My man cave build - UK edition

[Seahawk]

I am glad you did not forget us!

We had a storm blow through 6 weeks or so ago that was has powerful as any hurricane I can remember...easy 70 plus mile an hour straight line winds off the water for twenty minutes...nothing to slow them down

Back side of the house lost a lot of shingles. Insurance covered the whole roof replacement since the shingles were no longer available - they were twenty years old.

The team showed up this morning and have been humping all day. That is Barley in the fore ground.:





We actually delayed the Spring bed work around the house in anticipation of the mess...glad we did!

All the best and I look forward to your excellent efforts!

[Seahawk]

I am quoting this since I kicked you into another page with my post!

Originally Posted by 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

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Seahawk, your house is amazing, I'm envious of how much land you have and your lake front location, pleased your insurance paid up for a whole roof, that's one less job for you to do

As promised, more of the same! Week one of work shutdown has been a tough, heavy duty, physical week but I am back at it enjoying being outdoors again

The stone I chopped up for the external walls of my man cave build were from my stash of smaller stone courses ranging in 3" to 6" tall. These were like Lego bricks in weight compared to the +7" tall stone I've spent the last 4 days chopping up.

Some of the big lumps are so heavy it takes Mr Ahab and myself all our strength just to roll them around to my chopping area.

I alternate days between dry and wet days, prefer wet but both are equally as dirty and exhausting

A dry day is cutting quoins, corner stones for the too be finished and all important imposing garage opening. Each one is about 10" tall x 12" wide x 4" thick, sliced off from a much larger 10"-12" thick quoin. Using my Makita 9" grinder with diamond disc (killed my Dewalt) I cut 4 sides as deep as I can go, about 3", then hand hammer and chisel to split, electric hammer chisel is to clean up the back if it doesn't split cleanly, repeat 15x and go to bed exhausted



A wet day, is lifting 8" tall x 8" to 12" wide stones onto my 14" water cooled Husqvarna with 14" diamond blade, chopping it 4x to 4" thick and then clean up any uneven sides, repeat 75x and go to bed exhausted. First person to spot my candy red Toyota 4Runner wins as much free stone off cut's as you can collect!



After 3 days I sleep like a log, wake up stiff in all the wrong places and I've turned big stones into smaller stones, ain't no COVID-19 on this Gulag work camp

The long rows of stone laid out aren't for my man cave build but to restore the lower 2ft of the original house which has been eroded away after decades of water splashing from passing cars. A job for another day but for now I'm just trying to find my driveway again!



Just for fun and because this stuff is centuries old and I can't bear to throw it away I started cutting up more stone for the small patio, hopefully I'll have enough leftover. I laid out a few different patterns,even random too, this style isn't doing it for me but with a little help from Mrs Ahab we may have an agreement on a pattern TBC



As tomorrow is Sunday, day of rest, I'll have a quiet lightweight day working on the window surround stonework. Then it's back to more heavy duty stone chopping, I take great comfort in seeing my throw away stone pile getting bigger as my to be chopped stone plies get smaller. Then I remember Mrs Ahab and I will have to man handle it all onto a trailer at some stage

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

Seahawk, your house is amazing, I'm envious of how much land you have and your lake front location, pleased your insurance paid up for a whole roof, that's one less job for you to do.

Bumping the thread for some new "lake front" shots

And because the Ahab thread makes me happy.

Storm moving over the Potomac 45 minutes or so ago. The small island to the left of the one bush is St. Georges, the first landing site of ships from England in Maryland, the Arc and the Dove. Virginia is visible to the left.





I wanted to get seed down in the bare spot that used to be a Cherry tree but a VTC went long!

[Captain Ahab Jr]

That's a big 'Lake'

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Happy Easter everyone, hoping you and your loved ones are safe and well!

Another week down, another update, I've mainly been stone chopping (again) ��, tidying up the place and not making myself very popular with Mrs Ahab when I declared the driveway needs lowering as it's too high relative to the man cave floor slab

Mrs Ahab's garden wall needs another 1.5ft adding to the bottom of it, so I socially distanced myself and left her alone for a few hours, this is what she did



To get back into Mrs Ahab's good books I did this, lots and lots of lovely chopped up 5" wide walling stone



I also neatly stacked all the building materials, cleared out all the accumulated junk. Then wire brushed, hard brushed and swept up enough to find my man cave concrete floor slab again



Not sure if I've shown my bargain 3300lb/1500kg hydraulic lift table but during my tidy up I found it again. Even gave it a clean and got it working. It will need some tidying up and I'll need to cut up my floor slab for a flush install it but I'm well excited as I never once thought I'd find a reasonably priced lift

Idea was shamelessly stolen from Jack Olsen's garage build but One Lift To Do It All won't work for me



The fruits of all my stone chopping, a small pile of 2", 3", 4", 5", 6", 7" and 8" wide stacks of cut stone and a few cut stone quoins for the man cave entrance pillars. Stone laid out to the front left of the pic is for the left hand gable wall of the garage opening

Still need to cut more quoins, buy some concrete blocks for the inner walls and get my builder back on site.



My spoils pile is nearly as tall as my truck and in danger of covering my stone saw, might have to move my saw over a bit but my still to be cut pile of stone to the left needs chopping up first.

Starting to look much tidier now, can even see my driveway in places



Got a few more hard days of wet and dry cutting ahead of me and I'm hoping I'm done with chopping

[Sooner or later]

Don't give up. Never give up!

What a project.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by Sooner or later

Don't give up. Never give up!

What a project.

I never give up!

Mrs Ahab and I only today both asked ourselves where did all the stone come from, answer was obvious as this is what we started with

[Sooner or later]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

I never give up!

Mrs Ahab and I only today both asked ourselves where did all the stone come from, answer was obvious as this is what we started with

That is what you started with. Nearly 2 years ago.

What do you do in your spare time?

What did Mrs Ahab say when you initially bought up the project. Or was it one of her "honey do" items.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by Sooner or later

That is what you started with. Nearly 2 years ago.

What do you do in your spare time?

What did Mrs Ahab say when you initially bought up the project. Or was it one of her "honey do" items.

Spare time, what's that? That's what retired people have isn't it?

Main reason for slow progress since I went back to work 1.5yrs ago is my working week is a tiring 65 hrs including 12hrs of commuting driving which doesn't leave much left of me for spare time stuff. Also our builder has been busy on other projects and always booked up well in advance.

Work always get's in the way of a good project hence me enjoying being outside in the sun during my enforced F1 shutdown so much 2 weeks down, got another 3 weeks to go!

While we waited for our builder Mrs Ahab was very enthusiastic that we should just do it ourselves. I could see the scale of work involved and convinced her otherwise

Even our builder admitted it was an overwhelming project for him too and was very glad we chipped in with help.

[astrochex]

What a super “after and before” montage.

Your attention to detail on this project surely points to why you are also successful in your day job.

Are you already looking down the road after you complete this project to what may fill your non-work time?

[911 Rod]

16 pages and no pics of your Porsche's?

[javadog]

Porsche’s? Hell, we want to see detailed photos of the F1 cars. Hell, even just a widget off of an F1 car.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Paul, I've got a long list of projects and all require a finished man cave

Rod, hope you enjoy the next 16 pages while you wait for Porsche pics's

javadog, there will be some F1 content to my man cave build but not until the end, sorry!

Been a really physically tough week as I kind of left the largest stones to last for chopping my elbow joints are really starting to protest with the amount of abuse I've given my old body!

All worth it as I have finally chopped up all the stone into usable lumps, was worth 3 weeks of toil as it would've taken me well over 0.5 year of Saturdays to do what I've done. Rare action shot of me chopping!



Spoils pile is now taller than my truck/me. Only had 5 stones left to chop up today, it was a mess out there after some overnight rain, reminded myself why I hadn't done this over the wet winter

Mrs Ahab's wall lowering trench is coming on nicely!



This little pile of cut stone is for repairing the front of the original old house. Quite pleased with how my new wall in the left of the picture has weathered in, only took a winter too



Not sure what to start next....

Do I do some easy stuff with lots of small shed and man cave jobs ie finishing up the stonework around the windows, oak door jamb/stone threshold utility entrance, the shed lower opening/base and gable end stonework etc

Or go big and use the window of COVID-19 lock down opportunity to completely renovate the stone on the front of the original house with some fresh mortar joints and replacing the bottom courses with the above good condition reclaimed stone

[javadog]

I would finish the garage and then decide whether or not you should even tackle the stone on the front of the house.

The wall lowering trench caught my eye. What in the world is that all about?

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by javadog

I would finish the garage and then decide whether or not you should even tackle the stone on the front of the house.

The wall lowering trench caught my eye. What in the world is that all about?

oops, too late, I started today, there is logic in my madness.

Front of the house is a job that needs doing in one go and I have this time off work now. Doing it now also allows us to paint the windows/fascia board during the summer weather to match the green of the new build so when we fit the windows later this year the house at the front will be finished.

The wall lowering trench, now there's a story......

Despite removing nearly 100 tons of earth when leveling the plot for the shed floor slab I should have asked the earth moving guys to remove a bit more

Lots of different heights going on with this build, new build slab, house front door step, new build utility room door step, front/rear driveway oak beam clearances, road level, driveway level etc

At some stage we will lower the driveway to make everything work together, at the moment it doesn't as the driveway is too high to the man cave floor. Adding a bit extra to the bottom of Mrs Ahab's wall now is just a bit of work up front before we do more driveway excavating

[javadog]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody add to the bottom of a wall before. Surely you’re just going to build another short wall in front of it...

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by javadog

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody add to the bottom of a wall before. Surely you’re just going to build another short wall in front of it...

It's a first for me too, like a lot of this build is, I will for sure post pictures as we go

A short wall in front would be the easier option but I'm keen to keep as much maneuvering driveway space as we can fit

When Mrs Ahab is done I'm sure the join will be invisible and no one will ever know

[Mike Andrew]

WOW.
What month in 2023 do you expect to finish and be able to utilize the man cave?
Seriously, a tip of the hat to you for your dedication and far reaching skill set utilized in this project. I am looking forward to the next progress report and, ultimately, completion.
Time to go help the missus with some mulch.(About the extent of my skill set)

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Mike, thanks for following progress, 2023, that's being hopeful

I guess the reasons for not taking the more common route of just buying in professionals to have it all done in a few months aren't so obvious

It's not a money thing but a combination of sense of satisfaction/achievement, enjoyment and learning thing