Garage

As part of our construction loan for the home, we had to make repairs to the roadside face of the garage. You can see in the pictures below that the front of the garage had shifted quite a bit over time, causing block separation and for the wall to lean out. 

   

After digging down along the wall to inspect the foundation, I found the footer to be inadequate as it was only 18" below grade. The slope of the road and breaks in the slab inside the garage were proof that water infiltration into and below the foundation and slab were the cause of the damage. To follow suite with the rest of our remodel work, we are always looking at ways to save ourselves money, especially when we hire out. The contractor took care of shoring and demoing the wall, we took car of the cleanup and removal of all the old blocks and wood, much of which were salvaged for a later project (that we happen to be working on as I write this). 

When the contractor removed the block wall, he asked if I wanted it rebuilt as it was previously done, or be framed out with wood. We both agreed that for the time being, it'd be best build out of wood (the cost saving of wood turned out to be a bonus) It is difficult to see in the picture, there are temporary jack posts and headers holding the roof as the wall was removed. 

By the next day when, all of the framing was complete on the front wall, 

and the sheathing and tar paper we on by the second.

After that we were left to decided on how to finish it, and by the time we settled on it, we bought the materials and finished it ourselves, saving us money. We settled on using pine ship-lap siding, individual 6" boards, tongue and grooved together. It came out to be one of the better quality and cost effective choices.

While the contractor was working on the garage my wonderful lady spent many hours scraping, priming, and painting the old wood doors for the garage. Those hours saved us well over a $1,000 in buying new doors.

In the spring we will work on the trim and possibly painting the siding, a decision left to a later date.