| Blog series by Loogie | updated 1590 days ago | 7 parts | 6804 reads | 91 comments total |
Part 1: Groundbreaking to framing
After years of building my projects in basements, I’m finally building my own shop. This building will be a three level shop building (including the attic). The main (middle) level will be my woodshop and the basement will be my tractor garage/shed/auto shop. The project is far behind schedule and way over budget, but aren’t they all? The foundation is 25’ wide by 30’ deep giving me just under 750 sq/ft of woodshop. It’s never enough, but it would be very hard to...
Part 2: Siding is finished!
They finished the siding today. I re-evaluated the electrical system. I opted to go with a ventless propane heater in the tractor garage and a 2 1/2 gal under-sink water heater in the woodshop. The combination of the two allowed me to drop the service back to a 90A line from the house. It saved about $800. The stairs are going in tomorrow. They should finish up the exterior early next week. Then the fun starts with the electrical install! I’m using T-8 bulbs in the fluo...
Part 3: Electrical and Plumbing are almost done. And look, a birthday surprise!
The outside of the shop is almost done all that’s left is to put the shutters and crown moulding on the front window and put the gutters on. The overhead doors won’t be installed until the drywall and paint are complete. The electricians have been working at a good pace and the rough-in is all completed. The plumbing and electrical inspections should be today. My 40th birthday is coming up soon. My shop has gone so far over budget that I informed my wife a month or so ag...
Part 4: Door and drywall
Things are moving along with the shop. The garage doors were installed a couple of days ago (although they forgot to order the strap hinge and handle hardware), and the drywall is up. Yesterday we spend all day painting the drywall with a tinted primer. The color is close but a little darker than the final color. I’ll put the paint on today. Tomorrow is big day! The electrician will finish all of his install – the lights (interior & exterior) all the outlets and switches and ...
Part 5: The final inspection is done. Now it's all up to me.
The epoxy floor was laid down last week and is now fully cured. The electrician and plumber finished up their work today and I got their inspections as well as the final building inspection completed today. I should be able to start moving equipment in this week. My first project will be the window casings and finishing the stairs. Then I’ll move on to the lumber rack, benches and tool storage. Here’s my clean slate:
Part 6: Finally...somewhat operational
The shop is now somewhat operational. I moved all of the power tools in. I’ve finally finished the baseboards and window casing. The baseboards are 1×6 pine with a chamfer on the top edge and the casings are 1×4 pine. I pre-finished the baseboards with poly but I’ll finish the casing in place because I also have to do the windows. An HVL system sure would have been handy there! I made the casing design myself but modeled it after traditional craftsman style casing. The n...
Part 7: Things are coming together
I’ve been working on/in the shop all fall and things are taking shape. My next major project is to build Bob's Bench to replace my existing bench. I’ll then move my old bench under the window in the back corner. After that I’m going to build a low assembly table. Third on the list is some rolling storage carts under the stairs to maximize that space. For now, I’m pretty happy with the way things are coming together. One lesson learned is that it helps to have...
