a project!
That's a lotta work and I'm excited for you to make progress

Jane B. said:

Very interested in watching this progress. I worked for a company that did construction, real estate and rental property for their own account and as property manager for others for over 30 years. Thus, am also interested in seeing the floor plan.

What I couldn't get over at this stage is how many of the boxes are dented. I hope you did not find damaged things inside.

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The dented and banged up boxes are one we took things out of. Most are either scrapbooking or crafts or home school stuff. We repacked those before they went to storage.

I will see if I have a scan of the floor plan on the computer, then I can post that as well. The picture with both the webcam and the digital camera did not do it justice. It took 2-3 scans I think.

Interesting. That will be so much fun for you guys to work around the building.

The door that I noticed is too low to the ground in case of rain. I am just wondering about that.

What about the cracks on the walls? I hope that the blocks have filled up with cements inside the blocks. Actually, some houses do not required to fill up the cements.

Good luck with your project!

webexplorer said:

Interesting. That will be so much fun for you guys to work around the building.

The door that I noticed is too low to the ground in case of rain. I am just wondering about that.

What about the cracks on the walls? I hope that the blocks have filled up with cements inside the blocks. Actually, some houses do not required to fill up the cements.

Good luck with your project!

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Side door will be blocked in with cement blocks. Back door will be replaced. The 3 garage doors will be basically blocked in as well. Also, there are no cracks in the walls. What looks like cracks is just the cement between the existing blocks. Current construction has all cinder blocks stacked. Rebar every 4 feet and pounded down 8 feet into ground, then all holes in the block filled with cement, even around the rebar. This garage was built in 1970 and has not had any damage at all except for termites in the doors and subterranean termites in the roof. Roof was resealed 3 times since 1970 and some of the lumber was patched, but all in all, it is solid.

The engineer came out today to verify that it was up to the 2007 hurricane building codes for South Florida. The engineer said that this building would not be going anywhere.He was amazed at the construction and asked MIL if he could see the original building plans for it. To say that he was speechless is an understatement. My in-laws paid $30,000 to have this built in 1970. That tells you just how much they put into it back then.

Kristina, Yeah, it is the best place for your family to live in a cement house. That's wise thing to do. I believe that the price for your house insurance is cheaper than a wood house.

Will have new pictures later this week. Contractor will be cutting the floor to get started on the plumbing. Also, he measured today and I chose the tile last Friday and all the tile, for the floors and the bathrooms are going to be about $3200 for the whole house. That's slightly over 1000 sq feet of actual floor and then the walls of the shower and all. I don't think that's too shabby myself. The tile is running about $2.42 per sq ft.

We did pass on the hurricane code check and the contractor was hoping to get the paperwork today, but it being a holiday he will get it tomorrow. If he can get it early, then we get the permit tomorrow, if it's late, then the permit is delayed. Once we have the permit, he is required to have the house done in 6 months unless he files for an extension and then we run into possible code changes. So, we are still looking at having the house completed by the end of July.

KristinaB said:

Will have new pictures later this week. Contractor will be cutting the floor to get started on the plumbing. Also, he measured today and I chose the tile last Friday and all the tile, for the floors and the bathrooms are going to be about $3200 for the whole house. That's slightly over 1000 sq feet of actual floor and then the walls of the shower and all. I don't think that's too shabby myself. The tile is running about $2.42 per sq ft.

We did pass on the hurricane code check and the contractor was hoping to get the paperwork today, but it being a holiday he will get it tomorrow. If he can get it early, then we get the permit tomorrow, if it's late, then the permit is delayed. Once we have the permit, he is required to have the house done in 6 months unless he files for an extension and then we run into possible code changes. So, we are still looking at having the house completed by the end of July.

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It's exciting, I know...you're gonna be able to use ur blow dryer...and the Air conditioner!...whoot!...Just hoping they might be done before July (as it will be very hot by then here in Florida)....well, you've got 6 months to get those "Party" invitations out!

Awesome!

Engineer did not have the report ready. Contractor is very upset as he told them it has to be ready by tomorrow morning. The person who will issue the permit is only in the office on Wednesdays and if we don't get it tomorrow, we have to wait another week.