Owner/builder for garage-shop build. Should I be scared?

Fabrik8 said:
If I had the land to put a big shop, I'd have a big shop. We've got less than an acre and some weird layout issues that make it not possible though, and metal building 10 feet from the house isn't an option.



Sooooo that means save like $25-30k and be my own GC, and do it on a more relaxed build timeline?

I agree with the logic of everything you said. We've already been here almost 6 years (yikes, and still no garage) and aren't planning on going anywhere unless something forces us to.
Click to expand...

My point was actually the opposite.
The $20k you save will only cost you <$100/month.
And you have the opportunity cost of not having s hop for however longer. Pay the man. Be done. Enjoy.

BTW...youve already paid an architect...ask him if he has any known subs he'd RFQ it to and let a few recommended vendors bid against each other...:popcorn:
 
Ron said:
BTW...youve already paid an architect...ask him if he has any known subs he'd RFQ it to and let a few recommended vendors bid against each other...:popcorn:
Click to expand...

That's where the last 2 expensive builders have come from, but they're all out of Plaza Midwood (super trendy Charlotte area) and both also wanted to charge to travel out of their immediate area. That's the reason that I've seen examples of their work though, and know their quality. The architect didn't actually RFQ anyone, I just did it directly to people he usually uses.

I've really only got 3 rough quotes in the last 2 years, and one of those builders doesn't exist anymore, so I've really only got 2 rough quotes. I haven't been getting 20 different quotes from 20 different builders hoping that the cost would change (that's what I think people assume I've been doing).

This was going to be a cash deal, but that's not happening at the current quote levels. Have to think about that one. Still need to pour money into the house as well, because it needs a lot of love. And a new gaspack, if that counts as love.
 
Last edited:
My vote is to cut out all the landscaping and ancillary details. Make it look less busy and I'm sure the cost would come down some.

One of the things I have been told about getting anyone to do work at your residence. Call their ins the day of and make sure the policy is still in effect. They may give you bogus info.
 
I now see a gnats-ass survey, or an attached garage in my future. I don't think the power line right-of-way is where we thought it was. If it's centered on the pole line, we're going to lose 18-22 feet (it's a wedge) from the back edge of the property. Then the house is 46 feet from the property line, and the rear plane of the house sets the rear yard line. So we have about 26-28 feet to build the garage, which is 30 feet deep. Fantastic.

Garage plans are changing.
 
rockcity said:
Is this a distribution line or a service line?
Click to expand...

Distribution. There's a pole in each of my neighbor's yards, strung across my yard. The easement is drawn to be in different places on different plats, but snapping a line between adjacent poles is easy if it's as simple as that. If it is that simple, the path is on my side of the property line, so I've got 15 feet plus the offset distance from the property line. That's different from any of the plats, but they're all different from each other and there are no location callouts (just 30 foot easement).

This has now turned into "I can't build the garage without changing the size/placement/whatever, so actually relocating the service drop from the pole is no longer an issue. I can't put the garage where it will interfere anymore, because of the easement location (probably).
 
Last edited:
It’s likely the easement predates the poles and the newer poles were not placed in the same location as the old ones, so it’s possible the plat is more legally “right”. But if you bring it up, they will probably just update the easement to coincide with actual location.
 
rockcity said:
It’s likely the easement predates the poles and the newer poles were not placed in the same location as the old ones, so it’s possible the plat is more legally “right”. But if you bring it up, they will probably just update the easement to coincide with actual location.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. If the poles have been replaced, it doesn't appear that they would have moved much, which is part of the mystery.

Oddly, the pole path is on the 1989 title survey (not the poles, just the path between them), but the easement is shifted off-center. The pole path is believable, maybe a little off.

The 1987 subdivision plat has no poles and no easement.

The second (1988) subdivision plat has a different shifted easement location, but seems to have the poles in close to the right spot.. This is the last/final plat before house construction in 1988.

Polaris shows the easement overlay as being dead center on the poles in the satellite view (that's actually pretty impressive photo stitching), and the poles are in the right location as well, and mostly agree with the pole path on the plats, so that's yet another datapoint.

So with no actual callouts anywhere for the easement (there's no ref dimensions to any physical object or to any relative dimension), and easement locations that shift around, so I wonder if they're all just drawn as a proxy and the actual location is something else.

Mystery!



I was hoping someone was going to say "Duh, that's because the easement is centered on the pole path", and put it to rest. :D
 
Last edited:
Also, I just realized after finding the one visible corner pin, that my neighbor built his fence approx 1.5 inches off the property line. He must have set his post string at 6 inches off the line to the back post face, and then added 2x and pickets toward my side.
Glad I'm not planning on building my own fence... Wish I didn't have to look at his out of my back window.
 
Last edited:
Quickly approaching a $200k shop build :lol:
 
sell house buy new one with shop.
profit
 
Just build a boring box that fits on your lot like the rest of us. Or move like @Ron said. :D

2DFF70D3-92AA-4170-8370-6F4CE50EDB12.jpeg
 
Ron said:
sell house buy new one with shop.
profit
Click to expand...

Tried that.

Ours ended up being the first house we looked at (but it didn't have a garage); We tried to find a house with a shop/garage for about 10 months, and ended up buying that first house we looked at.
 
jeepinmatt said:
Quickly approaching a $200k shop build :lol:
Click to expand...


Nah, it just keeps moving all over the property because we keep finding out how small our available location actually is.

Flat rate for relocating the main power feed to avoid the slab is $350, as an update. Engineer (Energy United) is coming out tomorrow, and is trying to find out where my easement actually is. Energy United has a 40 foot distribution easement, centered on the pole line. But I don't know whose easement it actually is anymore, and neither does he. Does EU own the original Duke easement now, etc...? SO much fun.

My rear yard build-able depth keeps shrinking. I think we're down to 24 feet now, and I thought we were starting with 50 feet.
 
Last edited:
Move to Coulwood in West Charlotte. Tons of brick ranches on acre lots, and the prices haven't gone completely crazy yet. Plus you're probably 20 minutes or less from Concord, 10 minutes to the airport, 15 minutes to downtown, etc.
 
jeepinmatt said:
Move to Coulwood in West Charlotte. Tons of brick ranches on acre lots, and the prices haven't gone completely crazy yet. Plus you're probably 20 minutes or less from Concord, 10 minutes to the airport, 15 minutes to downtown, etc.
Click to expand...
Dad lives in coulwood
Brick ranch with walkout basement on 8 acres can see 485 from porch...he calls it his beach front house..
When people ask why he says when he sells he’ll make enough to buy beachfront
 
jeepinmatt said:
Move to Coulwood in West Charlotte. Tons of brick ranches on acre lots, and the prices haven't gone completely crazy yet. Plus you're probably 20 minutes or less from Concord, 10 minutes to the airport, 15 minutes to downtown, etc.
Click to expand...

Google streetview says I would totally live there. House prices not too bad, not much I like for sale at the moment as a price reference though. Mid-high $200s.
 
Lived in Coulwood (https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/232-Enwood-Dr-Charlotte-NC-28214/6148727_zpid/?) for 6+ years and we loved it. I scroll through those old pictures and really miss that house. We put a lot of remodel work into it (the big stuff...kitchen, bath, hardwoods, etc.) and got it just the way we wanted it and then sold it. Made a good nut on it so worked out but still miss that house (and the memories of my little boys in it).
 
Met with a Energy United engineer at the house today. He had no clue about a Duke easement, because they own the easement. He had lots of info though, and I may end up with a 400A electrical service after all if things work out (it may not be any additional money when I move the line and move the meter). It would be $350 to move the line, and I may get a new pole, transformer, and 400A meter for no extra charge. We'll see how it goes, even though I don't need a 400A service at the moment.

On the down side, 2.5 hours after I went back to work, my cameras started going apeshit because there was someone walking behind the house and checking all the rear door handles. At 5:11PM. On a Friday.
He was talking on the phone about being around back and that the doors were all locked (obviously not working alone). So that was fun. Cops showed up in 5 minutes after I called from work, guns drawn to check things out.

Dumbass did about an 18 point turn, trying to turn his car around in the narrow part of the driveway. He could have pulled 15 feet forward and did a 2 point, because parking area.

Kinda sad he left before the cops got there. He didn't enter the house, and therefore didn't steal anything, soooo...
 
Did they at least get a good description of the car?

I moved a camera so that I could get license plates of anyone that pulled in or backed into my driveway


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Loganwayne said:
Did they at least get a good description of the car?

I moved a camera so that I could get license plates of anyone that pulled in or backed into my driveway


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I have a really nice video of the guy, with the car in the same frame. Best screenshot ever (I don't have the pic on this Chromebook, else I'd post it). I started reaching out to some nearby people, and it turns out someone in a nearby neighborhood saw the guy about 4 minutes after he left my house (and got video also). Guy rolled up in the other neighborhood and was acting so suspiciously that he wrote down the license plate, then the guy walked across the street to his friend's house and left with him so got a full visual confirmation. So I got to pass along the license plate and the friend's address to the police, thanks to someone about 0.4 miles away.

A few people on social media said "what if the guy was looking for a friends house and it was all a mistake?".. Which was pretty stupid, because you don't roll up at a friends house when no one is home, and start trying only the back doors without knocking on them first.
 
Back
Top