North Georgia Custom Home & Garage Build

[ToMorrow44]

I’ve been wanting to build a custom home with a big garage forever and after working my ass off the last few years, we’re finally getting started.

I live an hour north of Atlanta in Canton, GA. It’s a growing small town primarily consisting of custom homes on large lots and equestrian estates. I was lucky to find this 5 acre parcel earlier this year and got it for a great price. No HOA, zoned agriculture (read: you can do whatever you want on this land) paved roads and nice neighbors.

Here’s some random pictures of the land before starting. It’s very quiet, peaceful and lots of wildlife. Between the summer and winter, it looks like 2 completely different pieces of property with the foliage.

I’ve been working with several builders for the past year trying to figure out what will fit in my budget with a big garage being table stakes. Being a single dad with joint custody, I realized I don’t need anything huge, as it’s just me at the house a good chunk of time. Finally settled on this plan, but removed the garage and put a 50x50 shop attached. ~2000sq ft 3/2.5 with an unfinished (for now) walkout basement. I’ll finish the basement over time with a guest suite, game room, gym, etc.

 

[ahavasu]

That's going to be nice, excited to see it progress.

 

[ToMorrow44]

Here’s my very crude rendering of what it’ll look like. The garage will be 50x50 with 12’ walls, scissor trusses inside for a peak of ~17’ ceilings. Side doors are 14x10 and center is 14x14.

Finally broke ground last week and the pad is set. However we’re very close to the county setback so we’re going to wait for the surveyor to come give us the green light that the house is in the right spot before pouring footers.

 

[Kylemenz1]

Awesome

 

[Angler]

I’ve been wanting to build a custom home with a big garage forever and after working my ass off the last few years, we’re finally getting started.

I live an hour north of Atlanta in Canton, GA. It’s a growing small town primarily consisting of custom homes on large lots and equestrian estates. I was lucky to find this 5 acre parcel earlier this year and got it for a great price. No HOA, zoned agriculture (read: you can do whatever you want on this land) paved roads and nice neighbors.

Here’s some random pictures of the land before starting. It’s very quiet, peaceful and lots of wildlife. Between the summer and winter, it looks like 2 completely different pieces of property with the foliage.

View attachment 1442023 View attachment 1442024 View attachment 1442025 View attachment 1442026 View attachment 1442027

I’ve been working with several builders for the past year trying to figure out what will fit in my budget with a big garage being table stakes. Being a single dad with joint custody, I realized I don’t need anything huge, as it’s just me at the house a good chunk of time. Finally settled on this plan, but removed the garage and put a 50x50 shop attached. ~2000sq ft 3/2.5 with an unfinished (for now) walkout basement. I’ll finish the basement over time with a guest suite, game room, gym, etc.


View attachment 1442029 View attachment 1442030 View attachment 1442031

Love build threads!

 

[DILLIGAF]

Wow....Congrats! Love all the greenery. "Firewood......get your firewood here!" lol Make sure you put in a nice firepit.

Everything looks awesome

 

[ToMorrow44]

Wow....Congrats! Love all the greenery. "Firewood......get your firewood here!" lol Make sure you put in a nice firepit.

Everything looks awesome

Absolutely will have a cool firepit! Will be no shortage of firewood here

 

[Wmc]

Congratulations

 

[riverroyal]

Cool area. We've been a few times.

 

[Ducksquasher]

Beautiful! Congrats!

And jealous!

 

[rivermobster]

Looks to be an Awesome pad. Congrats!

 

[ToMorrow44]

Since the fall colors are among us, I figured I’d share some pictures. I haven’t seen this lot in the fall since I bought it in April, but I’m liking it so far!!

This is approximately where the back porch will be:

Wash that goes thru the center of my property

Plateau on the backside of my property

Outline is my approximate property line

 

[ChumpChange]

Looking forward to following along.

 

[FROGMAN524]

Can you shoot on your property?

 

[ToMorrow44]

Can you shoot on your property?

Yep! And I plan to set up a little range. I can probably get a 100yd. Just on the other side of my property line is a deer stand up in the trees so someone has been hunting here

 

[Joe mama]

Very cool !! Can’t wait to follow along.

 

[FROGMAN524]

Man that’s the dream one day to have lake front property with a Dock and a gun range and maybe a ski hill nearby. Hard to find.

 

[Cooter01]

Awesome man!! Look forward to the updates!

 

[ToMorrow44]

Footers getting formed today. Had to move the garage back a few feet due to setbacks and they’ll have to re-dig the footers for that, but coming along nicely!

 

[ToMorrow44]

Footers just about ready for concrete. Garage footers go re-dug and formed. Will get inspected and poured next week.

 

[ToMorrow44]

Footers are poured and A LOT of rebar is going up for the basement walls and garage retaining wall. The wall on the back of the garage (last picture) is going to end up being 11ft tall in order to bring it up to grade . A little more than we thought it would be.

 

[Angler]

Footers are poured and A LOT of rebar is going up for the basement walls and garage retaining wall. The wall on the back of the garage (last picture) is going to end up being 11ft tall in order to bring it up to grade . A little more than we thought it would be. View attachment 1446817 View attachment 1446818 View attachment 1446819

Keep them coming! Looks great.

 

[ToMorrow44]

What a difference a couple hours makes! ~5hrs after the above pictures, this is what it looked like. These guys are awesome!

2nd picture is the garage walls and gonna need A LOT of dirt to fill that in

 

[ToMorrow44]

Walls are up! Super excited about this. A couple pics with my 9 & 7 year old for size reference.

Love this view out the back of the house

Garage:

Of course, my kids’ favorite part is the dirt pile in the front yard and asked if we can keep that after the house is done lol.

 

[Eliminator21vdrive]

They are making short work of this!!

 

[ToMorrow44]

They are making short work of this!!

Yep, the trades have slowed down so they’re all waiting for work. Rough in plumbing is next and the guy is already on standby for next week lol. They used to be 6+ weeks backed up. It’s working in my favor because the concrete guys that did the walls said they want to do the house and garage slab and driveway so my builder gave them a number and said “do it all for this price then.”

 

[DirtyWhiteDog]

What a difference a thousand miles makes. #4 12"oc for a basement and only 1 layer. West of the rockies the engineers have stock in the rebar manufacturers. Looking good, and a great location. Can't wait until you go vertical

 

[ToMorrow44]

All underslab plumbing has been done for the basement. Next up is backfill but we gotta waterproof the basement walls first which is a tar-like coating. With temps ranging from 20-40 this week, we gotta wait on that till it warms up a bit. Hopefully next week.

 

[Kachina26]

I missed this thread. Nice to see a build outside of the southwest deserts. For the construction guys; are rebar caps just a ca thing? Or is this stuff too tall to require them?

 

[FROGMAN524]

I know this is a 5 acre lot but what are the specs on the house?

 

[ToMorrow44]

I know this is a 5 acre lot but what are the specs on the house?

The main level will be ~2000 sq ft, 3 bed 2.5 bath. The basement will be unfinished for now, also 2000 sq ft and will have a guest suite, 1/2 bath, game room, living room/theater, bar and a gym. But that’ll get finished slowly over time. Garage is 50x50

 

[regor]

Buzzard Flapper Creek, gotta love Georgia!!!

 

[RichL]

Looking good. Will you be placing interior and exterior footer drains? Is radon prevalent in the area. Far less expensive to place a subslab vent stack now if there's a possibility.

 

[ToMorrow44]

Good question. My builder mentioned something about Radon so I’ll check in with him about that.

Looking good. Will you be placing interior and exterior footer drains? Is radon prevalent in the area. Far less expensive to place a subslab vent stack now if there's a possibility.

 

[ToMorrow44]

Waterproofing done. Backfill starts next week and it’s going to be a lot of dirt moving.

 

[ToMorrow44]

Happy New Year all! Progress has been a little slow as of late due to the holidays but also weather. It’s been very cold, then rainy, now we’re getting back to very cold again (highs around 30 next week ).

But we were able to start some backfilling this week. Still need a lot of dirt which they’ll take from the backside of my property which you can actually see thru the trees in this photo at the crest of the hill.

Next up should be concrete slabs in the garage and basement.