Finally Seeing the Finish Line!
Rebuilding a Beautiful, Vacant Historic Detroit Home (Episode 63)
Insulation… Celebration!
Last week, we had an exciting couple of days with our insulation crew! It started with a day of foam on the ceilings, followed by a day of blown-in cellulose on the walls and garage ceiling, and finally ending on a day of fiberglass under the floors of our mudroom and solarium!
It’s always shocking to me how much quieter, less echoey, and suddenly more lived-in a space feels after insulation happens. Suddenly your dark, cold, loud shell of a space starts to feel more like a comfortable space to be in. With it being so cold out here in Detroit lately, hovering between the single digits and mid 20s, the insulation instantly made our garage, and solarium much more comfortable work spaces.
Garage Updates!
It’s Furnace Time
After insulation, the very day after insulation in fact, our Furnace crew arrived to install a gas heater into our garage! It took them several days to get everything together and properly exhausted through a metal chimney that dives up through our beadboard ceiling, into the attic space, and out the back wall of the garage. With the thermostat installed, we are now able to keep the garage comfortable for the crew, and in the future, we’ll be able to moderately heat the garage in the winter for our ’54 Chevy and our daily drivers.
We want our garage to also be able to function as a good, clean working space for projects. So Brandon did some research and ordered us a storage cabinet system that will live on the back wall of the garage from New Age Products. Their system is modular, well made, and customizable, so we’ll be able to create the exact kind of workspace we need for everything from house to moped projects :)
Speaking of Mopeds…
We still have one trick up our sleeve in the garage that we haven’t told you about. So one of the big reasons we struggled with our original garage’s size was not just due to the ’54 Chevy, and not just due to the lawn equipment, snow-blowers, etc. that took up space, but also my moped habit. At my peak, I had 5 mopeds and 3 ebikes to store, and with so little space, I tended to keep them all but one in our basement. This makes it very hard to actually enjoy them… at 150-200lbs or so each, it’s a huuuuuge hassle getting them in and out regularly.
So Calvin, Christian, Brandon, and I devised a plan. What if our garage had a lift to be able to carry things up and down from the attic space?
Well after much discussion, Youtube videos, digging through catalogs for Unistrut products, and hiring a structural engineer on Fiverr, we have created a plan for just that! We now have drawings for a structurally tested moped (or anything) elevator that is operated via a small hoist! We will be building something that works and looks a lot like this video:
Maxwell Construction has taken our crazy ideas to heart, and is working to make them a reality! They’ve installed Unistrut into the walls of the garage, mounting them so that with beadboard installed, they are just slightly proud of the walls of the garage. We’ve sent off our drawings to a couple local custom metalfab shops and asked for quotes.
The system, once installed, should have about a 1,500lb live load capacity, plenty for carrying outdoor furniture, lawn equipment, and yes, mopeds up and down. Christian is planning to install beadboard to the base of the lift so that when up, it is practically invisible other than the Unistrut tracks on the wall and a small part line at the ceiling.
Beadboard
The quest to recreate our beadboard garage is nearly complete! Roman and Alec completed the ceiling a few weeks back in prep for insulation. Once insulation was installed, they moved onto installing all of the beaded wall material. All that now remains is the trim around windows and doors. We plan to stain the walls and trim to match the ceiling, keeping the look very similar to our original garage!
Garage Lighting
In planning for garage lighting, one thing we really wanted to pay attention to was all the different ways we might use the space when it’s finished. While most of the time we intend to use the garage to simply store our vehicles, tools and mopeds, we know there are opportunities for the garage space to be more flexible. We decided to design the garage with two sets of lighting. One set would be modern, LED lighting good for lighting the space well for work. The other set would be a more aesthetically minded, something that will give the garage a moody, and older look that feels more period appropriate.
We found this really cool Ohio based company, Big Ship Salvage, which takes decommissioned ships and parts them out for sale. They have a large selection of everything from portholes to ship searchlights, propellers and more… and I quickly discovered their lighting section. We ordered a set of cool solid brass lights salvaged from a Korean ship’s engine room that we will use in the garage. They should do a good job of making the garage feel old and industrial, and the brass fixtures should create some cool, moody shadows on the ceilings and around the space when on.
Solarium Progress:
Windows!
We ran into a couple snags with the install that gave us some delays. First, we had a few of the push-out casement windows that were very difficult to shut, and one that we couldn’t get to shut at all. We had to get on Marvin’s service schedule to rectify the windows before we felt comfortable installing them. Thankfully just a few minor adjustments and the windows were closed successfully and installed.
Second, we discovered upon receiving the sliding door to the solarium that there was a fairly major problem with our measurements. A small mistake by our architect meant that the spacing between the transom and sliding doors below them was incorrect, and because of that, when installed, we’d either have the transom be 4" too low compared to all the others, or a step-over threshold that was about 5" tall! Thankfully a panicked call to Marvin and they were able to provide a perfect solution that didn’t require re-making the entire door or window. A 3" spacer piece was installed by Christian between the two that Marvin provided, and the door was able to be successfully installed! As soon as it went in, the entire space felt much closer to finished! The room got noticeably warmer as well, even with the giant skylight hole still in the ceiling.
The Skylight!
And.. finally… on to the skylight. The skylight has been a long awaited step for all of us. It has been waiting at the supplier for us to give the go-ahead that we were ready for install. Finally, with the rubber roof complete, insulation scheduled, and all of the windows in, we gave the go-ahead for the skylight to be delivered. We arranged for a special truck with a crane attached to deliver the skylight so they could lift it up to the roof and set it down in place.
We’d been told that the skylight would arrive ready to be placed on the opening… but upon arrival, we were surprised to find the entire thing disassembled in multiple boxes instead. After much arguing with the supplier and the parent company Wasco on why this thing arrived unassembled, Wasco gave us their recommended installer’s contact info and put us on their schedule.
Finally, the day arrived and we got to see the skylight installed in a matter of just a few hours. The space feels so might brighter and more open with it in place, and the light coming into the house through the doors and windows has improved dramatically as well.
What’s Next
With the skylight in, our sunroom is officially sealed from the elements and interior finishes will be able to start soon when Roman completes a small job for another customer. This week, Alec will be staining our beadboard in the garage, and next week we expect to start seeing some progress on our fence.
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Our journey isn’t over
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