My man cave build - UK edition

[Sooner or later]

I am sad. This thread is heading to a quick close.

[tevake]

Your back yard is looking great Cap'n.

There is still finishing the interior and decorating it. I'm thinking there will be some very interesting things to be seen as that happens.

Cheers Richard

[daepp]

That just looks stupendous!

[daepp]

As clearly there is no shortage of work ethic and brains at your home, maybe you should engineer a turntable for the space in front of your garage ; )

This is a house in Laguna Beach one of my commercial tenants used to lease:





Of course, you could engineer an automated one like this:








FWIW - really thankful you shared this build with us. What a delight!!

[Captain Ahab Jr]

thank gents, really pleased you're still enjoying the updates

our plot is still very much a building site but having a lawn was a good milestone for us

sooner or later, I promise this thread will not come to a quick close, updates are done in real time with still a huge amount left to do

daepp, you're a bad man, I'd originally designed in a car turntable into the driveway layout but then decided it was too much expense/effort. Now thanks to your post it's a definite maybe again

This update is all about Mrs Ahab's work on her own side project when she's not running the house hold. All done with minimal interference from me other than a bit of cutting, heavy lifting/cementing of the flagstones and the occasional 'are you sure'

This is before the digging out began



Blocks on their side (left of the picture) are to allow room for underground services in/out of the shed hot/cold water, waste water, electrics, airline to the garage etc



Concrete base of steps going down and concrete block inner retaining wall for the lawn



Stone outer walls and step faces being built



2"/50mm ish thick flagstones all in place, still got the last 2 bottom steps to do. Went for quite shallow steps so our old, worn out, weary legs can make it up into the garden after we've finished it all



Next on my project list is to neaten up the front of the shed concrete slab. I laid these out just to check the different widths work well together. These flagstones are Fred Flintstone spec., thickness is 3"/75mm thick and yes they're as heavy as they look



We're lucky to have a stone company almost on our door step, all stone for the shed is local stone and new but the flagstones are old and from the north of England. Our stone guy is one of the UK's largest distributors of paving flagstones and buys at auctions whole street's at a time. Not cheap like most +100yr old reclaimed building materials but I think worth every penny

[Scott Douglas]

Wow, that lawn turned out great.
My drought stricken lawn looks more like what you started with.

[dan79brooklyn]

Love the stonework. Growing up in the States I never saw that kind of vertically stacked stones at the top of the wall. The other day I was watching an episode of Shaun the Sheep (with my son ) and I noticed the farmer has the same arrangement on his farm’s walls!

[LJ851]

Any progress here?

[gduke2010]

Been following. Some awesome masonry work

[Captain Ahab Jr]

thanks Scott, think we timed it perfectly, it has rained and rained and grown in well so should be reasonably hardy for winter

thanks dan, that style of walling was done without any mortar, we cheated!

thanks gduke, our builder and Mrs Ahab are the masonry experts

Wanted to have the front of the shed stone done by now but weather hasn't been kind and other distractions have slowed progress. All I've done is dug the footings while Mrs Ahab poured some concrete week before last.

1st distraction was next years work schedule, less work more man cave but it hasn't worked out like that tried for a 4 day Formula E role, then working on deals to help 3 F1 teams but in the end my 21st year in F1 will be doing more of the same as this year. No wonder my projects drag on for so long, I need to stop saying yes to other peoples projects

2nd distraction, had the makings of the best build thread title ever 'Mr and Mrs Ahab buy a 1935 Alpine Hunting Lodge at Auction from a Russian Bank' Flights booked, lawyer instructed to do checks, numbers crunched and money found but we got cold feet and bailed. Don't worry my next house build thread should still be from the Alps

3rd distraction my old Toyota 4Runner spectacularly failed it's annual transport test. Even had a 'must not be driven notice'! Immediate thought was, it's not worth the money or effort so best to scrap it, time to grow up and buy a sensible German station wagon

My son reminded me I promised we'd get it to the 'moon' and we can't give up as it's only 18,000 miles away. Instead of taking the easy option we're fixing it up, lots of small jobs, some chassis welding but the big job is complete brake overhaul which we're right in the middle of

We're hoping to properly bed the brakes over a few laps early next Jan Mrs Ahab is not amused. A pic from out last visit, no laps, just a delicious burger lunch and a precautionary safety stop after nearly loosing a rear wheel when 5 out of 6 wheel spacer studs sheared off on the Autobahn

[Bill Douglas]

Good skills with those flagstones. It looks fantastic!

[968cs]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

I don't have any sage building advice to offer, sorry.

Just want to say thanks for taking the time to share your amazing project with all of us.....that and the Dog is super cute

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Thanks Bill, Mrs Ahab has to take most of the credit

Zeke, thanks but sorry no interior shots yet, still need to finish the outside first

968cs, thanks for taking the time to read and our dog is everything you'd want in a dog, he is great!

Apologies 2019 progress has slowed up so much but work hasn't left me much time for man cave stuff. Hoping I can change this a bit in 2020 with actual updates that show a difference

To finish off 2019 I've decided to post up a few sneak pics of our next build project so introducing Man Cave - Alpine Edition

Mrs Ahab and I can be occasionally found at an altitude of 2300ft/700m on the sunny side of a glacial valley at the far eastern end of the Alps in a beautiful region called the Julian Alps in Slovenia. Our village is a 1000 years old (fire station has been going for more than 100 yrs), population about 700 and a real mountain working village with many small farm holdings, very rustic and not touristy at all but also very friendly.



We've owned it for 7 yrs and it's our special place a world away to unwind from our normal day to day routine/life in the UK and Italy when we lived there.

Obligatory man cave shot with small entrance steps/porch and still to be registered 1988 Toyota 4Runner, this will be my winter/summer toy.



The house is small, could be called tiny or micro by North American standards, it has 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, 2 bathrooms and the all important man cave! Construction is from the early 70's and very Eastern block style ie solid, very solid ie lots of concrete eg floors and walls and steel arc welded plumbing. Quite crude construction but very effective. Internal decor is unchanged since we bought it and straight out of the 70's so we have a few funky lights and color schemes going on which all adds to its unique charm





When we first viewed the property we only planned to see what our money would buy but when we saw the view we had to buy it and the house too

The deal clincher for me was the view I see when I have a stand up pee, still need to fix the broken window pane


Summer View


Winter View


Sunset View


It's a small house, our perfect retirement place and as a man cave and house build offers so much potential, Mrs Ahab and I can't wait to get stuck into changing it to make it our own

Finally thank you so much for following my UK build and your kind comments, at times they really have helped us keep our motivation going

I wish everyone a prosperous 2020 and please keep posting your own build progress updates or start a new build thread for whatever you build

[billybek]

Slovenia is such a beautiful country. I have never visited but I would really like to.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

I wish everyone a prosperous 2020 and please keep posting your own build progress updates or start a new build thread for whatever you build

And to you.

Great pics as always. Fantastic.

[VincentVega]

Happy New Year Capt. Looks like another cool project. All the best.

[astrochex]

Spectacular update! The year-round views are stunning.

It looks like a tranquil place with clear and glorious fresh air.

May you and Mrs Ahab also have a wonderful and prosperous new year.

[daepp]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

Finally thank you so much for following my UK build and your kind comments, at times they really have helped us keep our motivation going

I wish everyone a prosperous 2020 and please keep posting your own build progress updates or start a new build thread for whatever you build

Ok, fair enough, just don't abandon us on your man cave project - we might have withdrawals!

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by daepp

Ok, fair enough, just don't abandon us on your man cave project - we might have withdrawals!

Daeppe, no, no, no intention of abandoning updates at all, build has a long way to go before I finish the updates

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Well I'm back at it

Winter weather has been miserably crap, it's either rained every weekend or too cold for outside work from Nov. until middle of March

This the the grand total of my Man Cave build efforts over winter, burning our way through left over timber and the old garage roof timbers



I hope everyone is safe and stay's safe as this COVID-19 thing blows through disrupting everyone's lives in ways none of use could have imagined until a few months ago.

My work has really kept me away from working on my man cave build but that all changed when I was given 2 days notice that my client was shutting up shop for 3 weeks as part of the mandatory F1 shutdown which was brought froward from the summer. Result!

My 1st thought was better order in some essential supplies, TP, check, new 9"Makita grinder ordered, check, 1 ton of sand, check and 5 bags of cement, check, that should keep me going for a few weeks of isolation

No cabin fever for me, too much to do, to little time to do it!

Just so no one is disappointed or is that pleased I'm nowhere close to the finish so my next post won't be a 'big reveal' and will be more of the same documenting the small wins Mrs Ahab and I enjoy during this endless project