POST 100: The GSG Story

Hard to believe that this modest blog has achieved the milestone of 100 posts! When it began, this was to be a log for a single project: my 1999 BMW Z3 Coupe. There are plenty of posts about that car, but after a while I began adding other projects, to the point that car-related posts are in a distinct minority.

But it occurred to me that I had never really done a post about the Grant St. Garage (the GSG among its friends and admirers). It has come a long way in a little over four years! So let me indulge myself by going down memory lane, and creating a single place to go for pictures that tell the story.


Mary Ellen and I purchased the GSG on December 31, 2011. At that time, the building was a total wreck. I also have almost no photos from that time. In the first place, there were no working lights, and we were working too hard to stop and take photos! But this picture, taken by the light of the open overhead door, tells a bit. It's Mary Ellen (center) and John and Dee Zimmerman, in cold-weather gear and dust masks, about to start the initial process of cleaning up:

You can see the physical thickness of dirt on the floor. The ductwork above their heads  was attached to an ancient oil-burner that hadn't fired in decades. I would later learn the tank was half full of water. The post in the foreground was dead center in the building, and also dead center in the double-width overhead door - a really stupid place!

There was a "bathroom" in one corner, with no fixtures and a broken water meter. I was later to learn that the hole for the toilet was not placed to code, and the plumber had to jackhammer the concrete floor and move it. There was a rudimentary room scabbed together around the oil burner, and a brightly painted wall in the middle, attached to the floor and ceiling in only a couple of points. If you touched it, it wobbled. Tearing all that out was one of the first tasks:

Actually, the very first construction task can be seen in the photo above - see  the unpainted blocks to the left and behind the debris? They are two of six large windows that were all broken out and covered with rotting OSB panels. We removed all that and I paid a mason to fill the windows. I decided the building would be easier to secure that way.

The next big task was to get rid of that post in the middle of everything. A member of our church, Craig Husted, is a licensed engineer, and he kindly did all the calculations and recommended a welder to remove the post and install a large beam to hold up the center span. A fascinating process to watch, and one that totally transformed the space. Here's the progression, with the beginning photo taken from outside through the overhead door. The photos are dated Feb. 10, 2012.

Demolition work was continuing, including the removal of the furnace, including its tank and all ductwork. Kelly Williams and I took a huge load of debris to the dump in his one-ton truck! John Zimmerman and I built a new bathroom, while master electrician Bob Zimmerman (John's son) completely rewired the place, including 12 6-bulb fluorescent fixtures, quad electrical outlets every 4 feet, and some pre-wiring for 220V tools. Along about that time, gas was piped to the building for an eventual heating system. The heating system was installed by Dick Schnader's company, and it does a great job heating the building on the coldest of days. I keep it set at 40 degrees when I'm not in the shop.

In that last photo, Bob is using a portable bandsaw to remove a welded-on beam that was just in the way. Seeing how that tool performed led me to add one to the GSG's arsenal a few years later. You can also see the magnificently bright fluorescent fixtures.

There was so much dirt, we cleaned over and over trying to get a marginally clean workspace. In this sequence (dated 03/15/2012) John and I are using a borrowed floor scrubber to try to clean the concrete:

You can still see  the wild paint job above. That was the next step - to paint the entire interior with bright white elastomeric paint. That stuff is designed to flex in temperature extremes, and is quite a bit thicker than regular paint. Looks a lot better! This  is the same corner:

Work continued on the bathroom. John and I had made the framework out of 2X6 lumber, because I wanted  to store stuff on top, and also to make room for lots of insulation. The GSG is not insulated, but the bathroom is! Bob installed a separate baseboard heating system in there, and I keep the temperature at 50 degrees to keep the pipes from freezing. After spending $85 to replace that freeze-damaged water meter, I resolved never to have to do that again!

Dave Russell had been a flooring installer in a prior career, and he put down the vinyl flooring. Once the bathroom was finally done, I built some shelving (one of two shown) to keep things I didn't want to freeze. Incidentally, at the building inspector's recommendation, the bathroom is sized to be ADA-compliant, with all blocking in the walls to add handrails when my heirs decide to sell the property. The lower photo is dated July 24, 2012.

 A few days after the completion of the bathroom, on July 30, 2012, I was granted a Certificate of Occupancy. A big day! That meant I could move in tools and begin to do some work in the space. The first purchase was a Delta contractor's saw with 50" Biesemeyer fence and a rolling base. I found it on Craigslist in New Jersey, and it was worth the trip due to the larger, more powerful motor the owner had installed.  John and I borrowed Troy Nace's truck and drove over to pick it up.

New Year's Day, 2013 saw the arrival of some very expensive raw materials that would go on to become multiple shop fixtures. It's maple plywood, already finished on both sides with a very hard catalyzed epoxy finish. I immediately went to work, and built a small workbench to have a modest place to store tools and work on projects:

Here's two tool stands, and a big storage unit we dubbed "The Amazing Tower of Storage." The slot between the two sides is sized to hold full sheets of plywood, and the side you can't see has shelving similar to the visible side. It's all over-full now!

I don't have pictures to show it, but somewhere along the way we installed a new overhead door with opener, and I bought a dust collection system on Craigslist. Dave Russell and I installed that, and then I bought my prized Bosch 12" compound sliding miter saw. Dave and I made a "temporary" stand for it that is still in use. You can see the white pipes for the dust collection system behind it. That's Dave in the photo (May 17, 2013):

Dave and I made dozens, if not hundreds, of projects together starting in 2004. Sadly, Dave and his wife Michelle were killed in a tragic motorcycle accident on Oct. 19, 2013. Just about the last thing we did together in the GSG was to deliver a beautiful oak machine stand (yet another Craigslist find, photo dated Sep 30, 2013). I later used it as a place to install my new-to-me milling machine:

When I found the milling machine (yes, on Craigslist) I also bought a small lathe from the same seller:

As my interest in machining metal has grown, I added another lathe, purchased from fellow Make717 member Ben Eisemann:

The woodworking continues too! A workbench I build 20 years earlier came back home to roost at the GSG:

The most recent addition is a much better jointer, purchased used from one of the woodworking shops at the Willow Valley retirement community. It's an 8" Powermatic. I had riggers move it, since it's quite heavy, and had the rolling base ready for them to drop it into:

So, after four-and-a-quarter years, the GSG is a great place to work when I can find the time. This blog is filled with tales of projects in wood and metal and on project cars. I'll close with one more story: when I was first looking at the property, I noted that the realtor's notice said, "Must contact Zoning Officer for proposed use." I did so, and found that because of previous "nuisance" tenants, the property was zoned as "dead storage." That means that things could be stored there, but no work could be done in the building.

The Zoning Officer recommended that I go before the zoning board and tell them exactly what I wanted to do. I did so, and described a hobby shop where woodworking, metalworking and having a project car would be the activities. Their main concern was that it not be used as a business, and I assured them that having to justify the building by making money there would actually be a negative. 

So, they created a zoning permit that reads, "Strictly non-commercial hobby shop for woodworking, metalworking, and a project car." Surely the only building in the U. S. with that exact zoning. I love the Grant St. Garage!