My New Workshop

Turns out a 24' x 24' 2-car garage just isn't enough space for a Rockwell/Delta Unisaw, Rockwell/Delta 12/14 saw, Delta drill press, Walker-Turner 16" bandsaw, Walker-Turner lathe, Delta X5 shaper, DeWalt combination miter saw, a full-size rolling tool cabinet, several workbenches, several piles of wood, several tool storage cabinets, a Black & Decker workmate, a lawn mower, four bicycles, lots of yard implements, gardening supplies, chainsaw, pressure washer, cultivator, recycling bins, leaf shredder, a Miata and an Audi. Who knew?

So I'm having a detached workshop built. I had originally wanted to build it myself, but my wife accurately pointed out the obvious question: When? I have no spare time.

It is essentially just a slightly oversized one-car garage. 16' wide x 24' long, with 10' interior ceiling. Clearly not large enough for a machine-based woodworking shop, really, but we are limited by several factors: 0.4 acre lot; required side line set back; trees we want to keep; two easements along the back line; required distance between the house and the accessory building. It is the absolute maximum we could squeeze in. No matter - the important thing is that I will finally have a space dedicated to being just my workshop! No more sharing space with all that other stuff.
First week in March, 2007 - ground is broken and the footings are poured:
The first shot of concrete is poured:
Here the foundation is done (March 13, 2007). (It has to be brick to match our house, according to the neighborhood covenant):
The floor is poured - March 19, 2007:
Framing begins - March 27, 2007:
The walls are up - same day (March 27, 2007):
Here's the back of my house as seen from inside the new shop:
March 29, 2007 - these guys are making fast progress! Roof is on, side door and window are in:
April 4, 2007 - they've got the front "eyebrow" on (purely aesthetic to match the style of my house and neighborhood) and most of the siding on. That's not the final color - that's just the primer on the cement board siding. I'm going to have a lot of painting and caulking to do! Garage door arrived yesterday and is tucked away in the back of the building; I'll be putting that on later. Yup - nice little building, but definitely not big enough. But wattayagonnado.
April 19, 2007 - front window in, siding and roofing all done. The roof is DaVinci synthetic slate in "slate grey" - and it looks great. It is hard to tell that it's not real slate. It has a 50-year warranty, and the way these guys installed it, it will probably last 100.
May 4, 2007 - they dug the trench for the utilities. The contractor installed a big conduit for the main wire out to the panel. I put in a water pipe so we could have a hose spigot just off the back corner of the building, plus cable for TV and Internet access, and phone line. Since the trench went so close to my wife's greenhouse, I also ran a water pipe and electric wire in there - now she'll have a convenient hose spigot inside her greenhouse and an outlet to plug in a heater or blower or whatever she needs for her plants out there. Oh yea - yards looks like hell.
June 6, 2007: I've been busy, but the electricity is hooked up, the trench is backfilled, I have very nearly finished the retaining wall surrounding the workshop, I have installed interior lighting and roughed in the boxes and wiring for the exterior fixtures, which now await the inspector, and I have assembled the garage door, but it is not yet fully installed. I was going for that old-timey carriage-house look. (Don't tell anyone, but the strap hinges are fake, and the two handles in the middle are purely for looks, although you can pull on them to open the door - it rolls up like any other overhead garage door.)
June 23-24: Spent the entire weekend painting the building. I must have gone up and down ladders 100 times. One coat of primer; two coats of Sherwin-Williams "Super White" gloss exterior. Installed the lights at about 8:30 p.m. Sunday.
Here is what it looked like inside after I installed and painted the ceiling and walls. I'm putting the finishing touches on the receptacles just before starting to move all the machinery and stuff out there. It will never look like this again.

 

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