Summer - Fall 2013

I had a little time this summer to get some things done, but then worked solidly from September up to Christmas.  I did enclose the stairway, as intended, and took measures to solve a problem that's been plaguing me for years - ice buildup on the garage floor.  Lastly, I repaired the damage done to one of my in-floor heating tubes that occurred during the 'mud-jack' of the garage floor awhile back.  Have you ever cut a 6" square hole through 4" of concrete?
 
Oh yes, and I reached a pivotal moment late this summer...a BBQ and poker night out there, where the whole gang crashed in the house.  This marked the first time anyone has actually slept (all night) in the house itself.  Here are some pictures of the enclosed stairway and BBQ.

  

 

Here are the pictures of the hole I had to cut, drill and chip out to get to the damaged in-floor heating tube.  I have pictures of the repair and new concrete somewhere, which I may add later.

And finally, the icing on the garage floor.  What happens, is that snow comes off the steep roof and piles right in front of the garage doors.  Since I'm not up there all the time to shovel right away, it can build up into quite a mound.  If the sun hits just right, some snow can melt off the roof and drip in front of the mound, which blocks it from draining properly, and it seeps under the garage door.  My plan was to dig a ditch along the entire length of the garage apron, then cover it with those steel drain grates like they use in the floor of the oil change places.  I found a decent deal on Craigslist and bought enough for the job, and also dug the ditch (12" wide x 18" deep x 56+' long) - by hand.  Digging the ditch took 3 or 4 hours per session, 4 or 5 sessions.  I didn't buy the wheelbarrow until halfway through the process, which helped tremendously.

Well, as it turned out, the steel grates weren't going to work, because I was told that pouring a concrete "u" shape wouldn't hold up.  I was convinced by the concrete guy to put down 'pea gravel' and drain tile, then cover it with more pea gravel.  Frankly, I'm not convinced it will work nearly as well as my original plan, but we'll see.  The real key is to get up there more often to do more shoveling and keep the snow from building up.  More easily said than done, but I'm making an effort this year because last year I could literally have skated around in the garage...no joke.  First picture is the grates that wouldn't work.  I resold them on Craigslist and broke even.