My man cave build - UK edition

[tevake]

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

[Won]

Bravissimo!

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?

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

[Captain Ahab Jr]

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



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

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

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.

[astrochex]

^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!

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by astrochex

^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

[gduke2010]

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

[Captain Ahab Jr]

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



Big stone saw only used when I can clearly see the blade , 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.





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



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



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 . 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



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.

[astrochex]

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.

[ckelly78z]

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.

[rfuerst911sc]

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

[tevake]

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

[Captain Ahab Jr]

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? Mrs Ahab, our builder and I are the roofing crew 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.



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 , so going for a big push this week to finish it all before we start roofing or I get trench foot!

[URY914]

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

[Steve F]

Love it! One of my favorite threads hands down!!

[Captain Ahab Jr]

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



thanks Steve

[URY914]

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

[billybek]

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

[911 Rod]

My back hurts just looking at those stones.

[ckelly78z]

Originally Posted by 911 Rod

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.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

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



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



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



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.



You just can't spoil a lady too much 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



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



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.



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.



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