Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Mid-Century Moto Mecca Makeover

NOTE: I never had any idea this thread would become so popular and so there's no plan to the way it unfolds. It's just a story of the journey of getting a house and my first garage. Due to the enthusiasm and support here it's become a compendium of interesting and maybe useful information. That at this point is pretty hard to find. At the end of this post I'm going to start an index so that finding information here is easier.

Hi there. Long time listener - first time caller.

This thread will serve as the home to my garage makeover. I've never had a garage before so I'm very excited. Now, before you shed a tear for me I have had a shop - a nice one actually. One featured in magazines and even the book "Motorcycle Dream Garages" but that is my old life. My life in NYC when I raced with Team Incomplete. We started in a small room in the basement of a building on 15th Street next to the boiler and over the last 15 years kept getting kicked out of spaces until we ended up in Spannerland in NJ. 10,000sqft of machining and motorcycle bliss. 3 CNC's, 4 lathes, 3 mills, a paintbooth and our own dyno. It was nice. It was also in NJ and I had to cross a bridge, downtown NYC and a tunnel to get there and then pay a $13 toll to get home. That sucked.



Here's me working on a header.



A year ago I moved to Portland, OR after 18 years of trying to leave NYC - having two kids was finally the thing that made it happen and Portland was chosen because my wife was from here and I would have been happy anywhere west of I-25. But I really love Portland.

After months and months of looking for a nice mid-century house we found a great Saul Zaik designed place as a short sale. We made a low offer as a backup and kept looking. And looking. And looking. Six months later our offer was accepted and we closed last week. That six months saved us $100k and I finally got a garage - as a bonus it came with a really cool house. I'm psyched.

Anyway, it will be a while before we can move into the house as we have a lot of work we want to do before we move in. Unfortunately I won't have the time to work on the garage before I have to move into it as my space in Spannerland is already claimed. So much for doing radiant heat right now.

Anyway, I don't really have a plan for the garage yet. In fact I don't even know if all my stuff will even fit but where there's a will there's a way. Mostly I've been dreaming of having my shop right next door for the last 20 years and I'm a few months away from that coming to fruition.

Here's the place now in it's current rough shape.







It's a small two car converted from a carport. The ceiling is made of butted together 2x3's and the post and beam structure of the home carries into the garage. I want to keep some of the uniqueness of the design but it also has to be home to my mill, lathe, cold saw, motorcycle lift and 1000lb welding table. Oh, and 7 motorcycles.

There's a lot to figure out but that is part of the fun.

Gregor

The Moto Mecca Thread Index
​

Pages 1-3 are "before" photos of the house and initial demo.
Post 171 - knockdown wall texture.

Garage Cabinets - starts at post 195 then post 302 and sort of continues from there.
Pancakes - it's sort of an inside joke - is page 10.
Page 11 - Sysport and Miter station
Page 13 - kitchen cabinet bases and sink
Page 17 - Moving in
Page 19 - garage air system.
Page 20 - first watch diversion (Seiko modding) and more kitchen.
Page 22 - building drawers (also knife block)
Post 941 - replacing the blade of a mini tool with a key.
Page 28 - bathroom vent from stainless perf sheet
Page 29 - Hanging Festool MFT table - garage move in.
Page 32 - Ducati High Exhaust, lathe tool holder (version 1), notcher restore
Page 33-35 - Ikea cabinet mod and built in wardrobe
Page 34 - Arbor Press rebuild, stainless cabinet pulls
Post 1440 - AR Powered Partners - garage speakers
Page 37 - inset LED's in linen closet, first pizza and first hammer for Lucas (good page!)
Post 1572 - Riding Vertigo Cycles titanium bikes!
Page 40 - Ducati Scrambler Shoot, Triumph side plates, misc moto
Page 41 - first before/after photos of the house
Page 43 - start of trim
Page 44 - Guzzi front end, Lucas' second hammer, my dad's passing
Picking up the Avion LaGrande trailer
Page 46 - XR100, Dirt Quake
Page 47 - Avion interior rebuild - part 1, first camper trip, repairing screens, kitchen backsplash
Page 48 - kitchen, Seiko SKX mods, Avion roof repair



I'll try to keep at this and get the whole thing indexed...

I'm excited to see where you go with your space, looks like you'll have a lot to figure out.

First off, congrats on the move - I've never lived in the big city but I bet life in OR will be a lot less stressful.

Love the house and garage certainly looks serviceable. Looking forward to seeing what you do with it.

Congrats on the move, beautiful country.

Great story, great space - subscribed!

Love the house and the bikes. Congrats!

Looking forward to this one!!!!!! Subscribed

Congratulations on the move! Can't wait to follow your build, I'm subscribed!

congrats , cant wait to see the results

Cool looking house and the lot looks interesting!

Great setup! I'm still convincing my wife to move out to pacific northwest, she thinks the rain is depressing...

I see a LOT of potential in that great house. Sounds like you guys are very excited with the move. Oregon is heaven on earth, from what I hear from people who live in Oregon!

Nice place . I love that house style .

Rad man. I've read your stuff on welding web...and probably somewhere else...ADVRider perhaps? Anyways, I expect some awesome stuff to come on this thread! Welcome!

Subscribed

Welcome!

I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with the place.

Awesome house!

fab house, 100k budget for the garage should see you out eh

Im excited for ya . I know how it feels to want a shop and finally get one. Good for you my friend.

Congratz with the great looking house.

Please post more pic's!

Welcome to 'The We(s)t Coast'! Portland is an intriguing city; lots of charm amongst its varied neighborhoods. Your house may be both classic and modern at the same time! I googled Mr. Zaik and apparently he is alive, well, and working still....

http://www.oregonquarterly.com/spring2010/feature1.php

It might be interesting (and/or expensive) to have his firm update your 'carport' to fit your shop needs; wouldn't it be really cool to have the 'old man' himself draw the refresh of his early effort?

Please keep us posted on your progress; and more pics of the interior/exterior of your new abode.

Congrats , IIRC you guys had a large industrial building with a few guys sharing the space ?

Wow, that's quite the welcome. Thanks!

If you don't expect too much I'll try to keep it interesting. To answer some of the questions - yes, I've been on welding web (learning to weld stainless) and Practical Machinist (learning about my lathe) and my main home is ADVRider and because my cat had funny nickname around the time this internet thing started my username is the same on all of them. On ADV I've had a fairly epic long build of my KTM 950 which has morphed into a (soon to be) 2 wheel drive, FCR carbed 990 monster with a hand made stainless exhaust. It's still going on here.

Yes, I know Saul Zaik is still alive (and working despite being well into his 80's) and I've tried to get in touch with him but his site has been down. It would be fun to have him involved but my best friend in Portland is an architect and I respect his aesthetic greatly and really want to work with him. He understands that we want to honor the original design but also want to update it smartly and tastefully.

Here's a few more shots of the house from the day we closed. Short sales aren't given much love and this place needs a lot of help but, as they say, the bones are all good.

Here's the "back" which in midcentury terms is the front.



And inside. Who, who I ask, would paint a cedar ceiling? Who would paint one of those gorgeous beams purple? I kid you not - purple. I will be sanding the entire thing back to it's original luster. That stupid clip lock floor is going away to be replaced by bamboo (most likely). There's going to be a lot of changes to scrape off the 80's and bring it back.





I did a trade with a very talented glass blower friend who gifted me a fabulous hand blown glass pendent lamp which will replace this monstrosity.



And now here are a couple of shots of a restored Saul Zaik home (and Saul Zaik). We're going for something more like this:






My architect and the contractor I've hired all ride motorcycles. It's a common theme in my life. Better still the contractor has all 1960's trucks he's restored so I'll need to try to capture some shots of them in the driveway when we're doing the work. Very period.

The bike you see in that top photo was my first street bike, the "Incomplete Boxer" and the bike that really changed my life. It brought me to NYC from Colorado and then it introduced me to my best friend in NYC and eventually to my racing teammates who were the crew that helped me transform it from a humble old R90S BMW into a bike that inspired a legion of cafe boxers.



I was a decent mechanic when I started the bike but my friends were astonishing machinists, fabricators and mechanical engineers. I was in awe of what they could do. Imagine anything and they could build it. I was determined to one day have the skills and the equipment to be able to build my own motorcycle.



So over the years I've pestered them to teach me to weld, to run the mill and the lathe, to shoot real paint and to understand everything I can about building my own bike. I bought a mill, a lathe, a tig machine, cold saw, and so many tools it even amazes me. I've been taught by the best and my skills are constantly improving.

I've been paying rent for... all my life. I think at one point, years ago, I figured that I'd paid well over a $1,000,000 in rent in NYC alone between my studio (I'm a photographer) and my apartments. If that doesn't make you cry I don't know what will. So this house represents to me the chance to build my own dream home as it were and to build a dream shop. Before I came to NYC I did a stint as a carpenter with my step father so I have enough tools and skills to do most wood work and I intend to do all the steel for the house as well. Steel and wood cable rails, floating stairs, a fireplace insert, furniture - you name it, I'm excited to build it.

Right now I'm back in NYC for a job and to pack up my shop. While I'm gone we're having demo done on the house, taking out walls that were added and basically putting the place back to a more original layout. One great find was the houses original blueprints which we're referencing. I'll be framing them to display when we're done.

I'm happy to post progress on the house as well but the garage is at least as important to me as the house. I've already had a few... discussions, with my wife about the sanctity of the place. Nothing, not a single thing from the house is allowed in my shop. It goes without saying that no car will ever roll inside but more importantly it shall host no rake, no lawn mower or anything that is not directly part of my shop.

Fortunately my friend Ben (our architect) understands this and we going to build a intermediary space as a home/shop buffer.

So this week I pack about 8000-10000lbs of tools and motorcycles and next week I demo the garage of existing shelves and prepare it as much as I can and then the following week I'll drive it across the country. Like I said, so much for radiant heat for now.

I've gotten a ton of ideas from the various builds here and plan to incorporate much that I've seen so hopefully this will be worth watching.

Gregor

Wow, your house has some amazing potential. Sounds like you are on the right track! Looking forward to seing progess on the house and garage.

The new place looks great. One thing that I would take a VERY close look at is the roof in that garage. Having grown up in a 60's house with a very similar flat roofing design as your garage, (ours was 2x4s on edge), I can tell you it is not easy to keep them leak free, and you are moving in some expensive gear that you do not want to get wet.

After quite a few different roofing jobs, I think the final outcome before our house was sold at about 50 years of age was to build up the roof slightly, (I'm not sure what material was used,) to give it a little better pitch to the perimeter drains. Then a membrane covered with gravel. Our home was one of the first to use such a roof design, and Dupont supplied experimental products for the initial construction. (Which failed after a fairly short period...and started a cycle of quite a few different roof membranes.) I think technology has just about caught up with the idea of the 60's architects...at least in terms of keeping water out of a flat roofed wood house.

As a fellow motorcyclist with a midcentury house in the Northwest, I am following this thread with interest.

Hey, is that bike the famous "Wrecking Ball?"

Welcome to the mellow-er side of the US. Enjoy the friendly and laid back atmosphere that Oregon has to offer... Just don't try to fill you own gas tank!

I look forward to watching the transformation of your unique home back to its original character.

Brad

Skyline said:

The new place looks great. One thing that I would take a VERY close look at is the roof in that garage. Having grown up in a 60's house with a very similar flat roofing design as your garage, (ours was 2x4s on edge), I can tell you it is not easy to keep them leak free, and you are moving in some expensive gear that you do not want to get wet.

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We're already on top of that. There was an illegal deck above the garage and we removed that. It's leak free and the roof is fairly new but as I like the look of the stacked 2x3's Ben suggested that I rebuild the roof to have both a slope and space for insulation so that the ceiling can be left exposed. We'll also add more support and do a true deck above but that's down the line. For now it's going to stay as it is.

Nader said:

As a fellow motorcyclist with a midcentury house in the Northwest, I am following this thread with interest.

Hey, is that bike the famous "Wrecking Ball?"

Click to expand...

No the wrecking ball was built by Chris Hodgson of San Jose BMW and while he's helped with some of the motor work this is a different bike. Long term plans for the boxer include a wrecking ball engine though as I've already paid Chris for Carilllos and a 1050 big bore kit. If I get my shop together I plan on updating the boxer for this years BMW rally in Salem.

Gregor

Subscribed! Thanks for posting. You'll have a fabulous house once you get to where you want to go.

Yeah the 80's. The music was good, I loved that girls wanted to look feminine (love skirts and big hair ) but bleached wood and intense colours: .

The pics of your design inspiration are exactly what I envisage a NW mid-century modern home should be, especially with the Eames chair. Beautiful. I've always loves cathedral ceilings and lots of light.

You'll have an enormous amount of work ahead of you but the end result will undoubtedly be worth it.

Welcome to Portland and congrats on finding such a cool place!

You'll be happy to know that this city has an amazing motorcycle culture and yes it is possible to ride nearly year round.

If you're in town, there is a motorcycle builders show on Feb 8-9 & 10 that is not to be missed. Here is a link http://the1moto.com/

Good luck on the garage!

Wow, gonna be epic. Good luck fixing up your "small" 2 car garage haha. Doesn't look small to me.

Had to subscribe. What an awesome house. Can't wait to see how the garage turns out.

Bryan

Amazing house, garage and story!! Looking forward to pics and progress! If you need help moving outta NYC please send me a PM. Id love to check out your old place in person!

-Dan

Love the mid-century digs. The garage has lots of potential. I can't wait to see what you make of it.

I´ll have to keep an eye on your progress here. Feel like stalking someone...
House looks great Gregor and again congrats.

Subscribed!

That is an awesome house - kudos for seeing the potential in something that was thoughtfully designed and whose original intent has been eroded over the years. Those images you showed on the direction you want to go with out speak volumes to the potential of the place. Congrats.

As a fellow ADVrider (I ride a 2006 KTM 950 ADV) I've regularly visited your thread and have been continually impressed with your skills.

This one's goin' be good.....


Matthew.

Very cool house, but that colonial stair rail has to go.

locul said:

I´ll have to keep an eye on your progress here. Feel like stalking someone...
House looks great Gregor and again congrats.

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Mikael! Small world isn't it? I saw you post here a while ago but I've been in lurker mode just getting the lay of the land.

964haus said:

Subscribed!

That is an awesome house - kudos for seeing the potential in something that was thoughtfully designed and whose original intent has been eroded over the years. Those images you showed on the direction you want to go with out speak volumes to the potential of the place. Congrats.

As a fellow ADVrider (I ride a 2006 KTM 950 ADV) I've regularly visited your thread and have been continually impressed with your skills.

This one's goin' be good.....


Matthew.

Click to expand...

My peeps from ADV. Hi Matthew and thanks. We're about to start the two wheel drive conversion this week so stay tuned over there. Today we'll finally test the choke on the FCR's I hope. Headed out there in just a bit.

Boy the more I read here the more ideas I get - I need to measure my machines today and start a sketchup plan I think.

Stuart in MN said:

Very cool house, but that colonial stair rail has to go.

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Man, are you telling me. We're debating an open, floating steel stair with wooden treads or perhaps another option. Either way it will be a cable rail and I'll weld it up. Looking forward to that.

Here's a shot from the contractor who is doing the demo while I'm in NYC. There was a 3 inch step up in the living room and we didn't know why. It destroyed the flow of the floor and Ben and I agreed it should come out. Pulling the clip lock floor and looking at it it seemed like they just put 2x4's around and poured it flat. Simple, we thought. Just get a bar under it and crack it and take it out in pieces.

No, didn't go that way. It was an extremely good pour with ladder steel all throughout and took an entire day with three guys and a jackhammer. So this is how things get so expensive huh?



Seems the floor was cracking and collapsing so they added this pour. Foundation seems fine and the there's no jacking to be found so we'll clean this all out and repour it level with the existing floor I guess. I hope.

I saw this photo and I immediately readjusted my estimate of getting in from March to April...

Gregor

Well it may seem that I've abandoned this thread but I've been rather busy actually and I have at least some sort of update - if for no other reason than to help me see light at the end of the tunnel.

Since my friend Kenny was taking over my space I had to finally pack up my shop space in NYC and packing is when you realize how much **** you've accumulated. Here's a shot of my corner of our shop space:



Then a couple days later after I packed it into boxes and then onto pallets.



And then here it is loaded into my 26' box truck for it's trip across country. I guessed the truck would get 8-10mpg and I was off about 2-3mpg and that tiny difference cost almost twice as much in fuel.



In the between time while I was in Portland I smashed out the little door/alcove that extended into the garage.





And while it was barely 60sqft it gained me a corner that I can use for woodworking projects and things of a non metal nature and really every single square foot is desperately needed here because...



I had to unload that giant truck into this tiny garage.

In my delusional fantasy world I thought I'd have cleaned out the garage, epoxied the floor, framed the back wall, insulated and run power and then sheet rocked and painted it before I had to move. Well, none of that happened. So now I need to try to do the best that I can while the garage is filled to the brim. It's really not the way I wanted to do this but I had no control over when I closed or when I had to move out of my east coast shop so the timing sort of sucked. I just keep telling myself that I have my own garage and that thought makes it all worth the effort.

You can see the results of the last few days work in the wall on the right. My friend Ben helped me get that framed and I finished it today and then started pulling the 120v wires. I'm going to run a lot of 120 20amp on the walls and all the outlets will be at 48" high. Over the bench and up off the ground. I'm also going to run all my 220 on the back wall as well since that's where I've decided to put the bulk of my machinery. The back left corner was a bit of an after thought with the original framing so I'm going use that for the compressor and just insulate around it to keep the sound down.

Before the garage was filled a thread here inspired me to consider a Harbor Fright tool box. Going there, surrounded by the immense amount of "cheap" they had on the floor I was wasn't sure but in the end I struck a good deal for four of their big rolling boxes which should double my tool box space.



The plan is to get rid of my Kennedy's to fund the big HF boxes and build one very long 16-20' bench on the left wall and eventually put a window in that side of the garage so the bench has natural light. I know my kids will love to come work and color in the garage so it's as much for them as me.

I'm sort of at a loss for how to light the rest of the garage however. I want to keep the really cool on edge 2x3's exposed but having that much dark ceiling will make the space very difficult to light. Got any ideas? On the back wall I'm planning a full wall of high cabinets above all the machinery and I was thinking I could embed the whole thing with LED's but that doesn't help get the rest of the place lit. One idea I had was to just do a whole bunch of spun aluminum drop lights evenly spaced over the work bench and then a few more over the welding table and the bike lift. Again, it doesn't really help to raise the overall light level. If the floor does eventually get painted a light gray that might help but for the moment I don't have an answer.

Anyway, that's my update and I'm sticking to it!

Gregor

Good luck and best wishes, hope and trust that your plans all pan out A+ !!!

Congrats on the new Portland house and garage.

After seeing the unique architecture of the house with lots of glass and angles, I've got POTENTIAL IDEA for your space problem . . . . . .
2nd Floor to the Garage!!

Imagine an angular and modern glassed-in space that would act as display case for your multiple motorcycles!! Install an "elevator" of sorts just outside of existing garage that goes up to the 2nd floor.

Best of luck as you settle in . . . . keep us posted!