My man cave build - UK edition

[Seahawk]

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



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

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

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



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

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.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

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



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





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



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



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



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



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

[Captain Ahab Jr]

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



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

[rfuerst911sc]

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

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

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

[Captain Ahab Jr]

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

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

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

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.

[oldE]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

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

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

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by oldE

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.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

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



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.



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



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



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.



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





Next week is 'Crane Week' fingers crossed it all goes smoothly without any more problems

[ben parrish]

Wow..beautiful execution of true dertimination and craftsmanship.

[oldE]

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

[Captain Ahab Jr]

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



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



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



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



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



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



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.



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.



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

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

[URY914]

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

[Evans, Marv]

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."

[astrochex]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

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.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

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."

Perfect.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

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 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

[911 Rod]

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