Jump to content

Ruffgeezer's Garage build.. MASSIVE UPDATE!


ruffgeezer

Recommended Posts

This looks pretty good doesn't it? (the wall isn't permanent, we will re-lay that on Wednesday)

IMAG0511.jpg

 

Only problem is, soppy bollocks here forgot to allow for the minimum height of the meter cabinet, so the window is too big.

 

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuq!

 

IMAG0513.jpg

 

:(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hell, how big is your CU and meter?

I have a 22 way CU, DNO meter, PV meter and CU, 2 thwacking great AC isolation switches a gas meter and an invertor in a space about that size.

 

Just a thought - swap your door and window over and put the CU on the wall then you can route all your cabling round the walls without fouling any of the doorways.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, howsabout moving the door to where the window is and vice versa. Fitting the window flush up to the door, building a brick/block pier inside against the concrete wall of the garage to fix the meter unit to at the regulation height and roberts yer mothers brother for less than the price of another window.

 

Or, run the cable to the back of the garage, build a 500mm pier there, affix box to that and again, roberts yer family relation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've found an alternative window that it small enough for the job, I just need to try and get it nearer home than scunthorpe, as although it's only 40 miles away, it'll make a round a 3hr trip out of it!

 

I had considered moving the door, but that would mean re-digging the trench where the cable is run, and there isn't that much wasted space around the window, only around 6" total so still not enough for the meter box.

 

It's a pain in the arse but it is ultimately my own stupid fault, I'm just glad we spotted it now rather than when the window was in!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok well not the finest block work in the world, but on Wednesday, with help from my dad and his friend Phil (owner of a BFO disc cutter) we got the block wall up, it is fairly level and using some brick ties, we have secured it to the timber work in the middle of the garage and it will have the upvc door frame screwed into it as well.

 

IMAG0526.jpg

 

Next up is to build a frame around the top for the new window, we have measurements from the frame, so a little bit of working out later, we have a plan, and a boatload of crap scrap wood to make it from.

 

IMAG0535.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...

Whoops! I need badly to update all this, but as a place holder, check out this score from a yard sale I stopped at after spending the morning at the beach with the bairns:

 

IMAG1273.jpg

 

A fiver well spent methinks, and on the wall within an hour of arriving home.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Ok, I've got my updating hat on just for a while, so as I left you, I had the building up, the cable in the dirt but no power laid on... I'll pick up from there!

 

 

This seems like a lifetime ago, an with the winter closing in, we battled to get the garage weather tight until we could get the window fitted; luckily a large board from the "might come in useful someday" pile fitted almost perfectly:

IMAG0544.jpg

 

Weather tightish and awaiting being plugged in to the mains, it's taking shape!

IMAG0545.jpg

 

I have a small vinyl plotter here that I experimented with to make this, it never made it as far as the wall, but I may revisit it properly one day:

IMAG0553.jpg

 

Starting the window frame, Father Ruff was kind enough to pose for a picture whilst preparing the first upright:

IMAG0597.jpg

 

In the evenings, I'd run an extension cable to the house and carry on painting and moving crap from one corner to another:

IMAG0603.jpg

 

99p's worth of shelves from ebay helped tidy the place up a little:

IMAG0623.jpg

 

The window came from a closed down double glazing sales room, it is admittedly smaller than I'd have liked, however that is good for security, we used some uPvc tongue and groove panels to finish up around the window, and I will pebble dash the blockwork to match the rest of the garage when the weather allows.

IMAG0643.jpg

 

The power cable, awaiting juice:

IMAG0846.jpg

 

The utilities crew came and dug a big hole ready for the power to be tapped into the street supply:

IMAG0847.jpg

 

They had a mini digger, which I consider cheating!

IMAG0848.jpg

 

A right old mess!

IMAG0849.jpg

 

An important moment, a small car fits in around all the other shite that has arrived already!

IMAG0684.jpg

 

The unruly shite has a habit of taking over when your back is turned... just look at all this crap!

IMAG0942.jpg

 

The edging stones were another ebay bargin, costing under £1 each, but I must confess I haven't used all of them, and the rest are still where they are in this picture, which is right in the way! Also notice the seeds of the wiring going down:

IMAG0943.jpg

 

Some scavenged wood shelving has gone up, as well as the beginnings of the work bench, which is tiny by comparison to most on here!

IMAG0955.jpg

 

An evening's work and a lot of scraps of wood made a fairly tidy work surface:

IMAG1020.jpg

 

I had no idea what I was doing, but I reckon this should make it strong enough?

IMAG1021.jpg

 

Workbench finished, the old drawer front will be the base for some sockets for the bench:

IMAG1022.jpg

 

Moving a lot further on, the lights are in as is the whiteboard, as well as Baileycat, the foreman of the garage:

IMAG1061.jpg

 

I now have a drawer FULL of hammers, more hammers than I could probably ever need...

IMAG1063.jpg

 

Snow and flash painting; I buggered this pic up by getting in it to fire the flash:

DSCF4756.jpg

 

Tidyish, but looking busy, once I have the slab for parking down I will sell the cement mixer on again (I snaffled it for £60 when the bearings failed on my old one)

DSCF4742.jpg

 

Cable tray; each circuit has it's own colour cable ties so any potential fault diagnosis is easier, as is any alteration (and yes there has been a few of those already!)

IMAG1149.jpg

 

Part of the agreement with my Wife when we bought the garages is that some of the land outside would be turned over to a bit of garden for our girls, well a chance conversation with our outgoing neighbours provided 2/3rds of the fencing required, and that went up with very little trouble, as for getting some lawn down however, that was another matter!

IMAG1223.jpg

 

This land in front of the garage has a right of access across it, and I could never in my mind think of how best to approach making it my own, marking it off was a good start though:

IMAG1224.jpg

 

A chance yard sale meant acquiring a nice bit of pub signage, not bad for £5!

IMAG1273.jpg

 

My eldest, Beth was only too happy to help finishing the fencing for "her" garden:

IMAG1324.jpg

 

Fencing finished, and it isn't obvious but we had dug a good 9" thick crust of limestone out of this area, and replaced it with some topsoil, ready to lay turf on:

IMAG1327.jpg

 

I elected to put down some 20mm sharp gravel on the communal area, I figured it'd still drain ok, but wouldn't be susceptible to damage from vehicular traffic like paving slabs would be:

IMAG1328.jpg

 

And that's it, nearly up to date!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very impressed with the build there.

Bit unsure about the garden bit. Is the end house yours? If so I wonder why you didnt move the workshop up and extend the garden bit all the way down. If its not though it seems a bit of a weird little chunk of land which could probably have been used to store a dead XM or two on... Of course I dont know the full ins and outs of the parcel of land and the rights of way over it (presumably for the other terraces to access their back gardens on bin day or something?)

 

That said I am mightily impressed with the beer fridge in the workshop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you look in this pic:

080120121441.jpg

 

You can see our house at the top of the alleyway, it's the white one, all we had originally was a 11x8ft yard immediately behind the house, and nothing more, the garage and the strip of land furthest from the house (85x10ft) went up for sale and we bartered it to a sensible price, here is a pic of the lay of the land (Our house is next to the one marked 35)

16848_spi110001_IMG_01_0000.jpg

 

Hope that helps explain it a bit better?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I went back to the now closed garage where I recently bought a haul of chod, I had spotted the owner's car outside and thought it might be worth nipping in for a chat.

 

She was kind enough to show me around and although, sadly it was pretty bare inside, but I did however rescue this:

IMAG1449.jpg

Plus another 2 peg panels should I ever need them, I think it looks good there, it'll soon have the new shelves (in the right of the pic) that I snagged when the garage's contents were sold off a few months back.

 

I've also a lovely SUN tuning sign, but I need to back it on some plywood as it's a bit fragile to hang on it's own.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok so after all the auction stuff I've been collecting up recently, I must confess I have been getting behind with keeping the garage tidy, and with the faint whiff of a viewing on our house, this little lot had to be attended to:

 

 

IMAG1466.jpg

 

 

I started at around 7pm this evening, not arriving at conclusion until 10.30, I think you'll agree with me on 2 things here; 1) No matter how much space you have, it isn't enough. and 2) It doesn't take 2 minutes to fill it with shit.

 

IMAG1467.jpg

 

I did get my Motorcraft peg board up properly though, I think the spray job on the shelves below really brightens them up, I'm glad I took the time to do it now!

 

IMAG1468.jpg

 

 

 

The garage at dusk, just the downlighter & bench light on:

IMAG1469.jpg

 

I'm still not 100% finished with the tidy up, and there are a lot of tools I need to sort through and thin out a bit:

IMAG1470.jpg

 

Anyone want a joblot of airfilters for a fiver? I could do with the shelf space back!

 

IMAG1471.jpg

 

The consumer unit is now hidden in it's own cabinet, giving a decent sized shelf below the window, once I've moved the edging stones out, I'll paint it all and the wall behind.

IMAG1472.jpg

 

A new acquisition; a BFO spanner that will probably never come in handy, unless I need to brain somebody with it!

IMAG1473.jpg

 

Tomorrow, I'll start on cleaning the house!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

IMAG1473.jpg
 

 

Spanner storage or erotic art?  YOU DECIDE. 

 

:mrgreen:

 

Nice garage, man.  You're dead right about not enough space and it filling up again instantly, just been through a similar process here (on a smaller and less interesting scale).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^^^ Yes, that does make it clearer now. I take it the seller retained the first garage plot then as its not outlined in red and assume you have a ROW over the blue area.

I'd love a lock up - there are some for sale near me but the guy wants £9000 for each of them. Ive offered him £6K for one but its been turned down.

As they are still empty I might go back with another offer yet...

947041_150741871780725_244109563_n.jpg

Never actually thought about asking the Norweb Federation about installing 'lecky - I had an idea about just buying a pez genny for power.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...
  • 6 months later...

Well just to update this a little, we bought a second hand kitchen for £200, 90% of it is now fitted to the house, but the last 10% has om nom nommed the last remaining space in the garage, alongside a new coffee table that needs revarnishing and (at last count) 6 cantilever tool boxes...

 

I will update again once it's a little less shit pit and a bit more cars, bikes n tools.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 years later...

Blimey, this is a blast from the past. 

 

What on earth were you looking for when you found this thread? 

We've actually moved twice since I had this one built, but I am up until Friday working opposite where this one is, it currently houses a scruffy Alfa Mito 1.4 turbo. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...