building Man Cave One in Scottsdale AZ

Maybe I missed it but what did you cover the garage floor with. Nice and shiny.

Decided to diamond polish and seal the floor. Looks great. This is the type of finish most of the big box store use. Looks great

First piece of equipment.. Husky 60 gal twin for $300 used one year by a pilot at a hanger.

Delivery of the sand and stone for stucco were here
early this morning. They go a good start on a 10day process.

Trim carpenters
Stucco installers
HVAC installers

All were here today and Thurs. the garage door will be installed.


The yellow paint will be the color of the interior. Bright enough to reflect light but mellow enough not to blind you while working. Semi gloss that will be washable.

Good stuff. I've been lurking on this thread since the beginning. My dad was a building contractor so I love watching projects like this come together!

Absolutely awesome!

I cant wait to see the inside all done up, with shelving and all organized, maybe i missed it, but you are going to have a working sink in there with hot and cold right? a sink is the one thing i wish i had in my garage.

I have a stainless steel deep sink (with hot /cold water) I rescue from a closed restaurant.
Shelving will be a combination of steel prep tables from the same restaurant and boltless shelving from lowes built on a elevated base.

Kitchen cabinet base from my kitchen remodel and lots of rolling racks to
keep parts on when taking a bike apart. I have two woooden 8' tables that will be mounted agaist the wall. More pics to come next week as things roll in

Hvac is almost finish with the duct work. Nice looking job

mades a big difference when trim has been installed


full length of the duct in the quest quarters, Industrial look, will be painted a deep scalet red with the yellow walls









downstairs duct work installed. Nice duct work, very clean


There will be two ducks facing out and two ducts facing back and one going into the office



Supply duct coming out of the utility room. 45 degrees up and connecting to guest supply duct. This duct also supply the bathroom with AC and Heat. There is a manual dampener on the duct to control air flow to the upstairs.

If memory serves I recall something about applying vinegar to galvanized metal to neutralize it before painting.

Looking good.

ok, we need the rain. Dain and Donald my trusted day workers are cleaning and mopping the garage floor and putting shelves up.

We were hoping the garage door would arrive (it hasn';t at 10:30) so we are doing what we can inside. We are going thur the wood pyle and keeping anything over 4 ft without nails . We have other projects that we can use the wood. The rough carpenters wanted to toss out the used stuff. The cheap guy I am said NO.

8 ft piece of 4 x12 and 18 4x12 blocks. will be used on projects.

Pics to follow later

We had a good morning rain(heavy at times) good thing.. our water tight roof is leaking. Good to find out now.



the garage door had a problem with the brackets. The door didn't clear so he took out the grinder and grinded the perfect angle so it would.



The door is white and will be painted . The blue is the protective cover until the second layer of stucco is finished next week.

Not to be a smart ass at all-because it does in fact look like a 1st class bldg!!! Congrats!!! - but in contrast, when I build, I draw it up then saw the pattern on my mill,etc.. I definitely spent way less for my farm land, house(circa1979 & logs) shop, barns & chicken coops than this one Man Cave building, no doubt about it! Also, I live in the land of no zoning or bldg permits. Nice, but not happening from my pocketbook.
P.S., no I'm not prospecting to get the cost either!

I read your response to my wife and it was a head scratch-er for her also. I did draw up the plans with the help of the architect. I don't have a mill .. but I do have lots of dirt and rocks. I can have horses on my property but can't have chickens (it's scottsdale). I've built shed's and out buildings from left overs from large building projects when I had lots of time in the summer when I taught school. Working in the construction part=time and going to school.

What has change were the building codes. Building codes are good for saving lives. Do you know that the new codes are designed for a Katrina type wind storm. New bracing and nailing on trusses and joisting. I hired companies that paid a living wage to their employees. Nothing under the table.


I decided to build with this block because it will save energy cost in the future. It will also be our
safety shelter. It was built to withstand high winds and has a full fire sprinkler system in it.

What I.m sensing is the question why someone would spend this $$ amount for a man cave?
Look below at my response.


I don't have the final cost yet. I started with the idea of a steel building. That was quickly veto by the homes that surround me. I'm 63 going on 40 with a 16 month son and maybe another one on the way.

When I moved to AZ I wanted a house on two acres and without HOA. In Scottsdale you are going to pay for that. We purchased the house (23 yo it need a total remake.) I wanted a large Man Cave and someplace where friends can gather. Keeping it with design of the surrounding building force the cost issue.

I could have purchased an industrial condo which was already built.. but I wouldn't be close to my 16 month old and have him visit the garage and learn to wrench and fix things. We made part of it into a guest room for fellow travelers to visit.

Those future moments in time are priceless. So is it worth the cost .. yes.
Over 20 years it will still be there and great enjoyment and priceless time sharing knowledge to my son.

If It was to build this in Seattle, Portland or Bend OR it would almost cost the same. The material used was a little higher quality.

I love the South. You can get so much more the $$. The permits and fees cost 16K. They required a fence with wind shades. That was $3K. Then there was a dust permit and dust inspection. The real cost of bricks and mortar was less than the total cost.

The cost of living ..depends on where you live and what is important.

Thanks for you comment. I will have true cost in a couple of weeks.

wow EVERYTHING is plastered.fascias,soffits everything!The leask almost looks like its coming through the wall.I hope you can trace and fix it properly

found it this morning.. hose in hand.. traced it down to bent flashing.

Hey, I believe in permits & zoning! We just don't have em here, like a few other backwoods places,probably very few. It would really crimp my style to deal with being told where to bulid fences ,how high & so on! I keep a clean , neat place and keep the car doors, log/lumber piles, chickens, etc in their place & organized. My problem is I work too much & I'm getting old too! I was/am impressed with your project & yes, it did cost more than all my buildings, not counting the land. FWIW, "farms" in my county were bought(before me being here) for the standard $1 per acre or even less, with mine being much more.
Your cave has better construction features(which are something I know about) than my SIL's expensive house in FL! My only real criticism would be that it's way to "nice" for my sort of shop activities. Nice project!
p.s. from a retired teacher

Wow. $1.50/sqft for that polished floor? That's awesome. I have been looking around for quotes and they were all in the $3.75 to $4.25 range here in Denver. Heck, they want $1.75/sqft just to scuff the floor to prep it for my DIY epoxy work! So instead, I am going to etch it with acid as prep.

I hated em building inthe states but man could Ecuador use a bit of regulation in regards to stairs and door heights. It's not easy being over six feet here

Nice progress on the hombre castle wb
Mike

Amazing. Indescribably Jealous. Both of the building and the skills you must posses in order to make use of said building.

When I was in college I was accepted into the peace corps. I was going to south America to work with building and figuring out irrigation systems.

I was always handy .. (my father started me off with projects). Some thing I'm hoping to pass down to my son. My wife's father fixed everything with a hammer and if that didn't work..he would find a bigger hammer. Not a solution to every fix.

Passing the knowledge along. I have always asked a lot of questions to learn from others. I just left the welder to make a barn door rail for me. The retail was $400 at the stores. This one is going to cost me $100 and I get to prime / paint or I could heat it up and dip it in oil .. and shine it up.

I haven't done much of the building .. but a MC is something you leave behind for you kids.

I have projects planned .. and I figure 2 per year. What am I going to do with all these rebuilt projects. Keep some, sell some .. look at them brag about them and ride them.