Thank you for your encouragement, guys. I am so looking forward to having this project to the stage where I can take over finishing it out. After almost six months of this, I'm ready for some peace and quiet again. Hopefully, in 2-3 weeks we'll be there.
Dak, your project sounds even more ambitious than mine. I assume that you also live on "horizontally challenged" ground. If so, be prepared for the added financial opportunities that this type of construction entails. The amount of $$$'s it took to just get to the point where we could nail two boards together was amazing. We were prepared though, and just bit the bullet. :M
Sleepy, you asked if either of us do any design work for a living. In my case: no, I'm more of a technical, hardware oriented person. I know how to manage large complex projects in my field of work, which isn't construction :W , which is why I've got a builder helping me with this. But, I've had a long, long time to mull this over. I've been carrying the details of this around in my head for several years. My wife though (the boss) has a natural talent for making things aesthetically pleasing, so I owe her a lot of the credit.
KKELLER14K, this will undoubtedly increase the valuation of the house and the property taxes, but by how much I don't know. Arkansas isn't usually considered to be a "high property tax" state though. I'll just have to wait and see what happens when the next county re-valuation is done.
There are still some major things to be done over the next few weeks, but the ones that are being worked on right now really aren't very photogenic, so I'll just give you the rundown in written form.
The electricians were out all day today getting things ready to power up the new areas on Monday. I think they're planning to do some work tomorrow as well. A 100 amp sub-panel is being set in the garage to handle all the circuits in both garage bays, and the new living area over the upper bay.
We're also having to replace the exterior CB panel that houses the main breakers, which is where the garage panel will get it's power. The main breaker panel is NOT close to the garage, and there isn't a good way to run the wires to the garage sub-panel inside the house structure, so it's going to have to be in PVC conduit attached to the side of the house. Not the prettiest solution, but it will have to do.
I'm planning to use six 8 ft. T8 fluorescent fixtures in each bay. The upper bay will have it's six fixtures divided into two banks (3/3), that will be on separate switches that already exist inside the house next to the entry door. The lower bay will have its six fixtures wired to two 2-way switches. One will be at the top of the stairs going down into the lower bay, and the other will be next to the garage door on the inside wall.
I'm going to have three exterior fixtures on the front face of the garage, one at the upper left corner of the LH upper-bay garage door, one at the upper right corner of the RH upper-bay garage door, and one at the upper left corner of the lower bay garage door. They will all be on a dusk-to-dawn photocell, and will be positioned on the face of the garage so they will form a straight horizontal line (the boss will be checking this with her special laser level). I've warned the electrician that his life won't be worth spit if he messes this up. :p
I'm also going to put an interior ceiling fixture just outside the entry door into the house inside the garage that will also be controlled by the photocell. That way there will always be a little light in the garage at night.
The living area over the upper bay will just get basic lights and receptacle wiring. I'll do the rest when I start finishing out that space.
The walls and ceilings will stay open for the time being, minimal sheetrock will be installed in the areas where the garage door tracks and lift motors will need to be hung. The first sheet of plywood siding will be hung Monday morning so the electricians can run the conduit through it. Hopefully, others will soon follow. :B
:):)
