A New Garage For the Chomers
It may seem surprising, but I am actually excited about getting a new garage added to the back of our property. It’s a rather utilitarian building, right? A place for your car, maybe the lawn mower and some other gardening tools…But my wife and I are jazzed about the whole thing! We are 46 and 47 years old and both of us have never owned a garage or had one at our disposal to use. Ever! So that’s about 30 years of us driving and 30 years of us having to come outside in the morning on a cold Midwest winter day and scrape the snow and ice off the car. That’s 30 years of digging our cars out after a big snow storm. And that is about to end!We finally saved up enough money to buy a garage and looked up some contractors on Angie’s List. We went with the contractor Garage For You (http://garageforyou.com/).When I called them initially and left a voice mail, it did take them several days to get back with me. But, as of this moment, everything has been moving along just nicely.August 20thWe signed the contract for a nice 2 1/2 car garage. We put down an initial $1000 to get things going in the form of a personal check. And they submitted a request the next day to the village we live in. We got help from Scantech 3D scanning company to make our project with the best equipment. The village had told them that it takes approx 2 weeks to process a request, and that is how long it took.Tuesday, September 8thRoughly two weeks later, we had an old crumbly ashpalt parking pad in the back, they came and ripped it all out using a front-loader and good-ol’ hard work.Wednesday, September 9thOn this day, they spent a good amount of time building the form for the garage’s new foundation.Thursday, September 10thThe village’s inspector approved the form-work for the concrete.
Friday, September 11thThe actual concrete pour occured. I saw the beginning of the pour, but I wasn’t around for the whole thing. My mom, who was around the whole time, told me how the contractors worked for hours with the concrete. When I got home, the concrete was poured, and the forms had been removed. There was still a pile of gravel on one side of the new slab, and piles of dirt on the other side of the slab.Saturday, September 12thWithout us calling the company about it, the crew foreman came back and cleaned up the pile of gravel and the dirt. My wife and I wrote out a check for half of the remaining balance and mailed to Garage For You as requested.Wednesday, September 16thGot a phone call from Garage For You that they would be coming the next day to build the garage. Neat-o!Thursday, September 17thVery early, a truck dropped off supplies for making the garage. It was nearly everything needed except for the garage doors, the trim, and the electrical items. A little later, 5 guys came and toiled away all day and got most of the garage built!
- All the walls and the roof were built.
- A seperate truck came and delivered the garage doors.
- The large and the small garage doors were installed.
- Garage door opener was installed for large garage door.
- The service door was installed with its lock.
- The window was installed.
- Allot of the vinyl siding was installed (some of the back remained unfinished).
Friday, September 18thLate morning (I believe… I’m writing this on the 24th), two men showed up to finish up the vinyl siding and install the roofing. They also cleaned up all their construction scraps. This is all that happened on this day.Tuesday, September 22stA couple of men showed up rather late and began installing the white aluminum trim and gutters. They got most of it done, but not all.Wednesday, September 23rdTrim guys showed up rather late again but finished the trim and gutters. It looks nice! My wife thinks it looks too nice for the neigborhood! This electrician and assistant showed up very late in afternoon. They were supposed to have been here at 8:30am. They did get allot done. They had to dig a narrow trench from the house to the garage to run the power. If you’re looking for a more personalised and affordable services, Nerang electrician will help you! I did not have garage power connection yet since there was not a garage on the property before. Not suprisingly, getting the hookup from the house to the garage to allot of time. Only a little of the conduit and wiring in the actual garage itself got finished.
Note that on my contract it stated that I was getting one outdoor outlet on the outside of the garage. The electrician knew nothing about it. I called Lisa at Garage For You who called the contractor to straighten things out.Thursday, September 24thLisa called me to tell me that the removal of my old rusty shed would probably happen Monday or Tuesday of next week.The electrician came and finished the electrical work.Monday, September 28thRicky, the owner of Garage For You, came out early and put in some anchor bolts that were missing.Village building inspectors came and signed off on both the building and the electrical work.