Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Building a garage-apartment with a pond view

That looks great. Move-in day - yes ! It must have taken all day to do that. So what is next ?

Wow, that looks fantastic. It's getting closer and closer.

The boss laid down the law (again) and I will be working on honey-do's at the principal residence; pond stuff goes on hold. Once some penance is paid for those homey-type projects, I should be able to wrangle a reprieve to get back to some of my pondly commitments. Having arrived at that point, I think we can scratch together enough $ to get a water well drilled. This would lead to completion of the mechanical room, which might lead to finishing and insulating one of the bathrooms for use during cold temps.
For the record, I took a pond bath last weekend and it fell short of relaxing bath water.

Wow, Brettski! I've been out of the loop for awhile now and just got a chance to read through your posts from where I left off a few months back. All I can say is that your progress is fantastic! The place looks great and, as with all of your work, the product is absolutely immaculate! It's just amazing what you've done there and I love seeing the progress. Big time congrats on getting to this point!

Brett, above and on either side of the clock are some things that almost look like electrical outlets. What are they?

Lassig and jsec provided helpful PM guidance in understanding installation of structured wiring. Since I was pulling wire for computers, coax for TV's, and what-not, I also installed speaker wire for the potential of different speaker placement options. The subject boxes are nothing more than speaker wire terminations. Why so close to each other? Well, that's another little side story. I laid out all the framing, windows, and wiring to allow the potential of installing a wall and a couple of doors to split the newly developed zone into 2 separate rooms, ie; bedrooms. The wall would land directly between the 2 subject boxes, one in each room, and they would marry up witn the other boxes laid out within the opposing ends of the shop zone.

Brettski the place looks fantastic, lots of fun following your progress.

Dski made me stay home last weekend to tend to some of the sorely overlooked honey-do's at our principal home. It was an awkward time for her to come down on me (is there ever really a "right" time?) cuz we were/are at the peak of fall colors....and I wanted to be at the pond taking it all in. The rain and weather this year seems to have been conducive to nice colors. It's a small window of time, and just like spending mindless time staring across the water, framing it with a kaleidescope of color makes it even more transfixing.
So, I did such a good job that she joined me on a return trip back to our LNP project this past weekend. Good thing, too....the colors are just at or past peak and the leaves are fallin' like rain.
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Anyway, we did get make some progress on the gar/apt. Since we now have our new living quarters pretty much tightened up for the final leg of development, we are still minus a bathroom. This includes a shower. In fact, we still haven't scraped together the dough to have a water well drilled (although that is moving up the priority list). We carry in our drinking water, use pond water in 5 gal buckets to flush the single toilet we temporarily installed, and take baths right in the pond. The impending cold weather will negatively affect pond baths, and a frozen pond will make it difficult to draw buckets to flush the toilet, thereby pushing the water well up the wish list. Anyway, if and when we do get a well, we will need a bathroom to hook it up to. This will be our next goal; finishing one of the baths...the master bath.
We have had a wonderful stretch of warm weather here in the midwest. No rain (yeah, pond is way down...maybe 2 feet plus), but the daytime temps are 80'ish for the past week. We wanted to get some of the jobs completed that are best done in warm weather. We mixed and troweled thin-set mortar, cut cement board, screwed down and pretty much finished both bath floors.




and the master bath


A little more taping in the master bath, but both floors are ready for ceramic tile. With this much done, the next step is setting the fiberglass shower stall and hooking it up to the drain that awaits just below. This will be a big step since it will allow us to use water warmed up on the propane stove and hung from a bucket above the shower stall. Primitive? You bet...and a big improvement over wading into 50 degree pond water to take a bath.
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OK, back to the fall colors...
It does my heart good to get up before the sun and stand at our new little kitchenette area as the sun rises. Coffee never tasted so good.



And at the end of the day, as the sun sets, I am reassured that we picked decent finish colors for our gar/apt.

Thanks for the pics - stunning. Love the reflections.

Wow, the last photo says it all.

I agree, that last photo should be framed, and hanging on your wall.

What happen to the Garage? I can't see it anymore.

I'd die a happy man if I could have this.

With the shop area comfortable for sleeping, dining, and other general living stuff, we are now confronted with the issue of a bathroom and shower as the temps get colder. During the summer, the temporarily set toilet in the open air of the upstairs framing worked fine. Pond baths worked fine. Now that we are well into November in the midwest, the colder temps pretty much squashes those bathroom activities. The answer is completion of the master bath...and quick. If we can finish off the master bath, we can lay insulation into the interior walls and heat the room independently with a space heater. This is the next goal.
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First is to set the shower stall. We used a bed of mortar at the base and smooshed it down to create a firm base under the tub floor.


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Then, time to bring the tub drain and overflow together with the last opening in the drain line and finish off that drain section.


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I picked up a pretty nice (and quiet) bath light/fan unit offa Ebay. I don't like the cheap plastic dampers they normally install in bath fans. I also like using solid 4" pipe to vent to the outside of the house, tilted downward so that the condensation that occurs during the colder months will drip outside thru the vent under the eave.
We upgrade to a nice stainless, spring loaded butterfly damper.


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...and install the 4" plastic pipe to the eave (had to use a rubber coupling to make the unusual bend over the existing vent pipe)


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The pocket door framing is installed. This will be the door between the master bed and bath. For now, we will just run the drywall over the opening and close it off (next trip...I hope)


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And finally, to meet the immediate need, a temporary, functional shower is installed.


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We use pond water in a 5 gallon stainless pot on a coleman stove to heat up the water. Go ahead and laugh...it works...and it's a helluva lot better than a November pond bath.

Only way I am taking a Nov pond bath is if I get in a big yellow jacket nest near the pond and am forced to make the leap.

Nice work on the shower. One way to cut down on the heating time on the water is to bring it in the day before and let it come to room temp before trying to heat. Another option is a black plastic bag hung in front of the window (direct sun on the bag) to collect heat for the water.

A little more progress; small by measure, but huge by comfort.
The master bath has been dry-walled and all the walls insulated. Per the plan, we needed to create a heated cocoon for bathroom activities.



The insulation stuffed into the interior walls does a very nice job capturing the heat, particularly since 3 of the 4 walls are not exposed to exterior winds and elements. It will also serve it's afterlife as a permanent installation in the walls to provide sound deadening.
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I got a funny look at the home center when I asked for greenboard, the staple of moisture resistant drywall for bathrooms. The new sheriff is purple to distinguish it's resistance to both moisture and mold. OK, I'm on board.





The electric oil-filled heater works great on a very low setting to keep the bathroom cocoon at a cozy temp. It really makes for improved creature comforts as I perch on my throne and gaze out the strategically placed window and chuckle to think that I spent my last 2 years living in that tiny garage over yonder.


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We installed a catwalk platform up near the peak of the roof framing to allow a very low scuttle along the entire 44' length. The insulation vent chutes are installed in each bay and we are getting pretty close to the point of insulating the main living space.



The structured wiring is next, a tiny bit of electrical wiring detail, and I believe we will begin insulating the ceiling and exterior walls. WooHoo!

Keep chugging along. Every weekend you are there, you're one step closer to finishing.

Remember this time last year? How much snow was on the ground?? I'll bet your pond is still open.

How many Muskrats have been taken so far this year?

That is a lot accomplished !

I gave Dski the weekend off and did a solo shot out to the project this last trip. Most all the targeted work was one-man-band kinda stuff, and she does deserve a break now and then...from both the project work and me.
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I have been trying to hook up with somebody in the 'hood to help move the 500 gal LPG tank that I picked up a couple of months ago. It has been setting on my utility trailer ever since, tucked up off the driveway in the woods. No, we aren't at a point where I actually need propane for heat, but I do want it onto the tank pads we poured a couple months ago. I also need to free up the utility trailer because I will need it to transport more insulation for work that is slated pretty soon.
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My excavator was in the area with his mini, so we hooked up to move the iron pig to it's final resting place. A 2" conduit was laid into a trench to facilitate pulling thru the gas line, when that time comes.



As much as we try, foresight and planning are often limited and we wind up doing the best we can with what we have. So goes location of the LPG tank, as it relates to the location of the gar/apt. We had to consider:
1) keeping it within about 75' max of the driveway to allow filling
2) keeping it within a reasonable distance of the actual structure
3) keeping it somewhere near the backside of the entire building site to minimize visual exposure
4) working around the septic tank and field that wound up packed into that same "rear of the building site" location
5) keeping it in an area that will allow hooking it up to the future home structure that may be built sometime in the (retirement) future.

So, after considering all this criteria, we have about one option. Done.

We decided that a short privacy fence will have to do for blocking it from view...yeah, I'll get right on it when I have time.

Lassig and Jsec from the PBF have been helping me with planning for the structured wiring. I went a little nuts with the computer and co-ax wiring in the shop area downstairs, so I felt that the living space upstairs should get similar attention. This is a shot from the attic area above the interior wall cavity where the wiring box will be installed.



This is the wall cavity directly below. This bowl of spaghetti includes the runs coming in from below in the shop area. It feels like I have more home runs than Barry Bonds.



The only area left that to be wired for this stuff is the garage parking area. That should be cake...I hope.
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The only wiring facet that I have NOT installed is alarm stuff and/or surveillance camera stuff. My jury is still out on this one, but now would surely be the time. Forum members that are savvy on this stuff are encouraged to chime in with thoughts and what hardware I might consider.

I don't know how you keep all those wires straight.

When do 'we' move in?

I should say, when can 'I' move in?

Really done nice job there man....one of my friend tell me about this to see.I appreciate you...
Thanks for sharing this....

Jeesh, we're on the cusp of 500,000 views on this thread. You guys gotta git yourselves a life (or maybe I do...?)
Tunza thanks for the interest and all the support.
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We've had some committments that kept us home. This, combined with a recent weekend that got hammered with snow, and we have been hit and miss on getting to the gar/apt project. I am pleased to report that the living quarters in the shop area is a notable success and life in the cold midwest is no issue thanks to a pair of 1500 watt baseboard heaters. The electric bill is tolerable, but only because it is used during the weekends. The real downside to this plan is arriving to a thermostat ambiant room temp that reads 34 degrees when we flip on the power. Dski has it down to a science of survival; she immediately cranks up the electric blanket on the bed to high and then crawls under her electric throw blanket on the couch until the bed is smokin'. Admittedly, I am all good with the plan.
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So, living downstairs in the shop area works as planned as we make the mess upstairs in the main focus of this project; the living area. We are faced with surpassing a major milestone; insulating and drywall. It's bitter-sweet in that we are anxious to fly by this milestone, but cautious and hesitant because it means that we must feel 100% confident that we have all the stuff in the exterior walls and attic area that we will need to make this place tick the way we want it to. I sit at home some nights and it hits me like a brick when I suddenly think of some other little thing that I forgot. Then, another trip to Menards for stuff and it makes the trip for installation that weekend. I am having far fewer last minute epiphanies, so we have stocked up with a strong inventory of fiberglass insulation. Like all my projects, we only use unfaced fiberglass, meticulously fluffed and placed, and then covered with plastic vapor barrier.
Although we have quite a way to go, and the progress continues slowly, I felt compelled to add this pre-500K post. So, a couple of shots of yellow walls.
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A little more wall stuffing, and we are very close to starting with the ceilings. This part will suck a bit more simply because of the height logistics, particularly at the center.

Dang it, it sure is coming along nicely!

Just for conversation sake (and asking someone who knows more about the stuff than I do) have you looked into the spray-on foam that is also a vapor barrier? I don't know how it compares to the fiberglass for R value (and price), and realize that it'd be a greater PITA to do any work in the wall after the fact. I'm thinking that it might hold up better over the long run and not settle down like other insulations do? Do the glass bats hold their place for an extended length of time? Will there be any condensation on the opposite side of the plastic vapor barrier even tho the outside of the house is wrapped?

Nice job !! You need to clean the windows so we can see outside to the lake !

Sure would be easier to use roll in for the high areas.