This is the first non administrative post that remains on SawMill Creek and I’m the OP. There was a lot happening at that point in time and let’s just say life happened. The shadow box was done, but the rocking horses are still unfinished and the fireplace surround still isn’t built, in fact it still hasn’t been designed. Challenges - Little did I know.
Hi, I’m Mike and my garage/shop is in Rendon Texas just south of Fort Worth.
I haven't been around much since then, but I was hoping as I moved into retirement that I would begin woodworking again so I started cleaning up the shop early this year. Ever since the early days, i thought a bout a thread detailing the wood shop and the building but I never got that round tuit I needed until now. I started a thread earlier this year at The Garage Journal that covers the garage side of the shop and the building as well. I’m doing this thread mostly to help keep me accountable for making progress, but also because I’ve enjoyed looking at other people’s shops and ideas so I’ll add to the collective. I do know some things now that I didn’t know when I started the Garage Journal thread and I understand why thing are a little better.
In November of 1999 I closed on what should have been a very nice property. It had a nicely sized house and a large shop sitting on an acre lot in a semi-rural area. Unfortunately the house, the shop and the lot were all in deplorable condition. We worked on the house for a month before moving in on December 31, 1999 and even then, we were pretty much camping out. When we moved in everything had been cleaned and all the drywall repaired, but the kitchen and one of the baths were still torn down. We continued working on the house and the lot for the next two years and I finally got to where I could address the shop in late 2001. It became a priority because I wanted the wood shop to make the new woodwork for the house, something I still haven’t done. I had decided that I wanted two large and distinct areas, one for the garage and one for woodworking, but I didn’t see how I could make the building that was there into two large spaces. The structure was sound, but the building had never been finished and pretty much all the exterior cladding needed to be removed and replaced. I decided to have it brought down. We added to the existing slab and had a contractor put up a new building.
My wife very much wanted an area for a sewing and workshop of her own so that added the second floor and a great deal of complexity.
This is the building as it was when we bought the place and the just before demolition started. There were actually two buildings and the smaller one flooded regularly and was in very poor condition structurally. It went first then I took out several trees that the previous owner had saved. I hated to do it, but I really saw no alternative.