We're Now Building a Pool Instead of a Garage!

This is what the site looks like after three days of rain. It's supposed to be 29 for the next few days. Perhaps it will dry out.....



No Turning Back Now!

The Building Permit Application

It's been a busy few days for Monster Garage.  And I think we are at the no-turning-back point, since we have done a few things that make us committed (or is that we should be committed???)

 First, on Thursday, Rob filled out the Building Permit Application, made it into a PDF, emailed me, and I ran it upstairs to submit it  They looked it over and said it seemed okay, and that it would take 12 working days to process.  Yay!





The first jackhammer


 




Nothing like heavy machinery to bring the guys out to watch!



Before


Then on Friday, we both took the day offwork to await bobcat guy.  He showed up at 8:15 a.m..  First, he put on an attachment on his bobcat and jackhammered the old concrete pad.  Pretty cool.  That took only half an hour.



After

 Then he put on the bucket scoop on the bobcat and scooped up all the pieces into a dump truck.  That took 45 minutes.



After that, then he spent about another 45 minutes digging out the old soil, sand, and grass to get the area to the the right even depth.  Put that in the dump truck.  Then for the next two hours, he put gravel in the area, stopping and eye balling the level, then Rob and I surveying for the level.  Back and forth, back and forth....Kept running out of gravel...they went back for two more loads, so 16 cubic yards of gravel in total.

It was too high in one area and too low in another.  Finally, it was as close as it could get and he left--at 3:30 p.m.  Seven hours.  We called it a day.



It's finished!



Then on Saturday, we spent the afternoon surveying, digging up high spots and moving to low spots.  More surveying.

Then came a rain delay, so we rushed out with a giant tarp to keep the area dry (kind like when they rush out to cover baseball diamonds on TV).

The rain let up and we built the forms for the site for the concrete.  Then the rain cam back, so we called it a night.

 

And I'm writing this on Sunday--it's been raining all night, and off and on all day.  So no more levelling today.  We'll try next weekend to get it level and then rent a tamper to compact the gravel.  Then tie the rebar.  Then concrete.



So as I said, we can't turn back now, so a garage is in our future!



 









152 Pieces of Rebar

Yes, that's how I spent my Saturday--moving and counting 152 pieces of rebar Rob had in the backyard.  Oh, and

I sorted them by thickness.  Four different types.  And then length--some were 6 feet long, others were 20 feet long.  Now that the rebar is all laid out nicely, we will spend this coming weekend tying the rebar for the garage concrete pad.  Rob is trying to woo me to help and says it's like weaving or crocheting with metal--nice try!

We did do other Monster Garage activities:  Rob cut a fence panel in half and made a gate on the side of the yard.  This will be used to bring our truck into the yard for the winter (and it will also be used for the bobcat guy and concrete guy to gain access to the yard this summer).  He also put down railway ties to contain the gravel.  This involved a few trips to the hardware store for more wood and supplies. 

We also grubbed the side of the yard--clearing all the roots, bushes, and overhanging bushes in the way of construction.  So on Friday, the bobcat guy will arrive to break up the old concrete pad and haul that away, dig away the dirt to level the site, and bring in some lifts (layers) of gravel and then compact it.  This becomes the base for the rebar, and then the concrete on top. 

I feel we are so close!

Monster Garage is Back!

Just when you thought it was safe to park your car, the spectre of Monster Garage rears its head...again! For those of you following the saga from two years ago (and perhaps you gave up thinking Monster Garage was just a fantasy), fear not: It’s baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.

So we started Monster Garage (MG) in 2010 (please read the previous posts dear new reader), got the team shirts made, cut off and moved the old garage down the back alley, and were all prepped—then Rob’s mom in Regina decided to move in with his sister in Winnipeg—which meant we spent the rest of that summer moving her, emptying 40 years of family stuff, and getting the house ready to sell. Then in June 2011, Rob’s mom passed away and two weeks later, he started a new job... with the City of Regina (yay Rob), and moved away (ooh). Which meant another summer whooshed by without MG (too busy moving Rob and commuting).

But this year.. this year, MG is a reality. But we are still commuting, often going to Regina, the lake, and Saskatoon all in one weekend.

So we officially started site work on June 23. But Rob has been thinking about it for two years, so that has to count as well! Our first round of work consisted of trenching—relocating a gas, phone, and power line from beneath where the new concrete pad will be, to outside the new pad. Boy, those things are buried deep. And as I’m cutting the many roots around the lines, I kept having to remind myself “cut the brown root not the black wire”—kinda like the tense scenes in the movies where the hero has to decide which wire to cut when defusing a bomb. Yes, the crazy things that run through your head due to exhaustion. Oh, and we had to relocate our underground sprinklers too.

This week brings us the joy of sorting our re-bar, buying landscape ties and lumber, and prepping to have the bobcat guy come next week to break up the old pad, dig out dirt, and lay down the appropriate amount of gravel....in anticipation of concrete guy the next weekend.

Yes, the fun never ends!

The Austin Healey is Off to Ontario

Okay, we've had a bit of a lull with the actual construction of Monster Garage, but we have been busy with the next phase of Monster Garage's future tenants -- getting the Austin Healey in tip top shape!

Rob's mom and dad owned a 1954 Austin Healey, which they drove for a few years, and then stored in the garage. For those of you (like me) who aren't car aficionados think British sportscar and James Bond. But since the Healey hasn't been driven in many years, it needs an overhaul and restoration. Rob found a fellow in Ontario who lovingly restores this type of car, so all we need to do is get it out there...but it doesn't run, so what do you do????

Thank goodness for the Internet. Rob googled car transport companies, and believe it or not, there are custom trucking firms that have enclosed semis that transport cars all over the country. So he called, and one happened to be coming through Regina on Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. We prepped the car the night before (air in the tires, car off the blocks, checking to see it rolls, because we have to push the car onto the truck) until midnight.

Then lo and behold, here's what appeared on our quiet little street early Saturday morning:

And here is the Austin Healey, all ready to go:

The truck driver was Len and he was amazing. He's 63 years old, been a long distance trucker all his life, and a car transporter for the last three. He's been all over North America, taking cars from one coast to another. He also transports fancy (and very expensive) sports cars from their rich owners to car shows, or from transport ships to dealerships. Len told us about Ferrari's, Lamborghini's (he calls them Lambos), Porsche, etc. He had a load once worth $5 million. On this load, he had a $220,000 Porsche--the Healey was riding in good company. Len even let us climb up and look at it! He had amazing stories and entertained us for two hours as he loaded the car. The car, since it is so narrow, stumped Len for awhile as he tried to make it fit in the tracks and strap it down--can't have the Healey bouncing around, taking out the Porsche or T-bird that it was riding with!

The truck has a lift at the back, and can stack two cars high, and three cars long.

Here's a peek at the Porsche. I tried to trade the Healey for the Porsche, and I think Len was tempted!

Finally we had the Austin Healey all snug and secure, so we bid farewell to Len and wished him safe travels. We just heard on Tuesday that the Healey arrived in Ontario, and now it will get some TLC. We should see it back at the end of summer....hmmm...will we have Monster Garage ready?

Third Time's the Charm!

With a forecast of sunshine, we trekked down to Regina for the third time to try and retrieve Rob's MGB from his mom's garage, to put in Trevor's garage, which used to be our garage, which we sold, because as you know, we are building Monster Garage this summer.

Yes, our lives are complicated.

So, on Saturday about 4:30 p.m., Rob starts digging out the car from him mom's garage. Did I mention that is in one million parts? Rob bought the MGB in the 1990s, with the hopes of dismantling it and rebuilding it. He mastered the dismantling phase....and that's where we are today. But I digress.

Earlier in the afternoon, Rob went and rented a car dolly from UHaul. I though it would be a huge flatbed, but he comes home with this flimsy thing. Should work... (and then we discovered that one of the tie down straps was almost frayed through, but we compensated with extra straps we had on hand. Geez).

And we call our give friend Jim to come give us a hand, as I'm not really that robust to heft a car and car parts.

It takes them three hours to move all the parts off the car and into the truck bed, to tarp, to push the car out and swivel around,

and push it onto the dolly.

Then after much technical discussion, Rob and Jim determine that they need to loosen the drive shaft (?) or else it will spin madly and bump and grind on the highway. Then of course, one has to tighten lug nuts on one's wheels, or they will fall off. All bad things. Who knew such tasks would take two more hours?

But five hours later (9:30 p.m.) we are done! Quick bite to eat, and tumble into bed for the big journey back to Saskatoon. We want to leave early to avoid traffic and any bad weather.

So we head out on the Lewvan (like Circle Drive freeway), and wouldn't you know, we run into road construction. And not just any road construction, but a diversion with our lanes narrowing to one, then weaving into the oncoming lanes to create two way traffic. So there's Rob, slaloming through a narrow lane lined with pylons, dragging a car on a dolly that has wheels that protrude one foot on either side of the truck. He did it without taking out one pylon!

Finally we reach the open road.

It only takes us about three hours to drive from Regina to Saskatoon. We were only doing about 80 km an hour--any faster and the dolly would start swaying--bad, very bad. Traffic was not that heavy, and they all passed our little convoy.

In Saskatoon, we try and take the back roads to our house, but end up slowing down traffic wherever we go. Sorry about that. We make it to our house and then to Trevor's garage. A quick unload of the car (yes, Rob and I pushed it off the dolly, swivelled it, and pushed it into the garage--you know, it's not that heavy when it doesn't have any doors, seats, steering column, roof, trunk, hood, transmission, or engine!) and then we are off to UHaul to return the dolly.

We discover that UHaul is closed on Sundays. Yikes. We see another UHaul truck going cross country through a field to reach the compound, and are about to do that ourselves, until he stops and tells Rob just to drop the dolly at the locked gate.

Then it's back to the garage to unload the car parts out of the truck bed. But finally, finally, the MGB is in its new home!

Yay!

We certainly had our share of adventures along the way.

Now it's onto the next phase of our crazy summer...drawing up the building plans for Monster Garage!

Car Moving Delayed Due to Weather

Guess what we woke up to in Regina?

Yes, more snow! We are cursed. So needless to say, we did not move the car up on the flatbed--too dangerous with wet roads and the wind.

We will try for this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather.

So we are into a holding pattern. Rob will continue working on the garage plans and layout. We'll try and get more excitement going soon!