Bees & Snakes – Removing the Pests
Unfortunately, this building had been neglected for a long time. There were vines growing along the back of the building that had actually forced their way under the eave and into the attic, and the bottom of the doors were rotted and falling apart. Bees were swarming around the rear corner of the building, and I could see that they were going in under the eave. Before I could do any renovations in this back section, I would have to get rid of the bees. I had contemplated arming myself with some cans of Raid and trying to exterminate them myself. Then one day as I was pulling out of a shopping plaza, I saw a sign with a phone number for someone that would remove the bees. This turned out to be a much better plan. The beekeeper came out with a bee trap and vacuum and vacuumed up all of the bees. It was actually an interesting process. Once the queen was inside the trap the worker bees were actually landing on top of it trying to get inside. It was a good size nest, and the beekeeper had to remove a piece of the eave and a small section of the ceiling from inside to make sure he had the whole hive. The best part is that it didn’t cost me anything, and the Bees were relocated. Yes, I’m going to have to fix a section of the eave and the ceiling, but I was going to have to fix these areas anyway.
You know what else I found in my building? A snake. Not a poisonous snake. Just a Rat Snake that eats mice. But all the same, it startled me. I walked into the building to take a measurement of the double doors. As I entered, I was more focused on the junk still sitting on the floor than I was the door. I didn’t really look up at the door until I got to it and when I did, there was a snake on the wall looking back at me. I typically watch out for snakes on the ground, not on my walls. I didn’t even know what kind of snake it was. I just knew that it was a snake and departed the building quicker than I entered it. My neighbor was on his front porch, so I asked him to come over and take a look. His son came with him, grabbed my garden rake, picked it up with the rake, and took it outside. Another good reason to get rid of the doors that were rotted and falling apart.
From TV Shop to TRS Garage
When I was looking for a home, I really wanted to find one with a garage. Instead, I ended up buying a home with a 1,360 sq-ft storage building. I don’t have a need for a 1,360 sq-ft storage building, but surely, I can turn a building this size into something useful.
One of the unique things about this building is that it has two sets of 36″ double doors that create two 6′ openings into the alley. Why would it need a large entry like this? Why did it have a restroom when it’s not far from the house?
I’ve had the occasion to talk to a few people that have come by while I’ve been working on the building. It seems that the building started life as a TV (television) shop with one person telling me that they remember a sign in the front window that lit up at night. The front part of the building has floor tile and paneling. Obviously, this area was finished to receive customers. Maybe it was a showroom. The section in the middle did not have floor tile and the backside of the dividing wall was not finished. Did they work on TVs in this section? Did they store new TV’s here? I’m still trying to find the answers to that. At some point later the rear wall was opened up, and an addition was added. Supposedly at that point the building was used to sell tires, and the addition is where they stored them. I’m not confident about the tire shop story, but I am confident that it was a TV shop. The front door had a ‘Quasar Authorized Dealer’ decal on it and there was part of a ‘Zenith Approved Service Center’ sticker on the broken front window.
Obviously having a 6-foot entry on the side would make it easier to bring televisions or tires into the building, but I need an opening larger than that. 
My goal is to remove the rear double doors and create an opening large enough to drive a vehicle through and then enclose it with barn doors. This is going to require that I remove the metal door frame and use a concrete saw to make a larger opening.
Planning A Larger Opening
With the excess vegetation, Bee’s and snake now gone, I could finally focus on removing these old doors and opening up the wall. This involved a lot of measuring and marking the measurements on the wall to figure out where I would be cutting the concrete and how wide the opening would be. Not only would I have to cut out the block for the doo, but I would have to remove cinderblocks to the left and right of the opening to set a header in place to support the top plate and ceiling joists.
Bracing For the Opening
Before I can start removing the metal doorframe and cinderblocks I need to create a support for the ceiling joists. The ends of the ceiling joists are nailed to a top plate that runs along the top of the block wall. If I remove a large area of block, there’s a very good chance that the top plate would collapse under the weight of the ceiling and roof. Building a temporary support wall out of 2×4’s and wedging it between the floor and ceiling will prevent it from collapsing.
The new support wall is 14′ wide and a 1/2″ taller than the floor to ceiling height. Getting it wedged in there plumb was not easy and required the use of a sledgehammer. With the support wall in position with some space between it and the cinderblock wall, I could now start cutting and removing the block.
Continue to ‘Opening The Side Wall‘.
Tools Used
- Electric circular saw
- Electric drill
- Small sledgehammer
Materials Used
- (2) 2x8x16’s (cut down to 14′)
- (11) 2x4x8’s
- #9×2-1/2 construction screws
