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Looks great, Captain. |
Amazing work you two have done. Very impressive.
note to self: never arm wrestle with Mr. or Mrs. Ahab. |
I am sad. This thread is heading to a quick close.
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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 |
That just looks stupendous!
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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: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PdjSU_OLMak" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1570486518.jpg Of course, you could engineer an automated one like this: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1570486873.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1570486772.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1570486794.jpg FWIW - really thankful you shared this build with us. What a delight!! |
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 :cool: 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' :D This is before the digging out began http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1571590958.jpg 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 http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1571591126.jpg Concrete base of steps going down and concrete block inner retaining wall for the lawn http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1571591221.jpg Stone outer walls and step faces being built http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1571591302.jpg 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 http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1571591442.jpg 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 http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1571593884.jpg 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 |
Wow, that lawn turned out great.
My drought stricken lawn looks more like what you started with. |
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!
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Any progress here?
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Been following. Some awesome masonry work
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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 :rolleyes: 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' :D 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 :cool: 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 :eek: on the Autobahn http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1575245240.jpg |
Good skills with those flagstones. It looks fantastic!
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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 :) |
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. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1577815700.jpg 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. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1577816081.jpg 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 http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1577816208.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1577816512.jpg 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 :D 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 :rolleyes: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1577817389.jpg Summer View http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1577816959.jpg Winter View http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1577817037.jpg Sunset View http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1577817174.jpg 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 |
Slovenia is such a beautiful country. I have never visited but I would really like to.
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Great pics as always. Fantastic. |
Happy New Year Capt. Looks like another cool project. All the best.
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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. |
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Well I'm back at it :cool:
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 :( http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1585854459.jpg 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 :D |
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:cool: 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.: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1585856463.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1585856463.jpg 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! |
I am quoting this since I kicked you into another page with my post!
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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 :D 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 http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1586038099.jpg 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! http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1586038271.jpg 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 :cool: 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! http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1586038378.jpg 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 :confused: TBC http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1586038795.jpg 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 :( |
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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. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1586291810.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1586291810.jpg I wanted to get seed down in the bare spot that used to be a Cherry tree but a VTC went long! |
That's a big 'Lake' :eek: :D
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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 http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1586724397.jpg To get back into Mrs Ahab's good books I did this, lots and lots of lovely chopped up 5" wide walling stone http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1586724520.jpg 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 http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1586724647.jpg 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 :D won't work for me ;) http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1586725089.jpg 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. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1586725206.jpg 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 :cool: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1586725342.jpg Got a few more hard days of wet and dry cutting ahead of me and I'm hoping I'm done with chopping |
Don't give up. Never give up!
What a project. |
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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 :eek: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1586732062.jpg |
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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. |
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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 :cool: 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. |
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? |
16 pages and no pics of your Porsche's? :D
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Porsche’s? Hell, we want to see detailed photos of the F1 cars. Hell, even just a widget off of an F1 car.
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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! http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1587238414.jpg 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! http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1587238567.jpg 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 http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1587238716.jpg Not sure what to start next.... :confused: 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 |
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? |
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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...... :rolleyes: 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 |
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...
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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 :cool: |
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