Mike's Wood Shop

[Mike Brewster]

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.

[Mike Brewster]

The contractor did the demolition and then built the new structure. These pictures show how it was left for me. Basically it was a large car port with a conventional roof and garage doors on it. The structure is 40’ X 48’ and I don’t remember the height (19’?), but it is 2” inside a deed restriction. The wood in the pictures had already been added by me. We wanted the building to look as much like the house as possible, so it has conventional materials for the exterior. I had the contractor do the roof, because it was more than I thought I could handle on my own.

I made a huge mistake with the garage doors by having it framed for 7’ doors. They should have been 8’s. My ¾ ton truck with a headache rack barely fits, and my next truck will be 4WD. I think it will be tight.

One of the best benefits can be seen already. The driveway now actually attaches to the building. The contractor did the demolition and then built the new structure. These pictures show how it was left for me. Basically it was a large car port with a conventional roof and garage doors on it. The structure is 40’ X 48’ and I don’t remember the height (19’?), but it is 2” inside a deed restriction. The wood in the pictures had already been added by me. We wanted the building to look as much like the house as possible, so it has conventional materials for the exterior. I had the contractor do the roof, because it was more than I thought I could handle on my own.

I made a huge mistake with the garage doors by having it framed for 7’ doors. They should have been 8’s. My ¾ ton truck with a headache rack barely fits, and my next truck will be 4WD. I think it will be tight.

One of the best benefits can be seen already. The driveway now actually attaches to the building.

My ceiling height was held to 9’ by the second story and the deed restriction on height. The steel floor joists will prove to be a problem.
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[Mike Brewster]

I hired a contractor to put up the brick since I have no masonry skills. The brick had been on the property since we bought it. It was intended for the old building, but was never installed. The height to the wainscoting was decided by the number of bricks I had. It was very carefully calculated. Then recalculated. Then calculated again several more times. There was less than 250 bricks left when the job was done.

[Mike Brewster]

One of my grandsons helped me put up the long pieces of siding on the right side of the building. I don’t think there are any pictures of that side. My nephew was my savior in doing the siding on the back gable end too. My wife did all the painting. She won’t allow me to. She says it takes too long to clean up after me. Darn. The kids helped me with the scaffolding that I rented for her.

[Mike Brewster]

I put all the flooring for the second floor up there by myself and laid the vast majority of it alone, but I needed help getting the drywall up there and my grandson was the lucky guy that got to help with that. He, my wife and my nephew helped hang it.

[Mike Brewster]

This is my wife's’ sewing room as it was several years ago. It’s the most finished part of the building although it needs wood trim and flooring still.

[Mike Brewster]

Just after I took on the renovation of this property, I also took over a difficult to run and very disorganized department at work. I’m a military aircraft mechanic and disorganized is a very bad thing. Then 9/11 happened and we spent the next year in turmoil. My unit deployed for the war in ’03 and although I spent very little time deployed myself, the workload at home was pretty heavy. We were preparing for that deployment about the time I started that first post here on Sawmill Creek. By ’06 I was worn out and doing very little on the property. I pretty much quit remodeling and construction totally in ’08. In ’09 I retired from the government but I needed another job and had trouble finding one in that economy so I had little money to spend. When I did finally get another job, it kept me pretty busy and I had lost momentum. The shop never got finished inside. Shop progress actually went backwards, and the building started looking more like a junk shop and a badly run warehouse than a workshop and garage.

That brings us to the first of this year. I’m fully retired, I have projects I want to do and I’m literally climbing over things to get around in what should be a sufficient amount of space. I can’t find things and I have no work space because there is junk everywhere. The pictures which were taken in March, show the place in very poor condition. I expect progress to be slow from here but consistent. There has been progress since then, but it's mostly on the Garage side, since that's the space I use and need the most. I hope to be working into the shop side over the next couple of weeks and that the shop will be truly usable, by the spring. I hope there will be things here that people will find useful. You can darn sure get an example of how not to build a shop in a timely manner.

The shop area is 24' X 40' with 9' ceilings.

[Jim Becker]

Mike, that's a fine building and I'm very happy that you now have the time to get back to it and your woodworking! I retired from full time work myself last fall and I can tell you, I'm busier than ever! LOL Fortunately, most of that busy is actually in my own shop. Finally.

Keep the photos coming as you move things along!

[Jayson B. Williams]

Things happen in life, you will get it done when you can.

Jayson

Just after I took on the renovation of this property, I also took over a difficult to run and very disorganized department at work. I’m a military aircraft mechanic and disorganized is a very bad thing. Then 9/11 happened and we spent the next year in turmoil. My unit deployed for the war in ’03 and although I spent very little time deployed myself, the workload at home was pretty heavy. We were preparing for that deployment about the time I started that first post here on Sawmill Creek. By ’06 I was worn out and doing very little on the property. I pretty much quit remodeling and construction totally in ’08. In ’09 I retired from the government but I needed another job and had trouble finding one in that economy so I had little money to spend. When I did finally get another job, it kept me pretty busy and I had lost momentum. The shop never got finished inside. Shop progress actually went backwards, and the building started looking more like a junk shop and a badly run warehouse than a workshop and garage.

That brings us to the first of this year. I’m fully retired, I have projects I want to do and I’m literally climbing over things to get around in what should be a sufficient amount of space. I can’t find things and I have no work space because there is junk everywhere. The pictures which were taken in March, show the place in very poor condition. I expect progress to be slow from here but consistent. There has been progress since then, but it's mostly on the Garage side, since that's the space I use and need the most. I hope to be working into the shop side over the next couple of weeks and that the shop will be truly usable, by the spring. I hope there will be things here that people will find useful. You can darn sure get an example of how not to build a shop in a timely manner.

The shop area is 24' X 40' with 9' ceilings.

[John Christian]

great story
i am in a similar situation ( minus the military emergency) but have a barn filled with too much stuff and no time and not enough energy to get it all squared away.
glad to hear that your life has finally narrowed/slowed down
enjoy and please post progress so that i may be happy for you and encouraged

[Steve Middleton]

Quite a saga! Congratulations on what you've accomplished and look forward to more pictures as you move forward.

[Frederick Skelly]

What an experience! No wonder you were exhausted. Thanks for the update. Look forward to hearing more from you!
Frec