the Coolio Garage and the Chunnel

The Coolio Garage is a name that Linda at ::Lime in the Coconut:: bestowed upon our "garagemahal," and Dan has adopted it as the garage's new name- thanks Linda! ;)

The chunnel is the passage between the new garage and the old basement. It was once a solid granite stone wall as you can see in the first photo. Why a chunnel you ask? Well, I can't really answer that, as I don't know myself. In fact one night, in the middle of the night, when I was lying awake thinking about all the work (i.e. $) going in to said chunnel, I woke Dan up to ask... "Now, why do we need a chunnel exactly?" He grumbled something about not liking a basement that didn't have a secondary exit, blah, blah, blah....basically, it was just one of those things that the "man of the house" decided he must have! So.... we now have a chunnel! If you can't find Dan or any of the "men" subs you'll find them down below just staring at the chunnel and/or the coolio garage! They all love the man cave! It's definitely a man-thing!




The original stone wall foundation on the ground floor of the barn. The new steps for the chunnel were cut through the stones that are seen between the two wooden posts in this photo.


The steps leading from the garage floor up to the basement floor through the chunnel. It is about a five foot elevation difference between the two spaces.

Chunnel step forms from basement level.

The chunnel pour through the basement window.

The finished pour. The chunnel steps going down into the garage.

This photo shows the front edge of the garage where the garage doors will go. Extra measures were taken to install a multi-tiered drain inside the garage.

Okay, even I admit this part is very "coolio"!! What you are looking at is the garage floor being laid with radiant heat tubing called Pex. For those of you in the South (or wherever you do not get snow), with all the snow and ice in the winter you will drive your car into the garage and snow/ice that has accumulated under the car/wheels while driving will melt and pool on the garage floor, then re-freeze, then "someone"steps on it, slips and breaks her finger........ So with this coolio system, said dropped snow/ice will either dry up or run off into the drain, so "someone" won't fall again...! And, it keeps your car nice and toasty when you climb into it in the cold winter!

Future temperature control center.
Isn't this a gorgeous rock wall?! As we told the guy who did the garage, the garage is now so beautiful it will be on the house tour! Six months ago it was a very creepy place!

Finished floor with concrete poured over the radiant heat. Chunnel steps on left in back of photo.



This photo shows the iron drains on the interior of the front of the garage. There are also hot and cold water valves so you can hose off the snow right in the garage! Again, for those who live without snow, the highway department puts down a mixture of salt and sand on the road after a snow fall and it all sticks to the bottom of your car and wrecks havoc on your paint finish and the metal body of your car . It's important to get it off as soon as possible to avoid rust.











The poured garage bays from the exterior.


Taadaa!!! The carriage doors are in! (sans the door hardware)

So, if you could...please let "Coolio-Garage-Man" (yet another Linda-ism!) know what you think of his man cave! I think he would get a big kick out of hearing what you all think! Thanks!