Well, I'm one month into this new garage project and I'm just about ready to begin framing. I've been meaning to post something earlier, but I've not had a whole lot of free time on my hands.

The initial process actually began back in May when my wife and I had to submit a variance application to the city for their approval. One month later, we were granted the variance and a building permit to begin construction. We began construction, or rather, deconstruction on July 5th. I will be doing most of the work myself, with the exception of the concrete slab, water line and gas meter relocations.

We also moved our existing driveway from one side of the house to the other to gain an additional 4 feet of breathing space. We're on a undersized 50x100 city lot and the side on which the old driveway existed was only 12 feet wide, whereas the new side has 16 feet. Getting in and out of our car without hitting the house or our neighbors fence was always a problem before, as was snow removal.
Propert Plat B.jpgNew Garage.jpg

The garage will be 588 square feet with nine foot ceilings and an accessible attic for lumber storage (pull-down stairs). This was the largest footprint I could muster on our postage-stamp sized lot (30% of my back yard). For the cold Chicago winters, I bit the bullet and went with an in-slab radiant heat system and a tankless boiler. I'm sure I will appreciate it more once Winter arrives. I also had the concrete slab finished to a SS/SF surface, just like the borg stores have. I figured this was the ideal surface for rolling a 800 lbs. planer around.
New Garage Concept 2.JPGNew Garage Concept 4.JPGTest Shop Layout 1.jpg

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