So, we are getting ready to build another house and shop. We bought 5 acres outside of town. My youngest child bought the 5 acres next door (her idea). So, in essence our property is a perfect 660x660. The plan is to build the biggest shop I can afford. It will house my upholstery room and it will have a small kitchenette and office on one end. The long vision is to build out the inside of the office in a mid century modern feel. Fully decked out in MCM furniture and decor. My goal is to have a happy place like my hero, @Moriarity. Even though, I'll never acquire as much cool crap as he has. I thought I might chronicle the build here. This will force me to take pics, which I almost never do. The goal is to build my last shop before I retire. I have 3.5 years left. Just bear with me, the shop is coming, I just had to get some things ironed out first. We started with an untouched piece of property. It was farmland then the family let ot go and the trees took over. Trees are sort of a novelty in OK. It's mostly open prairie and grasslands here. We started by buying one of my all time favorite tools, a 1975 Gravely L model. IT has a whopping 7.8 HP. Single lunger, it;s like the Harley Davidson of the mower world. Tough as nails. We use it to cut down the saplings and briars. We have tons of briars. The property was basically completely covered in briars and almost impassible. Thery grow up into the trees and are covered in thron, for those fortunate enough to have never dealt with them. The main thing is to get the underbrush removed. We wanted this to be our happy place, so the end result is supposed to resemble a state park. We remove all limbs under 6' in height, which that helps when I am mowing etc. Fast forward a few months. There is a lot of this going on. Burn baby burn! It's been 4 months since we started and I have a pad approx. 70'x140'. My neighboir across the road has a skid steer and ai hire him at about half the cost, since he doesn't have to travel. The natives are intrigued with the dirt work. Every time we move some dirt they show up to check it out. We are moving a ton of dirt around here. We hit sand rock about half way down. This slowed us down, but we will just get bigger equipment and press on. So, a few progress pics. We put in a oil/chip (chip seal) drive and fenced off the front 330'. Went to Tulsa today and picked up 10 pretty decent wooden framed windows. The purpose for these is to get the garage office vibe going between the office and the shop area. More to come on this later. While I was up there I swung by and checked out Buck Atoms on Rt. 66. MaryBeth Babcock commissioned this build of a muffler man giant, with a twist. For those that missed the thread, I picked up this chair from FB Marketplace, for the new office as well. Well, this is a good start. I'll post pics when I get a little more done on the building.
Oh man, I'll tell ya what, your shop will be way bigger than mine, I work in a 26x30 garage.... good luck man, yours is going to be great I am sure
Hey, RH; When I saw that 1st fuzzy pic of the local fauna, I was going to congratulate you on getting a pic of a Jackalopes' backside... . I do like the"hidden valley ranch" concept going on. Dbl for the MCM-to-come. Drool,,, Judging by the tree growth, you guys don't have troubles w/the Super-Cells there? The pics I've seen of those things are undescribable. We had one come thru St Peter, MN a few decades ago, watched it from Mankato, was real glad not to be any nearer. Impressive in pics, wrong kind of impressive in real Full-Color-Technicolor-life. Guy I got friendly with a few yrs ago, told me all about OK, & how they build houses down there. Not my cuppa-tea, but it is nice area, from what I remember passing thru a couple decades ago. Too many neat places in the usa(world, actually) to live, & not enough $$$, nor lives, to do it in a straight session, to remember & enjoy it it all. Marcus...
Actually super cells are common. Google Moore, OK May 3rd tornado. It was the one that created a new category, F5. Oklahoma is where weather guys come to train. A lot of the tornadoes start down in our area. Don’t ask me why we bought down here. The house is getting a 10x12 concrete bunker room. Here’s a few pics of one that was 2 miles wide. It killed some local storm chasers for the TV Stations. It’s hard to see but it was about a mile from my current house. Good times…
Hey, rt; Thanks for the pics. I lost most in some hard-drive, a whole slew of color pics of the wall clouds. Didn't want any of the "results"/aftermaths. ;( . Way too bad we can't harness the power(for goodness) in those things. Remember reading about Moore situation. Reason I made the comment on not many at your place, is because of the trees n such standing, those aren't 2yrs old. I've seen what happens after a "visit" from those things. Hope you stay out of their way. What my friend had told me was, they build houses/garages - & the stuff inside - to be considered "throwaway" . Had a hard time wrapping my head around that one, as "throwaway" doesn't pair-well w/the efforts expended on cars & hobbies/etc. & he said all have the concrete bunker, w/a radio transmitter inside to help find folks "buried" afterwards. So, not knowing the sub-surface material(s), I figured if I ever moved down there, I'd want an underground house n garage, similar to the one that was in the Dells(as a showhome - not for sale, nor living in. ???) called, iirc, Sybarite. Beautiful inside & quiet too, & not dark/dingy/damp/etc. Was a two-story sprayed-concrete dome-home, iirc, had 3 or four domes inter-connected. Figured that would help in near-anything but epic flooding. Well, actually, I've wanted one since the early 70's, never got it, but do have a (sorta) round house, which I like. Everyplace has it's problems, I guess it's what you're used to, &/or willing to put up with. From the pics, I imagined the land to be *much* larger than 600'x600'. That's gonna be one really nice place to be in. . Marcus...
I was shooting for a 1/4 mile, but that didn't work out. You are correct, most of the trees here are short(ice storms) and bow to the north due to the prevailing south wind. I am hoping this means the storms will skip us, but I don't put a lot of stock in that.
Hang in there . Keep looking on CL , FB sometimes buildings come up for sale . A couple neighbors who have large farms and one has a dirt construction business also found two huge buildings just before Covid years in CA . The buildings had been taken down and stacked up . They brought the buildings for a third of what a new building cost even with trucking added on . 2 years ago there was a 30’x50’ steel building for sale north of Ponca airport. The city was extending the runway and it was in the flight path.
I’ve had to shrink it down to 40’x80’. It’s my last hoorah, so I wanna do it up right. It will still be bigger than the 40’x50’ I have now. Plus, I am adding a 4 car garage on the new house. That will free up one more hole. I am looking into 4 post lifts to help with storage also.
The dirt work continues. These pics don’t show a lot of perspective, but we have moved about 2 acres of dirt. The fall is about 10-15’ overall. I’ll be glad for the hemorrhaging to stop.
I did get a pair of doors from the wife as a Christmas present. They will need a little clean up, but should be just right for the office door and the bathroom.
Awesome project! Keep an eye out in local papers, Craigslist, and I guess Facebook for lifts. Up here it’s not in common to snag a damn near new name brand lift for a a grand or so. Lots of guys decide the rest of their retirement is going to be somewhere warm and taking a lift with them isn’t in the plans. Can generally be had at a bargain because you have to go take it down and trailer it off. Lots of guys shy away from that effort and thats what generally drops the price down. had a friend 3 or so years ago end up with seven in one year! Suffice to say his car club all got lifts at a bargain.
The trick seems to be looking in places only 70+ year olds would advertise i.e. a newspaper etc. worth a shot!
I have noticed that. I sell most of my stuff on FB Marketplace via my daughter. Buy more on CL and the hamb classifieds.
That sucking sound you hear is the sound of cubic dirt…..more costly than aluminum short blocks. I now have moved enough dirt to have my own off ramp. I am thinking of an Evel Kenievel Rocket sled and jump my neighbors back pasture. We had to bring in the big guns to remove the rock shelf that was slowing down progress.
Thats some major progress @Roothawg. Might as well build a dirt bike track around the shop now ! I'll be doing the same on our place after we harvest some timber.
So, no real updates. I had to fire the loan broker and start over. Well, the new guy has been dodging my calls and texts. Now I know why....Today he sends me a text saying that the loan company he was working with says they are "too busy" to work it. BS. I gave him til the end of the day to get it handled. The older I get, the easier it is to fire people. I don't understand the big deal. We make good money, owe no one and have awesome credit.
Wow; 10'->15'drop makes a fabulous earth-sheltered(maybe underground! ) bldg. Be interesting to see what you do w/all that dirt. I probably shouldn't touch banking "issues", way ot I suppose, esp the way I look at it. Good luck. I would suggest a small credit union if you can. Almost always much more responsive, & better people n attitudes to work with, too. Marcus...
Root , You’ve got a big pile of dirt . Mix it with grass clippings and build an Adobe brick building . Summer is coming and the bricks would bake very nicely in the Oklahoma sunshine. Just being a wise a$$ . Hope You get everything sorted out . Financial institutions can be a pain.
My neighbors are eyeing my dirt. They have asked to buy it. I told them I prefer them owing me. I like to barter and swap. Someday, they will be called on to lift bodies off chassis or even better if they have a skill I don't.
Well, also looks like there's enough dirt to earth-berm around higher for a real nice-sized dug-out-type swimmin' hole. . Probably need some bentonite clay mixed in the soil. Instant beachfront property - or your own private "lake". . Or would that just attract rattlers & other such undesirable varmints? Marcus...
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