In addition to the two large garage doors, there is also an entry door on the left side of the building.

With the framing in place it's easy to see the ceiling height... 13 feet! The carpenters have done such a great job on the framing...

it's almost a shame to cover it with sheetrock. This is the right side where the lift goes.

The back view shows the hole for the air conditioner and the compressor shed...

which has a full 8' ceiling and extra sound insulation between the shed and the shop.

A week has passed and there's lots of progress, the roof is complete (almost)...

and siding is going on.

The short pieces of siding take longer to apply than the long runs.

Inside, the rough-in of the electrical has been completed...

there's going to be a LOT of lights...15 in fact...4' fixtures with 4 tubes each.

The new compressor sits outside on the trailer waiting for the compressor room to be finished.

The outside doesn't look different from last week, most of this week's work was detail not readily visible...

like finishing up the fascia and installing the soffit.

A day was lost in removing the previously installed siding...seems the building code now requires a moisture barrier...who knew?

An attic exhaust fan was installed in the compressor room to help keep it cool when the compressor is running. The box to the left is the thermostat.

The outside has an 18" louvered vent installed over the exhaust fan. The trim ring will go on over the siding.

"...one step back"... after removing the siding a Tyvec moisture barrier was installed to please the building inspector...

then it was back to reinstalling siding.

Intake vents were installed in the siding for fresh air to be drawn in near the top and bottom of the comnpressor...

corresponding louvered vents will be installed on the inside.

I liked the idea of the powered vent in the compressor room so much that I had one installed at the ceiling level in the garage.

The main beam was drilled and 5/8" bolt installed with heavy washers and nuts holding a length of chain. A through plate was installed in the ceiling.

This will support an engine hoist.

Insulation will make for warm winters and cool summers.

The front face had the siding removed, moisture barrier installed, and siding reinstalled.

A little more work was done on the end including cutting siding in around the vent. Just the gabled ends...

remain to be sided.

The stacks of building materials are about gone, just some extras to be returned.

All exterior siding and trim is now completed.

The steel doors have been installed on the compressor room and the air conditioner set in.

The interior of the compressor room is lined with OSB to make adding shelving easy; it should also be more durable here than drywall.

The dirt next to the building will be graded...about 5 inches to remove.

The inside has drywall hung and taped...

it's been a busy week.

The openings for the garage doors are faced with 2" material...will make a good support for the door tracks.

Paint! Nothing makes you feel like you're on the home stretch like paint!

The walls and trim have received a primer coat.

Before any paint went on, the ground was leveled, seeded, and straw put down.

This side carries much of the drainage from the house...extra straw!

The inside has also received...

a coat of primer.

The primer is flat white...

the finish coats will be semi-gloss white.

While the Bobcat was there for the yardwork I also used him to place the compressor.

I roughed in some compressor plumbing including an easily reached drain pipe.

The house received new shingles and paint...everything now matches pretty well.

Paintwork is almost finished and the garage doors are installed...

they will be painted dark gray to match the trim.

Walls are finished except for touchup where the Bobcat got into the Hardyboard.

The trim gets another coat...

and the rear doors will be painted dark gray to match.

The inside received three coats of semi-gloss, sprayed and then back rolled.

A ceiling fan pendant was installed over the chain and an eye hook installed to hang the hoist when it's not in use.

The motors for the garage doors are commercial grade...

as are the doors. There are also chains to raise and lower the doors manually if needed.

The compressed air manifold was mocked up...it now comes down so the boards can be painted.

The Ucoat-It floor paint was delivered; it will not be applied until the building is completed.

Now that the construction is about finished it's time to repair the driveway...the concrete trucks did a number on it!

A new roof and paint on the house ties it in nicely with the new garage.

The car hauler fits fine in it's new place...plenty of room to access both garage bays.

The underground power line to the house was split and a new feed and meter added to the garage; the only evidence is a small box in the yard.

A single board was damaged by the Bobcat during grading; it's been replaced and painted.

Final paint all around.

Here's the main air line to the shop and the end of the pressure tank drain pipe...

and here is the drain on the inside...

all that is required to blow the condensed water out of the tank is to briefly open the ball valve handle.

The isolators on the compressor do a good job of dampening vibration...inside the shop the compressor noise is no greater than the air conditioner.

A small air manifold was installed in the compressor room...this will permit sand blasting out behind the garage.

The yard has been seeded and it won't be long before I'll have some mowing to do.

I installed some 18" pavers for now until I decide if I'd rather pour a pad and walkway.

When you walk in an flip on all the lights it is nice and bright! There's a total of 15, 48" four tube flourescent fixtures (1920 watts/all on).

This corner will get some shelving.

The shelves are heavy duty enameled steel. Each will support up to 600 lbs.

The garage air manifold, air hose reel, and electric cord reel. I'll get some wire clips and tidy up the wiring soon.

I've added a refrigerator to reduce trips to the house; the blue tape indicates the end of the cabinets.

This corner will have cabinets installed, after the floor is painted...

I've also installed a 4 hp shop vac on the wall for those detailing chores.

The garage doors are now wired and functional...remote electric, wall button electric, and chain drive.

The view with the doors open, from the inside...

and out.

I took a day and got those shelves up; I'll need a little ladder to get to things, but at least everything will be up out of the way.

A fun day...I decided to put together the two halves of my new tool box and put it in place.

I knew the chain hoist would come in handy!

In a few minutes I had the top chest on the bottom chest and...

ready to roll over to the back wall. If I measured correctly, the lid should just clear the shelves...

and it does! Then it was just a matter of putting in the liners and loading in some tools.

A nice cover came with the box...don't know that I'll ever use it though.

On to bigger projects...installing a lift. You've got to have a heavy duty truck to handle the 9' 5", 1470 lb lift.

The chain hoist and engine lift made unloading easy...a one man job.

Heavy duty furniture dollies (1000 lb capacity each) and a trolly jack allowed for easy moving.

As the shrink wrap and steel bands came off, components were unloaded from inside the column.

After completely unloading one column it was moved aside...

to start on the other one.

The pump/reservoir came in a separate box.

All the parts were layed out and checked against the inventory list.

Time to get started putting it up! The chain hoist was used to raise the upper end of the first column...

until it was standing on end.

The engine lift was used to "transport" the column across the floor to where it would stand.

Three ratcheting tie-downs were used to secure the base of the column to the engine lift...

with three more tieing the upper portion of the column to the engine lift.

The column is standing free and the long hydraulic hose has been inserted from the top down to the hydraulic ram fitting at the bottom.

The yellow carriage has been jacked up to verify proper positioning of the cable in the pulley and...

to allow access to the compression fitting for the hydraulic hose via the rear access hole.

I purchased a Bosch heavy duty hammer drill and new 3/4" concrete bit for this job. There are 10 expansion bolts, 5 for each column base...

each is 3/4" x 5".

The drill did a great job...the dread of the task exceeded the actual doing of it.

There's a lot of dust that comes out of a 3/4" hole and it will interfere with the placement of the bolt, so...

having a vacuum handy is a good idea.

And here's the column, called the "slave" because it lacks the pump, anchored down where it belongs.

Then it's mostly a matter of repeating the process for the primary column, lifting...

stading upright, and moving into position.

The hoist was perfect; after securing the column, a final strap attaches the base to the boom and allows the column to be raised and easily rolled.

The top tie beam is installed before the primary column is drilled and set.

Then the base is squared in reference to the first column...check those diagonals! A ratcheting tie-down worked nicely for squaring.

The locking dogs were then installed and the connecting cable rigged. It goes from the handle on the primary column...

up and over the beam to the other dog; pulling the handle on the primary works the locking dogs on both columns.

The remaining hydraulic lines were plumbed...

and the pump/reservoir lifted into place and bolted to the column.

The synchronizing cables were adjusted using the large lock nuts on each carriage. The rams do the lifting, the cables keep the carriages in sync.

The short hose was connected between the pump and the column.

A final check of the cable routing through the pulleys.

I thought I'd see how the Titan would fit...if it can fit, anything can!

Even with the tool box in place, there's walking room at the front...

as well as the back.

The center of gravity is perfect...right at the back of the front seat.

The 10' wide doors make entry and exit easy, even with the mirrors unfolded...

and there will be much more room for the LBCs.

The final task was to provide power to the 230v hydraulic pump; I ran PVC conduit, primarily for looks. Here you can also see the fine safety wire...

it stretches between the two columns, 6" from the top. A vehicle that is raised too far will tension the wire and kill the power to the pump.

This close-up shows the wire to the kill switch; the silver looking dot on the pump motor is the "on" button and the handle below it lowers the lift.