Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Welcome......To Odd Acres

Finallygotit · Jan 9, 2017

EDIT (01/04/2020): I am going to attempt to fix the broken picture links. (Thank you very much Photophukit!) This may take a while folks.

All 1.1 acres of it.

And to further let it be known, I made a sign and put it on the front of the house. That’ll be a story for another day.

Our property is at the corner of...... Love that street sign!

Like others here on GJ before me, I have been lurking and contributing when I can and thought I should start to show the mess we got ourselves into.

Our story starts out with my lovely wife and I getting ready to retire and wanting to downsize to our future retirement house. Our previous home was around 2,500 sq ft on two levels on a postage stamp of a property. We wanted to have a house around 1,800 sq ft on one level to be on at least an acre of property for horses. (That’s a whole nother story) On the wish list was enough room to put up a shop or better yet, have one already on the property.

A good friend of mine that I had worked with retired and started working part time as a realtor; we enlisted him for our quest. We looked at so many homes that they all started to blur despite our efforts to take copious notes. (On a side note, it amazes me how some people live, nuff said) At the same time, we depersonalized our current home and put stuff in storage then had it listed. Surprisingly, we didn’t get much activity. We think we must have hit a lull in the market here as overall activity just dried up.

One day my friend calls and says that he thinks he found the right house for us; it was just listed. At that point in time, my wife and I were about ready to pull the plug on house hunting and selling anyway because it just flat drained us. (We are still both working full time and I was traveling a lot) So we decided to take a look anyway. Yep, this was the one but it needed a little TLC, AND it had a 25’ x 30’ garage/shop in the back of the property with a 10’ x 16’ shed as well. We put in an offer and they accepted.

Anyway, here’s the house, out buildings and property from the listing.

The house was built in 1995 and was minimally maintained. The previous owner, to be kind, was not very handy though he thought he was.

A lot of what you are about to see has already happened but I have just now had the chance to catch up on pictures and, more importantly, time to post this.

More to come!

:beer:

Finallygotit · Jan 9, 2017

First on the agenda was to clear the property of junk, dead plants, the abomination of the above ground pool and attached deck (which were REALLY loaded with black widows) and any cacti, of which had become homes for pack rats. 43 tons of yard waste later, we now had this.

Meanwhile, the 2,500 sq ft house was getting little to no activity. So, my lovely wife and I decided to pull it from the market. This way, it wouldn’t look like the house sat on the market for so long that interested parties would think we would be desperate to sell; we started to get lowball offers. Another benefit was that we could leave the mess (and oh what a mess it was) of the new house right where we left it and go home to a clean, well-kept house.

More to come.....

Finallygotit · Jan 9, 2017

Next up on the agenda was to remove all of the brick pavers that were making up the back patio of the house. The work done to put those down was a joke. The whole area was a tripping hazard and when it rained, it had multiple bird baths.

So what is one to do? Why concrete of course.

Which also included the front walk that was all cracked and jacked up and pitched toward the front door guiding rain towards the house. We had the walk leveled out and drains put in between sections for water flow. Monsoon season out here can get hairy at times. :scared:

In the meantime, we needed to get our stored household stuff out of storage and put into what was going to be my shop. But first, I wanted to put some epoxy down on the floor because once that stuff arrived, there was no way I was going to empty it to epoxy the floor.

After

For reference, there are no utilities out in this shop........yet.

More to come.

Cheers

Terranova · Jan 9, 2017

Nice! Time and room to do it the way you want without a crazy deadline to be out of the old house. Tasty barn too. Blank slate!

-Brent- · Jan 9, 2017

I really like the potential of this place, especially after you cleaned it up. I never thought I'd be into landscape design but I do get a kick out of it. This place could have some really great curb appeal.

Is the gate powered?

Finallygotit · Jan 9, 2017

You see this apron leading into the shop?

Remember what I said about the paver patio? Yeah, it played out here too. This was another tripping hazard only this time it was encased in concrete. So guess what? Yep, new concrete here too. But first, it was time to get a 100 amp sub-panel out here.

Concrete forms

Now, with the floor in the shop already epoxied, I found out something I was not particularly thrilled with. After a rain, I now had multiple bird baths IN the shop. It had rained a time or two prior to epoxy, and I saw a little wetness but nothing that would make me :scared:

.

What we found was that, not only was every nut and bolt holding the building together loose but the concrete floor was sloped to the middle.

Time was ticking and we needed to get our stuff out of storage and into the shop. That stuff included all of my tools. Kinda hard to do things without the proper tools. So we hired someone to go around and tighten every nut and bolt. They didn't do a great job as I found some loose bolts. But, the water issue improved. We then laid paper towel along the edges of the building to see if we could spot where the water was intruding from. Again :scared:

. So our quest to seal this thing up began. My lovely wife and I finished tightening the bolts, me climbing on the outside and her on a ladder inside. Small improvement. While I was climbing around on the outside, I saw several areas that could use some caulk. Half a case later, I had done all I could. Small improvement but still leaked like a sieve. Next up, removing the cheap *** caulk the previous owner put on at the base of the building where the steel meets the concrete footer. Then, more industrial exterior caulk applied by my lovely wife. Again, small improvement.

Decided that it was time to seal the concrete footer as well so I went and bought some Dryloc that my lovely wife spent a few days applying. Again, small improvement but still leaked.

Had I known then what I know now, I would have offered even less for the property. The previous owner should never ever, never ever, ever never EVER be allowed near wet concrete again. UGH!!!

My wife and I were at our wits end. So we decided to move things into the shop knowing that most things will need to be kept off the floor. Time to re-group and think this one through.

More fun to come.......

Finallygotit · Jan 9, 2017

-Brent- said:
Is the gate powered?

Hi Brent, thanks for stopping by.

Ah, the gate you ask......hahahahahahahaha. Again, Mr. Concrete strikes again.

The gate is not powered......yet. The gate has two steel wheels that ride on inverted angle iron. There were two lengths of the track. They were not joined together by any means which meant jockeying the wheels when they came to that point in the track. So much fun at night. (BTW, where we live is sooooo dark at night, you cannot see your hand in front of you.) The gate was way to heavy for my lovely wife to try to horse around so I had some help and just took it off the track and moved it aside. What we found out, after digging into the soil was that Mr. Concrete poured little concrete piers for the track to sit on. The track had J hooks welded to the bottom for anchoring into the piers. The whole Rube Goldberg assembly moved all over the place from weather and driving on/over it. So we tore that out for........

Yep, more concrete.

If you look above near the end to the left of the form, you can see the power I had run out there for the future gate opener.

At this point, we're getting to know our concrete contractor very well. :thumbup:

-Brent- · Jan 9, 2017

Wow, man! A little TLC here and there (and likely some more concrete) and you'll have a neat little property.

What are the temps like, right now? Maybe I don't want to know, haha. Still, there's something about desert landscaping that I love.

Finallygotit · Jan 9, 2017

-Brent- said:
Wow, man! A little TLC here and there (and likely some more concrete) and you'll have a neat little property.

What are the temps like, right now? Maybe I don't want to know, haha. Still, there's something about desert landscaping that I love.

Ah just wait, there is more.....so much more.

Temps today were 75° for a high and 52° for a low. That's actually kinda high for us this time of year. We're supposed to cool back down later this week. We are at about 3,500 feet for elevation which keeps us cooler than Tucson proper and way cooler than Phoenix.

ajohno · Jan 10, 2017

Far out. It looks great.

dirt_dobber · Jan 10, 2017

I'm really liking this thread - subbed.

Tarnished · Jan 10, 2017

Hi Dan, I'm along for the ride.
Have friends in the Tucson area and love the scenery around the Saguaro Park & Mt. Lemmon area. Breathtaking views.
Looking forward to what you do with your shop. Have a friend with a shop like yours, and his leaks also. Hoping for sealing ideas.

Sunbimmer · Jan 10, 2017

Great place you got there :thumbup:

it somehow reminds me of the TV series "Breaking Bad" :dunno:

Thanks for sharing!

930dreamer · Jan 10, 2017

The property is looking good.

Finallygotit · Jan 10, 2017

Thanks for stopping by guys!

:beer:

Finallygotit · Jan 10, 2017

One thing I wanted to mention before I get too far. When the electricians were digging the trench for the shop power, they ran into the pool filter piping for the above ground pool. That wasn't a big deal but what we also found were three extension cords buried next to them that fed power to the pool deck. :eek7:

The cords came up out of the ground through a short piece of PVC pipe mounted on the house wall that went into a junction box.

The previous owner told me there was power out there but he had trouble with it. :headscrat

BTW, the P/O also built the pool deck. It also doubled as a trampoline, seriously! I have never been on a structure that was sooooooo unsupported. When we took possession, I tore out the steps leading to the deck for fear that someone would get hurt.

More fun to come!

penright · Jan 10, 2017

Just subscribe. Looking good. Are you a contractor? Notice a lot of safety things that most DYI would not do. Capping your re-bar, yellow danger ribbon, etc ...
Great Job! :thumbup:

west_perf · Jan 10, 2017

Excellent build. Looking forward to following this one, enjoy your writing style and the supporting photos. Just do what the P/O would have done, and drop 20 gallons of wet-or-dry on that garage roof.

HCNDM · Jan 10, 2017

Nice spot! Arizona looks dry but warm. Appealing especially after a particularly wet and grey winter here this year!

Looking forward to tagging along for your build. Looks like you try to get stuff done right the first time round.

Niels

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

bdbecker · Jan 10, 2017

Great property/space you have there! Can't wait to see what comes next!

Finallygotit said:
...The previous owner, to be kind, was not very handy though he thought he was...

Aggravating, isn't it? Nearly every project I've dug into with our house has had a "what the heck was he thinking" moment when I uncover yet another cobbled mess, some of it is just flat out laziness. I'm all for DIY as long as you take the time to do it right.

Finallygotit · Jan 10, 2017

penright said:
Just subscribe. Looking good. Are you a contractor? Notice a lot of safety things that most DYI would not do. Capping your re-bar, yellow danger ribbon, etc ...
Great Job!

Thanks for stopping by.

No, I am not a contractor; just an engineer/gearhead/machinist/home chef/loving husband here. That work ethic is all on the contractor we hired. They did some good work.

fast64 · Jan 10, 2017

Looking forward to seeing another quonset hut build. I wish mine was a blank slate like yours is. Good luck!

TMcCay · Jan 10, 2017

Outstanding progress you have going on. At the rate you are going it won't be long before you have that place just the way you want it. Good thinking on the not moving in until you are ready. Makes the jobs you are doing so much easier.
Looking forward to more progress!

-Brent- · Jan 10, 2017

I know it's off topic but what about the house? How's the condition there? I assume that has some repairs needed, as well. Hopefully the guy didn't lay any tile!

Finallygotit · Jan 10, 2017

-Brent- said:
I know it's off topic but what about the house? How's the condition there? I assume that has some repairs needed, as well. Hopefully the guy didn't lay any tile!

Brent, the house is actually in not too bad a shape. But that didn't stop us! The mayhem will commence. Bahahahahahaha...... :evil:

fast64 said:
Looking forward to seeing another quonset hut build. I wish mine was a blank slate like yours is. Good luck!

Thanks for stopping by. Sometimes I wonder what I got myself into.

TMcCay said:
Outstanding progress you have going on. At the rate you are going it won't be long before you have that place just the way you want it. Good thinking on the not moving in until you are ready. Makes the jobs you are doing so much easier.
Looking forward to more progress!

Thank you for stopping by our little corner. Just FYI as I said earlier, a lot of this work has already been completed. I'm just catching this thread up to speed to hopefully share my trials and tribulations with "The Shop" and help others. Although, some things are still in need of project completion.

But with all things here at Odd Acres, scope creep is hard at work as is bank account draining.

Need to upload some more pictures to continue.

TTFN

Finallygotit · Jan 10, 2017

So.....we started to move stuff from the storage unit to the leaky shop.

I also, since I now had power out there, installed one of my 8' four tube light fixtures. I made some brackets and mounted them to the shop to hang some uni-strut.

While this fiddling around in the shop was going on, we got a general contractor and his crew to pull the ceramic floor tile from all three bedrooms and the hallway. My lovely wife and I hate climbing out of bed and landing on a cold tile floor.

One of the projects we had in mind to do first was to remodel the master bath.

Before

Above: The doors on the right at the end of the bathroom was a linen closet and the space just to the left of it is a 2' x 2' closet for the water heater accessible from the room on the other side of the wall. We decided those needed to come out and to relocate the water heater.

We also wanted to change the tub out to a walk in shower. That meant moving the drain and relocating the drain for the toilet. Lots-o-jackhammering there. Boy that concrete was hard but the job got done.

Since this house was going to be our retirement house, I wanted to make sure this place was as efficient as possible. This house is all electric, no gas. Props to the P/O for buying and installing triple pane low E windows all through the house recently. Another reason why we liked this house was that the exterior walls were made from 2x6's with the appropriate insulation.

So while all this was going on, this came out.

The heat pump unit was as old as the house and not a very good unit to begin with. That's besides the fact that the A coil was about 60% blocked due to using cheap filters. Once this was out, a new Carrier Infinity 19 SEER heat pump was on order.

:beer:

Finallygotit · Jan 10, 2017

While that was going on, we had new chain link fencing installed to keep these two goofballs around.

Oh, and while that was going on, (are we having fun yet?) the plumbers showed up to do some work. When we had the inspection done on this house, the inspector noticed that the plumbing supplies were made from polybutylene pipe and fittings. If you're not aware, there was a class action lawsuit that basically shut down any further manufacture of this pipe and fittings because they would leak or burst. The inspector was amazed that the piping had not failed yet. And since most of the plumbing was in the attic, it had to go. We got a concession from the seller to pay for a complete re-pipe of the house with PEX. It included all new materials from the service to each shut-off which also included the shut-off's. Holy holes in the wall Batman!! :scared:

When they got done, you could not tell they were ever there except for the fact that all of the patches needed to be painted.

Back to the master bath. We also had to relocate the supplies and drains for the sinks since they were in all new locations.

Here I am starting to mock up where the shower pan and new bench seat will go. That control valve for the shower is going to get relocated to the opposite side.

Like this....

After this, I started filling in all of the spaces with insulation. That is until I saw daylight just below where the control valve used to be. :headscrat

So I go outside to see what the heck is going on. Aw, ****.....there is a 1/4" to 3/8" gap between the bottom of the stucco and the foundation. And.....it literally goes all around the house. In one spot, I could put my hand in between. So that's where all the drafts and bugs were coming from. :rocketwho

Looks like scope creep has reared it's ugly head again........sigh......

So after using a little over a case of caulk and two buckets of stucco patch, that area was sealed.

More to come.....

:beer:

hoho98925 · Jan 10, 2017

That's a nice looking home!

Finallygotit · Jan 10, 2017

hoho98925 said:
That's a nice looking home!

Coming from you, that's high praise indeed and I thank you and welcome.

Finallygotit · Jan 11, 2017

So, getting back to the shop (yay!) I had had enough of raising the overhead garage door every time I needed to get in there. So out came Mr. Sawzall! (That's one of my favorite power tools.) and in went this.....

This new door also gave me some much needed daylight as there are no windows in this building.

So my lovely wife and I were talking about the leaky shop and we started thinking about the very popular flat roof homes out here and how they seal them. The light bulb went on! What if we painted the whole exterior with that roof coating. So we contacted four contractors to get bids on having the shop painted. Not one of them wanted the job so we decided to do it ourselves. We figured at this point we had nothing to lose but a few bucks on paint and supplies.

We went and purchased this product

18-238x300.png.pagespeed.ic.a72BNQ-Hv9_zpsqffkjwvd.png

We started with this

Then we got going (this is prior to me getting a proper scaffold setup)

Lo and behold, after putting two coats of the roof coating on the flat sections and three coats on all of the bolts and seams, the damned thing is sealed!! :bounce:

Well, except for the water that gets in under the garage door due to Mr. Concrete leaving the concrete in the middle of the door lower than the sides. So I went and purchased this kit....http://www.homedepot.com/p/Tsunami-Seal-18-ft-Black-Garage-Door-Threshold-Kit-53018/202199785

The shop is just about water tight now save for a little weeping under the garage door in heavy rain.

The one big side benefit to the new roof coating was that the shop is no longer a solar oven. The south wall (non door side) would get so hot you could NOT touch it or you would get burned, seriously. After the coating, you can put your cheek against it and it would just feel warm. Three coats on the south wall too.

More to come....

:beer:

Terrick down Under · Jan 11, 2017

Have you had a look around to see if anyone is filming you? Good to see you got money for the re-plumb, but the rest of it must be costing you a small fortune.

donnie · Jan 11, 2017

How did you apply the coating on the shop? roller? Spray?
I see you have an Cobra as your aviator and i see a 55 or 56 chevy behind your shop, is that yours or your neighbors? And is the Cobra yours? real or knock off? And the details either way.

-Brent- · Jan 11, 2017

That shop exterior is BRIGHT, now!

How in the world did the inspector miss that gap? And why was that gap there in the first place?

Finallygotit · Jan 11, 2017

Terrick down Under said:
Have you had a look around to see if anyone is filming you? Good to see you got money for the re-plumb, but the rest of it must be costing you a small fortune.

Hahahaha...around here, lurking around like that will likely get you a shot across the bow. The next one will not be across the bow.

It is costing us a bit but it is money that the wife and I have saved for just such an expense to make our retirement home "our own". Plus it was cheaper than building new and dealing with those headaches.

Thanks for stopping by Terrick!

donnie said:
How did you apply the coating on the shop? roller? Spray?
I see you have an Cobra as your aviator and i see a 55 or 56 chevy behind your shop, is that yours or your neighbors? And is the Cobra yours? real or knock off? And the details either way.

Hello Donnie and welcome to Odd Acres.

We applied the coating with rollers and brushes. This coating can be applied with a sprayer but it would have to be a high pressure industrial sprayer due to the high viscosity of the coating.

Yes there is a '55 and a '56 Chevy back there but they belong to the neighbor behind us. Many people have asked to buy them but the owner(s) won't sell. So they just sit back there and biodegrade. So sad......

And yes, the Cobra is mine. It's a replica of a 1965 427SC that I built. I did everything except for the paint; left that to a pro. Cobra's are like *****, real or fake, they're still a lot of fun.

-Brent- said:
That shop exterior is BRIGHT, now!

How in the world did the inspector miss that gap? And why was that gap there in the first place?

The picture you see is nothing compared to when we finished it. The light bouncing off of it right after completion was retina burning.

When finished, the coating has a slight texture to it. So now that it has aged a bit, those nooks and crannies have filled in a bit with the local dirt. It's still bright but nothing like it was. WHEW!

To be fair to the inspector, the only way to see that gap would have been to lay on the ground on your back and look up. The gap is at the top of the slab so we're only talking about 6" or so off the ground. Now as to why that gap was there to begin with, hell if I know. I will tell you that the gap where I had to slap in more stucco was just pure laziness on the part of the contractor.

Cheers!

:beer:

Morio · Jan 11, 2017

Wonderful space!! Congrats! And such a gorgeous Cobra!!

donnie · Jan 11, 2017

427! I remember reading car and driver when they did the testing of the cobra they tested the 289 and 427. When you get done updating the house and shop updates done or a lull please share some pics of the 427.

Terrick down Under · Jan 11, 2017

Looks like a lot of fun to drive!

Bib Overalls · Jan 11, 2017

Finallygotit said:
Yes there is a '55 and a '56 Chevy back there but they belong to the neighbor behind us. Many people have asked to buy them but the owner(s) won't sell. So they just sit back there and biodegrade. So sad......

Some day your neighbor and guys like him will decide to cash them out to pre-pay their funerals. I can imagine the look on their faces when the younger guys coming along now tell them the hobby has moved on to 90s Honda Civics and not to expect much over scrap prices.

Finallygotit · Jan 11, 2017

donnie said:
427! I remember reading car and driver when they did the testing of the cobra they tested the 289 and 427. When you get done updating the house and shop updates done or a lull please share some pics of the 427.

Whoa! Slow down there pardner. I said it was a replica of a 427 SC, as in body style. They also had a 289 slabside, a street version with no side exhaust, roll bars or hood scoop, etc. If you're still interested in my lowly 302, I would be happy to post some pics.

OK, stats on the car
-302 Ford racing motor, full roller cam, aluminum heads and fuel injected; 350 hp which is plenty to move 2,200 lbs of car
-Super duty T5 trans
-Independent front and rear suspension
-Rear pumpkin has a Torsen diff with 3.55 gears
-Koni coil-overs at all four corners
-a few other goodies

Terrick down Under said:
Looks like a lot of fun to drive!

Oh it is!

Bib Overalls said:
Some day your neighbor and guys like him will decide to cash them out to pre-pay their funerals. I can imagine the look on their faces when the younger guys coming along now tell them the hobby has moved on to 90s Honda Civics and not to expect much over scrap prices.

Ain't that the truth. :sad:

And thanks for stopping by. :beer:

53PontiacSD · Jan 11, 2017

Boy, what a mess!! And I thought the house my friend bought was a disaster. Ceiling falling in the garage, no insulation, roof flying off in a wind storm, etc. Good luck with your renovation.

Billy

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