Let's see your Man Castle

Long stretch's of boredom interspersed with short periods of abject terror

I spent MANY MANY Hours in that shop working on some of the quickest and fastest motorcycles in the world...I love the house too....that place was the center of TF/Motorcycles for alot of years.
It would be good to see a motorcycle person back in it again...Good Luck Man.

Well, it's been years of waiting, saving, planning and dreaming! I've read and reread this thread and a bunch of stuff over on garagejournal.com. But the WAC is finally starting to take shape. Let me explain. The WAC aka, Workshop Apartment Cabin is a place to call home when I am in the States and a workshop to keep the Moto-Fleet running! It's a hang out, a workshop, a vacation home, and an office. And it was built by fellow advriders!


With winters like these along the Minnesota North Shore of Lake Superior, one needs a workshop to restore bikes during the months were riding on 2 wheels isn't an option.

Highway 61






It all started during the first ever Minnesota North Shore Shindig, where I met MikeS. Behold, he was a log home builder, who knew a thing or two about contracting. A few months later he was framing the WAC. Before that could happen I had to do some clearing. One afternoon later, this is what I had.




The building was put on the far end of the 17 acres, giving me plenty of room to build a home someday on other parts of the property. It's a 50x30 slab on grade with a partition for livable space (kitchen/bathroom) on the ground floor as well as the workshop on the ground floor. Upstairs consists of a attic trusses with a large living room with plenty of space for pull out couches and a bedroom/office. The slab has two loops of Wirsbo in the cement for two zone heating (livable space and workshop).

Let the construction begin.




Kitchen window.


Progress continued through last fall.






Steel roof goes on and WAC get's wrapped! Mike worked hard on the steel roof and with great results.


The upstairs window has a good view of the lakes. It's fun watching freighters cruise the lake when they hug the Minnesota shore during strong westerly winds.



Another advrider, Arrowhead Rider greatly helped with the electrical rough in! Then came the poly closed cell foam insulation to keep the place above freezing during the long winters. Heat comes from a wood stove when I'm at the place and a Steffes off-peak furnance and Wirsbo infloor heat to keep the WAC above freezing.

The workshop has a high ceiling that will come in handy for future airplane work. I plan on installing some Tongue and Groove pine on the worshop ceiling and drywalling the rest.


More pics of the workshop partition.


The view outside the workshop window. Not bad!


The kitchen/dining room/living room area of the WAC. It's a work in progress, to date the drywall is all hung, taping and muding is ready to start!


More workshop ceiling pic.









Putting in a rock skirt around the base of the building. Should help prevent rotting wood when snow is piled along the house. I'm hoping to blend in the rock with the same material used for the walkway and retaining wall. That will come someday when I have extra $$$.



The 10x10 garage door, is big enough for most vehicles and airplanes, but energy efficient enough to hold in heat from the Wirsbo in the floor.


MikeS did a great job adding the face plate for a future second story deck overlooking the lake.



This is pretty much where it stands. Working on the interior finishing as I get time. But I already see this is going to be a couple years worth of tinkering! It's great having a place to work on bikes! I'm humbled by how many friends and family members have helped out on the place over the past few months. I'll post more pictures as I finish up the interior and the workshop. Thanks for watching!

Drool

Thankfully, only 2 cases of terror in 40 years...In case two the applause from the cabin did nothing to alleviate the severe knee shaking case after shut down...think my FO was crying that day...!!!
Mostly good days though...pays for toys...

Down in the south east. As for the 30,000ft thing, your secret is safe with me

Moved in February finally took a photo yes the Uly lives inside just needed some floor space but I covered her so she didn't get wet




Did have to install the floor to ceiling whiteboard in case I need to doodle

freebie wood burner

2nd or 3rd project since I moved in, motor mounts



Quick shot of the guys laying down the roof, redid the house and the garage


Going to Home Depot right now to get the wire and plug to wire up the 60 gallon IR compressor and hopefully my buddies cast away side by side fridge will be showing up to soon to get kegorated right EVOlife

If anyone in the N. Jersey area wants to swing by PM me or in need of a good roofer I got one to recommend.

Hell yeah. I'll do the work and buy the first sixtel of Ramstein.

Coming along!



Exterior plastering starts this week and hopefully the septic system on Friday. Then to wait for the assessor's office to do their thing before I finish the exterior concrete work, AC, and epoxy floor (still unsure about doing that due to the welding work).

As the Man Cave renovation continues, I had this donated by a guy I work with. Yes, it WILL annoy the neighbors. :eek

What are the demensions ?

28' x 48' x 12'9" interior at the peak.

Wow!

Jim

Almost finished the AV wall last evening. I still need to find some more maple to finish trimming out the bottom shelf. There IS light at the end of the tunnel!

What? No flat screen?

FREE is better than FLAT!

He should have recessed it into the drywall.

:huh Look for my posts a few pages back about how much I enjoyed the drywall....

Old configuration when we had 3 bikes running at a time.





New configuration now that we have 4 running bikes at a time. Room mates turned all the bikes around because they thought this looked better.. but it's a pain in the ass to park with the front of the bike's forward. The VFR 800 owner insists he likes spending the time to back in and not have to back out down the drive way *shrug* We have a 5th bike in the shed, 1990 Connie waiting repairs or replacement.