The stone work tying into the beams over the driveway look great!
Kudos for your careful woodwork and the Mason's good looking stone work!

Neat choice to go with the thick wall and tapered window casings up stairs, look so stout, will give your archers a better field of fire too.

Cheers Richard

Bravissimo! http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/clap.gifhttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/clap.gifhttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/clap.gif

Seems that you can take an engineer out of F1 but can't take F1 out of the engineer! It's good to know I could also have some transferable skills in the end. I particularly enjoy the sunk-in beam detail in the front, that will keep the DMU guys happy. Someone at work is drawing his new house extension in CAD. I'm sure by the end of it he will have the complete wiring loom and every nail modeled up!

Are you going for an overhead pit gantry? With pull-down screens and everything? :D

The first floor vs. second floor concept still confuses me.

Paul, please start a farm house thread, everyone enjoys a build thread, no matter if it's a car, garage, boat or what ever

Richard, you must have seen our old plans as originally we were going to go for a 45 deg pitch roof but only half way over the garage. After returning from living abroad for 6 years we decided to go big or go home

Can't take any credit for the stone work other than I'm pretty handy on a stone chop saw after several 10's of ton's of practice. Mrs. Ahab is very good at sorting them out for our builder to use, every stone has a home!

thanks, sooner or later

Won, I didn't do this build on CAD but the below sun room/extension and sunken patio with trellis off the rear of our house was done using the CAD at Benetton F1 :cool:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1540678544.jpg

Patio trellis caused a commotion as I'd modeled it full scale but hidden it in the CAD file for piece of race car bodywork ;) I was outed when my old boss was showing my work to the chief designer after I'd left the team. Still makes me chuckle now :D

It was Phase 1 of extending our house and finished years ago. A builder did the concrete/stone and block work and I did the rest, took years to finish. Using the same plan of attack for this build but this time I'm taking time off work to help keep progress moving along a bit faster,

1st floor vs 2nd floor concept took a couple of explanations for my architect and structural engineer to get it and our building inspector is starting to get it :rolleyes:

It's a simple idea, the execution is a little trickier as it needed quite a lot of thought and a bit more steel work

1st floor walls are thin to maximize man cave space which will be all modern, bright, straight and square

2nd floor walls are thick to create the same feel as the original house which is all old, dark, curved corners and odd angles.

^oh, thats a brilliant story! Nothing like a bit of harmless mischief at work! Benetton, huh? I loved their dramatic liveries.

I’m a knucklehead so I can’t discern if the image is real or a rendering, but its positively storybook!

Thanks astrochex, pic is real from a few years ago

As seen in last weeks update the lawn is not looking sporty at the moment, that's a project for spring time ;)

Captain, I've been following this thread but, haven't replied yet. You definitely, have good taste.

gduke, thanks for reading and the compliment, much appreciated

Just noticed I've not shown much of what is happening on the rear

Since the hour went back last weekend I've not let the early nights slow up progress. 1000w light is bright enough for sorting/moving stone, tidying up or doing jobs on the first floor

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541192934.jpg

Big stone saw only used when I can clearly see the blade :eek:, still frightens the $hit out of me, which is a good thing.

Winter is coming! Had to break the ice on cutting saw the water tray yesterday morning and being sprayed all day with stone slurry isn't as refreshing as it was in the summer

Our builder spent his time on the rear wall this week, 2 small windows are not symmetrical to fit in with 2 internal rooms. Start of the window opening just above the left of the man cave opening is for a 'dormer' style window.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541193233.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541193918.jpg

Stone on the rear wall of the original house is all a bit random even after I'd cut out several corner stones. Our builder carried this style on up to the new window. At first glance I thought I should have removed more of the old house to allow extra room for the new more uniform stone courses. Glad we didn't as I like to see buildings showing their story as they have evolved over the centuries

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541194418.jpg

If boiling tar poured between the oak beam's at the front of the driveway don't stop intruders then arrow's fired from the slits at the rear should :D

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541195057.jpg

Working out the measurements for the roof centre steel truss took me a long time, too long, longer than it should have. Boy, am I ever going to be in for one hell of a mental shock when I'm back designing race cars in a months time.

To complicate things the new build is slightly skewed at an angle to the old house :confused:. Only way I could figure it out was to construct a wooden mock up of the truss on the end of the house.

New rear roof line should blend in with the original house roof line. New front roof line will be stepped back from the house front roof line so the eaves are at similar heights. Pitch of the house roof is 50deg and 51deg and I thought it was 60deg

3300lbs/1500kgs of steel section's has been ordered, 9 beams in total, hoping the fabrication starts next week

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541195854.jpg

As our builder has reached the limit of his arms another level of scaffolding is going up on Mon. which will allow him to hopefully finish the front and rear walls next week

I've still got plenty of stone chopping left but I can now see the home stretch. Good job too as I'm suffering a bit from stone cutter's elbow in both arms. It would be tennis elbow if I played tennis ;)

Mrs Ahab has been busy working on her own hard landscaping project for the garden, I'll post up some pictures later on.

Perhaps you could also enlist the help of John Cleese to defend the castle.

I suspect that pictures cannot adequately convey the precision and scale of the work.

That is a really neat, and classic looking build Captain. What a monumental amount of effort in matching the man cave to the house. I'm glad I already had the barn in place for my build. I do know what it took to build my big barn, I was setting posts, and trusses, hanging metal, and moving ALOT of stone, and dirt 5 years ago.

You should have a catapault to fling farm animals at the advancing enemy :D The cave is coming along nicely .

Those old and new walls are tying together beautifully.
That fluted tip on the water heater exhaust, is that some F1 inspired thing, a vortex diffuser or some such?

Do you get much snow in your area?

Is a roofing crew coming in to place the beams and close it up?
I hope so! It's getting to be a bit high up there.

Yours and the Mrs fitness level must be soaring.

Cheers Richard

astrochex, not much precision going on, man cave will be the only square room, most effort going into trying to match the look of the house

ckelly, thanks, we started extending the house back in 2000, rear extension took 5yrs working part time. This time around I've worked full time to speed up progress.

Richard, only a rain cover on the boiler chimney, nothing high tech :) We get a bit of snow when it's not raining, last year was the heaviest I can remember, really slowed up the shed build.

Roofing crew? :D Mrs Ahab, our builder and I are the roofing crew :cool: We booked up a crane lifting crew as we wimped out of manually putting the 620lb/280kg steel ridge beam's and steel truss.

I'm the carpenter, plumbing, heating system and interior wall fit out crew too. We'll get in a tiling (I can do this but it would take too long), electrical (needs signing off for building approval), plastering (too much skill required for me to do) and carpeting crew's. Mrs Ahab and I are the decorating crew.

Not a picture I've had a chance to take as I'm usually covered in wet stone slurry or it's gone dark. I have system for this scene of disorder.

Stone pile to the left of the saw is to be cut, about 3/4's of a day worth of chopping fun :) Stone pile on the right of the watering can are the left overs to be thrown and neat pile in the fore ground is cut stone Mrs WC will measure and stack for our builder to use.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541362421.jpg

Every piece of stone on this build is re-used reclaimed stone, only new stone will be for the cut window sills

I can see the end of my chopping :cool: , so going for a big push this week to finish it all before we start roofing or I get trench foot!

^^^Looks like Fred Flintstone is building a garage. ;)

Love it! One of my favorite threads hands down!!http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat.gifhttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat6.gif

I've built a Fintstone car too:D , I'm driving, heads have been cropped for the avoidance of embarrassment ;)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541367204.jpg

thanks Steve :cool:

Looks like the very first F1 car you got there Capt'. I like.

They're a modern stone age family.....
Crap, now that damn song is in my head!

My back hurts just looking at those stones.

Part of why my man cave build is going to take so long.....I'm not 25 years old anymore, and have more health issues than most.

Please take it easy ckelley78z, moving, lifting building materials is a young man's game but touch wood Mrs Ahab and myself are holding up quite well.

I've spent all day everyday cutting up more stone so was covered in too much stone slurry to post up an update yesterday

2nd level of scaffolding went up on Mon., has made a big difference in making more of the new build work visible and allows more of our builders excellent craftsmanship to be seen

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541956577.jpg

Mirroring the original house upper to lower window offsets appears to have worked well, was quite difficult to see until now, adds a bit of character to the new build front wall

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541956709.jpg

I finished all my roof steel truss measurements and visited the fabrication company to discuss the steel required for the roof. Beam sections all ordered and the fabrication work starts tomorrow, fingers crossed my measurements are all correct

Front wall is pretty much done to roof structure level, just need to fit a timber wall plate to attached the rafters to and cut up/sand/fit the reclaimed oak window lintels

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541957181.jpg

More rear internal block work wall done, new different coloured lightweight thermal concrete blocks are the same spec. just from a different manufacturer. Doesn't matter as it will all be covered with internal plaster finish.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541957380.jpg

You just can't spoil a lady too much :D so I asked the scaffolding guys to fit a ginny wheel or pulley so Mrs Ahab didn't have to keep climbing the ladder with arms full of stone. Think she could beat me at an arm wrestle now

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541957694.jpg

More stone measured, stacked and ready for our builder to use, should be enough to finish the rear wall

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541957887.jpg

Never thought for a moment when we started building we might not have enough stone but my pile of building stone still to be cut is nearly depleted. Think we should have enough for the gable end wall.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541958293.jpg

Just in case I have to start picking though the off cuts I laid out (easy quiet, neighbour friendly Sunday job) enough of the best stone to do the the last wall we'll build. It's the side wall of the garage opening which will be the most visible wall when walking out of the front door.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541958735.jpg

This week will be hopefully be one last big push of stone cutting using my chop saw and getting the building ready for the the big lift and placement of the roof structure steels

Frankly, I see a bunch of stuff I would have done differently...no kidding, game changing alterations.

:D

Dude, this is simply a great thread: I have callouses on my eyes looking at how much stone you have moved.

:D Thanks Paul, glad you're enjoying all our hard labour

I'm a details man like yourself but this infliction makes me quite picky, sometimes too picky for my own good :(

While the shed was being built I missed out on a few details due to me being at work. Quitting work to be on site all day everyday has cost me but really helped as there isn't much I'd have done or had done differently.

Quite a brutal week this one, did a little bit more stone chopping but spent more time moving/lifting a lot of heavy stuff. We are monsters!

There is a country wide shortage of thermal blocks, I'd bought up last of the local stock so nothing for it but to ring around and find some. Mrs Ahab and I jumped in the Bambi Ambulance to collect them, needed 2 trips of 80 or 825 lbs of blocks, hopefully have enough to finish the build

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1542393670.jpg

Picked up my last Ebay twig, 8.5" square by 21ft long 600lb oak beam for the garage opening. Mrs Ahab, the seller and myself used ancient Mayan/Eqyption building/ moving techniques ie rollers, levers and brute strength to move and load it onto the trailer, was quite an easy job in the end.

Every time I looked in the rear view mirror I kept thinking of the quote from the film Jaws 'You're gonna need a bigger boat'

On our way back we also picked up the two lightweight 330lb steels for the garage opening. Quite impressed with ourselves as with some help from our builder we unloaded/moved everything across our neighbors lawn without needing anything other than a few blocks as we rolled the oak on the steels, then one steel on each other.

While we were out and about our builder concentrated on the gable end block and stone work, from the outside it doesn't look/feel too over empowering for the neighbors which I'm pleased with

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1542394005.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1542394786.jpg

On the inside I'm even more pleased as the window has really added some impressive height to my man cave wall, below it would make the perfect position for a Church of the Lightweight altar

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1542394111.jpg

I also spent most of a day up and down the ladder carrying either a bucket full of stone or a concrete lintel on my shoulder or a bucket full of mortar to make a hole in the house and fit the pad stone for the steel ridge beam

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1542394543.jpg

Today before I'd even finished my breakfast all the roof steel work arrived and needed unloading, ridge beams weigh 600lbs each and the truss was a more manageable 660lbs but in bite sized pieces. The fabrication guys even manged to get a perfect colour match to my spare Toyota

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1542394227.jpg

Also our builder finished the front timber wall plates and steel lintel with pad stones and also part of the rear too

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1542394687.jpg

We will be ready for Kenny the Crane driver and next Tuesdays big lift of the roof steels, excited and apprehensive in equal measure

If I've messed up the steel dimensions it will cause a big delay and a lot of extra money to fix, neither which I can afford

Not got an unlimited budget so I spend a lot of time searching and trying to sniff out bargains

'found in a bush' photo's on Ebay didn't fill me with confidence but the seller's description persuaded me to set out on long drive this morning

Never part of my original man cave layout but I now have to cut up my lovely concrete floor to fit this :cool:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1542484484.jpg

It's an Edmo (Swedish so well built) 1500kg, 1500mm x 1200mm hydraulic lift table, in perfect working order, only needs a bit of cosmetic tidying

Captain what are the plans for the lift table ? Can it lift a car ?

Yes, should easily lift any air cooled Porsche, Jack Olsen built in one into his garage

This will be dual purpose for doing car work, brakes, suspension, corner weighting etc and a temporary work table for carbon fibre/woodwork projects etc

Had to cancel tomorrow's crane tonight as the steel truss won't bolt together, as in nowhere close :(

Mrs Ahab and myself were pushing hard working 7 days a week to have the building weather proof before I start work but $hit happens

I'll work out a fix with the fabricating guys and we'll get on with the roof as soon as possible

It is really nice to have a scissor lift. When I work on my lawn mower or gas grill, it is wonderful to have it off the ground. My wife commandeered it to paint the front door. Just lay the door on the table, and paint at a comfortable height. You will love yours.

Like everyone else, I am awed at the amount of work and the quality of the work you and your wife have done. It will be one cool looking and functional place when done.

Really enjoying this thread, having stayed in a few old piles (and some not so old) on our vivits to the UK.
Regarding the trusses not fitting together. I am assuming the short trapezoidal piece is the support for the ridge beam, with the long face uppermost. Does reversing the orientation of that piece make any difference?

Best
Les

Thanks Les, glad you're enjoying reading about our fun

Yes the small piece does support the ridge beams, I think one of the diagonals has been cut correctly and the other one not.

Some progress is measured in pints and delivery unchanged for over a 100 yrs

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1543087120.jpg

Our build progress was not what I was hoping for but we've used our week's delay wisely and kept busy with some fill on jobs

Started using my new scissor lift as a work bench, Glen was right 'I love it', much easier on my back than fighting with wood on the floor, Can see me using it often.
I cut up and sanded all the 1st floor window lintels using up some of my reclaimed oak stash, not sure what I was thinking but I've got enough left over for a 3rd floor.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1543084468.jpg

The scaffolding guys returned to add the last level which allowed our builder to finish up as much of the gable end block and stone work as he could and fitted the pad stone for the steel ridge beam

Our neighbor's did some severe pruning and cut back their shrubbery which now really shows off the gable wall stone work

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1543085214.jpg

Internal height of the man cave end wall is quite impressive, won't have a problem filling it with stuff

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1543084636.jpg

The steel guy came into to fix the steel truss on site. The top of the diagonals were both cut wrongly, one was 2"/50mm and the other was 4"/100mm too low so a new top horizontal was welded in.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1543085837.jpg

Our builder and I spent a bit of time boarding out the 1st floor and building some scaffolding towers in preparation for the fitting of the roof steels.

Today Mrs Ahab sifted through and piled up the last of the 'to be cut' stone while I spend the day chopping yet more stone, definitely have enough to finish off the house build and enough left over to build a wood fired stone pizza oven or built in stone gas BBQ

To make up for the lack of progress photo's here are some panoramic pic's. Hopefully they show how our bigger longer house should compliment the surrounding 'tall and long' neighboring properties

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1543086785.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1543086890.jpg
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Next week is 'Crane Week' fingers crossed it all goes smoothly without any more problems

Wow..beautiful execution of true dertimination and craftsmanship.

Glad they got your truss sorted.
It looks to me the white VW across the road is a Polo. We don't get those over here.
Checking out your place on Google maps made me realize we spent our first night in the UK, 17years ago in Ox Hill, just up the road. Beautiful area.

Keep the updates coming.
Best
Les

thanks ben, I'm really enjoying watch the progress on your garage build

thanks Les, VW is a Tiguan, it's more small SUV than small hatchback

A week late after the delay with fixing the incorrectly made steel roof truss a very nice man with a crane turned up one lunch time and parked on our ever patient neighbor's lawn

Crane was neat, was told it's difficult for the operator to put the crane into a dangerous tipping over position with too heavy a load/too long a reach as the computer says 'no' and it stops

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1543686427.jpg

Crane operator needed to do some delicate maneuvering, no telephone cables were harmed

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1543686927.jpg

Truss went up, up and away and in place without any issues

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1543687105.jpg

Despite choosing the coldest, wettest and at time windiest day of our our build so far to lift the roof steel's into place nothing tipped over, fell off and no one got hurt. All done in about an hour

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1543687514.jpg

Well nearly done as the truss continued to cause fit issues, 2 of the 4 bolt holes for the garage ridge beam wouldn't line up so we bolted it up using 2 bolts. Not a biggie as this didn't add any further delay's and the fabrication guy welded it up later in the week.

Mixed weather this week, dodging rain showers some of the time, couldn't resist stopping work on the timber roof joists to take this photo

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1543687606.jpg

Our builder and I had a little production line going on so all 31 front softwood joists 8"/200mm x 3"/75mm were cut and fitted in less than 2 days

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1543687878.jpg

We also fitted about a 3rd of the rear roof joists too, this side is a bit more involved than the front as there will be 3 roof lights, a dormer window and part of the rear wall that blends into the existing house is not parallel to the ridge beam.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1543688201.jpg

Collected this from our local stone company, we used one of the original stones from the demolished garage. Thought it would be a traditional touch to add a date stone into the stonework.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1543688534.jpg

The last 5 months away from a desk and being outside doing hard manual labour has been an immensely satisfying and enjoyable time which unfortunately comes to an end as of tomorrow.

On Mon. I leave our builder and Mrs Ahab to continue on with the roof work as I rejoin the F1 circus working full time. Will be quite a challenge for me, I'm not worried about the technical aspects or the fast thinking pace of the job but having to sit still inside for hours on end :eek:

I'll continue to add updates but the frequency will slow up slightly as my time on this build will be limited to a few floodlight hours during the week and weekends

Awesome work, Cap't. Looks like you're building a church.

You were lucky to have had time to enjoy so much of the build as we were lucky to witness it. Keep us updated as best you can and don't overdo it at the "F1 circus."

Words of gold here.

Thanks for sharing the ride with us, Captain! Are you going to print/mount the rainbow pic?

Good luck (i.e., you make your own luck) on the next phase of your F1 career. I trust your team will be towards, if not at, the pointy end.

Perfect.

thanks Paul, my thoughts exactly when I looked up at the roof joists, the full 20ft internal height will be put to very good use

Marv, used up all my luck staying alive ;) so it was an easy decision to make this project my top priority and not another race car.

astrochex, pleasure was all mine, fingers crossed it's the pointy end, been away for 3.5 yrs, not long in real time but a very long absence in F1 time, I'm intrigued to see how things have changed

thanks, Paul,

I'll of course keep the updates coming, got a long way to go before this ride is over, not even started the :cool: man cave bit yet

Already promised myself if our build progress starts to drag on too much I'll make our build my top priority again so don't be surprised if I don't change my Pelican profile occupation back to self unemployed full time builder :D

How long till the roof is covered?
That will be a major step towards seeing the end is out there somewhere.