Retirement

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We are building our down sizing house right now. I am definitely heating the garage. There are a lot of options now…. Check around
Here is my take on a heated garage. 2x8 insulated walls and fully insulated ceiling; walls finished with commercial paint product used in factories; finished floor that can be hosed out easily; hose bib for washing cars; thermostatically control heat; high output gas fired heater. This garage stays at the temperature set on the thermostat when it is 10 below zero and our highest gas bill for 5500 square feet of living space is about $140 in the month of February.
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Here is my take on a heated garage. 2x8 insulated walls and fully insulated ceiling; walls finished with commercial paint product used in factories; finished floor that can be hosed out easily; hose bib for washing cars; thermostatically control heat; high output gas fired heater. This garage stays at the temperature set on the thermostat when it is 10 below zero and our highest gas bill for 5500 square feet of living space is about $140 in the month of February. View attachment 137935View attachment 137936View attachment 137937

Good lord...where will I find the sockets, pliers, something to break something with??? :)
 
Here is my take on a heated garage. 2x8 insulated walls and fully insulated ceiling; walls finished with commercial paint product used in factories; finished floor that can be hosed out easily; hose bib for washing cars; thermostatically control heat; high output gas fired heater. This garage stays at the temperature set on the thermostat when it is 10 below zero and our highest gas bill for 5500 square feet of living space is about $140 in the month of February. ...

Man that is way too clean for the same garage that a snow blower and tractor are in. Mine has the hose bib and heater that is set on 50 until I use it for work then it goes to 60-65 or so. But min doubles as a wood shop on one side and mechanic's on the other. It is finished and painted, I was thinking of finishing the floor with garage epoxy paint. My wife at times refuses to walk through the garage and will actually use the front door!

But dam! Nice garage.
 
Man that is way too clean for the same garage that a snow blower and tractor are in. Mine has the hose bib and heater that is set on 50 until I use it for work then it goes to 60-65 or so. But min doubles as a wood shop on one side and mechanic's on the other. It is finished and painted, I was thinking of finishing the floor with garage epoxy paint. My wife at times refuses to walk through the garage and will actually use the front door!

But dam! Nice garage.
If you do the floor, epoxy is the wrong product. Hot tires cause the epoxy paint to lift. The franchise garage paint guys use some sort of alkyd I believe. This floor was painted three years ago in February. I turned the heat up to 70 for the comfort of the painter. He said the paint spec was good to go down to around zero. I figured he would do better work if he was comfortable. Still looks like new when I hose it out in the spring. Very happy with the work. Forgot to mention I spec’d high gloss white wall paint so the ceiling lights would reflect more light and make space brighter.
 
A ring camera? That's a helluva'n idea! Thanks for mentioning that; we'll do that once we can move on our "retirement" house.
We got a solar panel and a battery powered Ring camera. One of our neighbors were nice enough to let us use their WIFI for the connection so we are set to watch the progress each day, or live if we want. I intend to put all of the video clips and snap shots into a time-lapse video that will chronical the demolition of the old and build of the new. I have already captured all the progress to date, including the tear down. We have owned the place for 22 years so it was a bit of a sad day to see it come down.
 
If you do the floor, epoxy is the wrong product. Hot tires cause the epoxy paint to lift. The franchise garage paint guys use some sort of alkyd I believe. This floor was painted three years ago in February. I turned the heat up to 70 for the comfort of the painter. He said the paint spec was good to go down to around zero. I figured he would do better work if he was comfortable. Still looks like new when I hose it out in the spring. Very happy with the work. Forgot to mention I spec’d high gloss white wall paint so the ceiling lights would reflect more light and make space brighter.
The U-Coat it epoxy floor coating in my shop has been down for twelve-plus years - no issues at all except where I've dragged some heavy piece of steel across it and scratched it. Any coating can lift however; that is a condition where surface prep wasn't done correctly. My only issue with the system I used is it's UV resistance - where the sun shines on it there is a difference in color.
 
If you do the floor, epoxy is the wrong product. Hot tires cause the epoxy paint to lift. The franchise garage paint guys use some sort of alkyd I believe. This floor was painted three years ago in February. I turned the heat up to 70 for the comfort of the painter. He said the paint spec was good to go down to around zero. I figured he would do better work if he was comfortable. Still looks like new when I hose it out in the spring. Very happy with the work. Forgot to mention I spec’d high gloss white wall paint so the ceiling lights would reflect more light and make space brighter.

After two years of watching an epoxy floor go to crap right before my eyes I'm a convert to tile. I did not have any lifting or chipping but the gloss faded and the tires left marks after a while.

I'm now a big fan of Racedeck...made in the USA. I've had this flooring in my garage for 10 years. With a little Simple Green and some light brushing every spring it still looks like new.

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Getting back to retirement, some of the things I'd like to do, or do more of, are:
  • Longer dual-sport motorcycle camping trips with my like-minded friends
  • Pull my 70 Mustang apart and start to really fix it up and soup it up
  • Spend more time in Florida and start cruising further up and down the coast
  • General travel with my wife, including occasionally renting motorcycles in Europe and ??? and touring on 2 wheels
  • Learn some basic Spanish so I can communicate when riding/visiting in Mexico. But I SUCK at languages!
  • Learn to weld. Not sure why, just always wanted to be able to.
  • Take the grandkids on old-fashioned road trips
  • ???
I'm sure some of this will keep me busy for a period of time. Some of it will go away as my body declines so need to hit the ground running.
 
After two years of watching an epoxy floor go to crap right before my eyes I'm a convert to tile. I did not have any lifting or chipping but the gloss faded and the tires left marks after a while.

I'm now a big fan of Racedeck...made in the USA. I've had this flooring in my garage for 10 years. With a little Simple Green and some light brushing every spring it still looks like new.

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Race deck is awesome. That’s the same pattern and colors I did at my old home.
 
Don't you guys with Racedeck get annoyed with the noise it makes walking and driving on it? I was all sold on it until I was at someone's house with it and it was really noisy. At least to me anyway.

I've never noticed a noise. I wonder if the house you visited had a wicked uneven install? If the tiles are moving up and down "excessively" I could imagine they might clack a bit.

I've got plenty of slope in my floor with two floor drains but the tiles are silent...
 
Getting back to retirement, some of the things I'd like to do, or do more of, are:
  • Longer dual-sport motorcycle camping trips with my like-minded friends
  • Pull my 70 Mustang apart and start to really fix it up and soup it up
  • Spend more time in Florida and start cruising further up and down the coast
  • General travel with my wife, including occasionally renting motorcycles in Europe and ??? and touring on 2 wheels
  • Learn some basic Spanish so I can communicate when riding/visiting in Mexico. But I SUCK at languages!
  • Learn to weld. Not sure why, just always wanted to be able to.
  • Take the grandkids on old-fashioned road trips
  • ???
I'm sure some of this will keep me busy for a period of time. Some of it will go away as my body declines so need to hit the ground running.
'Sounds like we could be twin brothers from another mother, except I can weld. I'll teach you! The Admiral and I have so many places we want to travel to with the fifth-wheel, but we have to get the kids/grandkids out of the house first. And as far as learning Spanish, I can't help but think that anyone I try to communicate with, I'll just end up sounding like this guy
 
'Sounds like we could be twin brothers from another mother, except I can weld. I'll teach you! The Admiral and I have so many places we want to travel to with the fifth-wheel, but we have to get the kids/grandkids out of the house first. And as far as learning Spanish, I can't help but think that anyone I try to communicate with, I'll just end up sounding like this guy

I have several friend with the equipment and knowledge to help me learn to weld but I just can't think of something I need that would require it.

I travel the interior of Mexico on dual-sport rides and some of my friends have some Spanish skills. I've learned the most useful term when ordering meals at restaurants. 'dos'. I wait for them to order and then just say 'dos'. So far so good.
 
Don't you guys with Racedeck get annoyed with the noise it makes walking and driving on it? I was all sold on it until I was at someone's house with it and it was really noisy. At least to me anyway.
I didn’t notice the noise either. Although I wonder if that was a factor, if you could add a thin foam underlayment like for a sub floor? It’d be water proof. Just an idea and not trying to get into an @Arminius garage floor design.
 

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