Small home shop vs large away shop

[Jon Nuckles]

My shop is on the west side of Chicago and my house is in Evanston, the first suburb north of Chicago. Depending on traffic, it takes me half an hour to well over an hour to make the commute. That makes me much less likely to get to the shop than when I lived only 15 minutes away in the city. I will be glad to downsize to move my shop to my garage after some remodeling.

[Bruce Wrenn]

My shop is located just 50' from back door. It's close enough, that I can work late at night without disturbing wife, or neighbors. Plus you never hear" turn that thing down, I'm trying to watch TV." Clutter in front of shop can be a problem, as it's right outside back door. But with all the convience, it's worth it to have have shop close by. Sometimes, you have to remind family that you are AT WORK, even though they can see you.

[Jack Frederick]

When I moved my business out of the house I found that it gave me separation I needed. With the business in the house it was like a magnet. It drew me in all the time. I am willing to work all the time it seems. The difference was great. When I was home I was there for the family. When I went to work I shifted gears and could focus better on that.

[John Makar]

FWIW Jim Tolpin talks about all that in his Wit and Wisdom book. Talked himself in to a smaller shop close by. Of course he eventually moved from Maine to outside of Seattle and opened up a wood working school in an old Army base with several thousand feet of shop space. I don't think you come out of this process sane...

[Mike Kees]

Jack I get what you are saying. Same for me when I built my shop across town. (10 minute walk). The separation is a mental thing but you are right it works to help me concentrate on what I need to.

[Bill Carey]

When I moved my business out of the house I found that it gave me separation I needed. With the business in the house it was like a magnet. It drew me in all the time. I am willing to work all the time it seems. The difference was great. When I was home I was there for the family. When I went to work I shifted gears and could focus better on that.

I spent years and years with a 3 hour commute to work, and then 4 years commuting from Chi to NY every friggin week, so now working from home is almost like a vacation. When I'm in the house, I'm with family. When I'm in the shop, that's what I'm doing - making sawdust. And when I go upstairs to the office to work, I have few distractions simply because the opportunity to do something else is so near and easy. I don't feel any pressure to work or not work. (as a matter of fact the biggest distraction I have to work - I'm finishing a hospital estimate this morning - is SMC. LOL) I can go to the shop, put a coat of finish on first thing in the am, work for a while, check on it and apply another coat. Or take the LOML out to breakfast and back to the office. I have never had a more comfortable and easy feeling concerning the relationship between work, shop and family. I wouldn't have it any other way, and wish I had found this balance 50 years ago.

[michael dilday]

My shop is about 10 steps out the back door and most of that is under a covered patio. It is only 18x22 but it is my little shop and I like it a lot. Wish I had made it just a tad bit bigger. Since it is just a serious hobby for me I couldn't invest in a shop outside of my own property. I do produce a lot of really nice furniture in it so I am happy.

[Pete Staehling]

I like being able to head out to the shop for a 5 minute operation and come back into the house. I like to be able to break for lunch with my wife and head right back out if I want to. I like to be able to go out to the shop and look at a project if a solution to something that was keeping me awake suddenly occurred to me.

On the other hand a 15 minute walk or bike ride to and from the shop would keep me moving and more space would be nice.

The expense of an away shop would mean needing to run it more like a business if I want to show a profit or at least break even. With an at home shop it is easier.

Over all for me the home shop wins, at least at this point in my life.

[johnny means]

In my world, wherever the shop is at is home.

[Ron Hampe]

Retired now and moved my 280 sq. ft. basement shop to a 1450 sq.ft. detached garage when I bought the cnc. Its a 65' walk and I now have close to 1000 sq.ft. and a whole lot of new (to me) toys. Not planning to have any employees though as I have no desire to deal with OSHA or sticky fingers.

[Travis Conner]

Been toying with this idea for a while now. It seems any stand alone building has to be commercially zoned. Would like a place to store all my stuff in one spot. It wouldn't be a business, just a personal workshop/storage building. All the decent sized 3500-4500 sq ft commercial warehouse style buildings in my area are in the 350,000 to $500,000. Just a tad out of budget. Lol Maybe I'm missing something here.