Finally, after many years of planning and procrastination, work has begun on my new shop. First I need to thank my wife for allowing this to happen. My family has been through a lot this year (long story, but hopefully with a good ending to come) and we’ve realized that we need to stop putting off a lot of things until “tomorrow”, because there is no guarantee tomorrow may ever come. Second, I need to thank all of the contributors to the Creek that have posted all of the great shop ideas and pictures over the years. While I haven’t been able to incorporate 100% of the ideas that I wanted, it’s going to be pretty close. I need to state up front that I’m wimping out and contracting out the “shell” so that it’s under roof and closed in before the weather turns. I’ll handle the electric, insulation and interior finishing myself this fall and winter.
The main workshop area will be 20x30. There will be an additional room for miscellaneous storage and finishing that is 20x12 in the back of the building. On the front side there will be a covered porch area that can be used for working outside on nice days. There will be 4 windows facing into the yard and 2 skylights. The exterior will be a brick and siding mix to match our house. It will also have a hip roof and overhangs, again to match the house. Our lot is narrow, but deep. We wanted to preserve as much of the yard as possible, so the shop will be located on one side of the back yard near a tree line on the east side.
Some of the other features include:
The first photo is of the site before any construction (and back in the days when we used to get rain). My boys and I tore down the old swing set since they’re now 17 and 12 and haven’t used it in years. Construction began two weeks ago with the three small trees being removed, the footers being dug and the pad poured. The majority of the framing went up this past week. The trusses and roof should go on this week. The photos are in chronological order. It looks like I'll need to spread the photos over several updates due to size constraints.
- Central heat and AC (I wanted radiant floor heat, but will be using standard forced air due to cost constraints)
- Vaulted ceiling in main shop space to 10 ˝’
- Half bath with drain stubbed in for future shower
- Separate electrical service from house
- Floor outlets for saw and accessories
I’ll keep posting approximately weekly updates throughout the process.
Charlie
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Originally Posted by Mitchell Andrus
