We're having our garage rebuilt, and it's moved in fits and starts. The latest start was that they put the siding on, so now it looks like a garage!

Some of this has been covered in other posts, but here's a quick recap.

First there was the demo. They knocked down the old garage and tore out the floor. That took just a part of a day, and left the yard with a big, unusable splash of sand where the garage used to stand. We had a question because they were going to remove the sidewalk that went around the garage, but didn't. We're getting a larger garage than we used to have, and the plan was to have its additional space come from the previous sidewalk. Later we could decide whether to add a sidewalk around again.

Then they came and poured a new floor. A half-day of effort and they had a floor with a row of brick around to receive the walls later. This they built about a foot off of where we thought it would be built, because they never removed the sidewalk, so there were questions that stalled the process; the construction left aps between the concrete in place and the new garage, and that the garage apron now didn't align with the little driveway in the alley. And the bricks were placed with a smaller garage opening than we'd planned for, so someone had to come and cut out some bricks and patch the floor.

We waited for a bit for the concrete to cure before they delivered the supplies to do the framing. Then the supplies were delivered and we waited for our turn in the schedule. And we pestered them with questions, trying to get things right and understand the things "we" decided, that we weren't involved in.

Once we addressed those and understood reasons, the framers came and tossed up the walls and roof in a day. A flurry of guys swinging hammers and suddenly a garage skeleton stood atop the new floor. It was cool to see a team of people who frame all the time just flinging stuff around and having it end up looking like it's supposed to. In no time they had the walls built out of a stack of lumber, put in place, and covered with plywood. It was especially impressive when they were putting the trusses up. Two guys stood atop the framed studs of the north and south walls. Then two guys on the ground "poked" one end of the truss to one of the atop guys and then to the other, delivering a "v" where an "A" was going to be. A quick push on the pointy end near the ground and the whole thing flipped into place. A couple kicks and hammering, and onto the next one. I missed all the plywood going on the roof, as we had to leave for a bit, but we returned to a yard free of workers and just a standing garage shell.

A few days later a lone guy showed up and shingled the roof. It took him a couple days, one side of the roof on each day. It was impressive to watch him scurry up and down the ladder on the side of the garage, often with a bundle of shingles on his shoulder, with the ease I used to have traversing stairs.

Then we waited for some siding bits to arrive. The garage used to be powered from the house, with a buried line. Between concerns about this over 30-year old line, and to offer high voltage power in case we decide to have electric vehicles in the future, the garage will have its own power direct from the utility company. This put a crimp on our game as this will likely mean that the switch we have in the house to turn on the exterior lights mounted on the garage may not be allowed to remain. There's a "dead" wire going from the switch inside the back door of the house, buried a bit underground, that was wired into a three-way switch inside the garage door. This was here before we remodeled our house in 2003, and they made it work when we moved where our backdoor ended up. We'd like to have them wire the switch with the same thing, but they have concerns that the electrical codes might require changing the wire between the buildings (which we're not budgeted for, and would need to go under a deck that has been added since the remodel), and around having the garage electricity get such a lead into the house. Fingers-crossed, the wires are still there, and we're hopeful that they're going to be able to connect everything.

Now we're going to wait for an inspection of the siding work. The place we're using has been doing a great job and has a good reputation with the city, so we're not expecting any problems with this inspection.

Then the electricians will come and wire the garage, hopefully with that three-way switch in place. We did have to make a change to the plan to allow for a light on the side of the garage where the sidewalk is. It seems the new rule is that there needs to be a light next to the utility door. Since we put the utility door opening into the space on the west wall, the sidewalk on the north side of the garage will be ever dark without an additional light. The light used to be mounted right in the corner of the soffit, with a two-lamp deal that pointed on both sides of the yard, but there's no overhang now, so the lights need to be mounted on the wall. Given where the door is, a couple feet from the corner, and where they're going to put the light, farther from the corner than the door is, there's no way that light will help the north side of the garage. That and the mess with the three-way switch remain.

Then the garage door will be installed with an opener. The electricity isn't connected until after the final garage inspection, so we might need to run an extension from the house to the garage to be able to power the door opener until that can happen, as we've been warned that could be several weeks after the garage is "finished."

We're still a month or so away from a fully-functional garage. We're pretty in-line with the original build estimates, and then need some time for the electrical connection. I'm hopeful that the electricians and door installer can finish their bits before it gets too cold or snowy. We've got a bunch of stuff that belongs in the garage strewn around our back yard and in the house. I'd like to be able to move them back into the garage before they become buried or blocked by snow!

In the spring we're thinking we'll add drywall inside the garage. We had thoughts to do that before we moved stuff back inside, but we're really pressed with weather, so we're going to delay that until later.

That was a lot more recap than I thought!