Patrick Jaromin's Workshop

Welcome to LJ. That will be a nice shop.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Looks like it’s coming along!

-- Tom, Surfside Beach, SC - Romans 8:28

Welcome to LJ’s (Enjoy) Looks great so far. Looking forward to seeing it when completed and I really liked the video.
God bless

-- Gene, a Christian in Virginia

That was great!

-- Todd A. Clippinger, Montana, http://amcraftsman.com

Nice looking workshop!

-- Greg Mitchell--Lowell, AR--gdamitchell@sbcglobal.net

Great video. Now show now you have to start filling it up.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

great video!!

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Paneled walls, wood flooring, track lighting…Lookin’ good!

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!

Wow! A SketchUp expert & the fastest framing crew on the planet!

Turning green with envy here! I always thought you had to live out in the country with a big barn in the back in order to have a dedicated shop – but now I’m starting to see how you could make it work really well even in the suburbs. I know some think it’s bad form, but what was your budget for construction? I’d love to have something similar…

-- -- Kevin in Mentor, Ohio

Kevin- The quotes I received varied widely…along with the options.

In my suburb our association doesn’t allow for “out buildings”...so if I wanted additional space, it needed to be attached to the house. According to the contractors I spoke with, this adds to the cost. Originally I was thinking this would be a “garage addition” with a concrete slab floor basically turning our 2-car garage into a 3-car tandem garage. Following discussions with prospective contractors and my (wonderful) wife, we decided that a home addition would be a wiser choice—- one that could be a shop today but relatively easily (& cheaply) turned into extra living space if we ever decided to sell in the future …distant as we have very small chldren and moved here in no small part for the schools.

So now we were talking about a home addition with a foundation—and if you’re going to have a foundation, might as well spend the extra ($3000-$4000 if I recall correctly) to put in a 4’ crawl space (very happy with that decision) which gives extra storage as well as making it tons easier to run heat/power/etc.

In the end our quotes ranged from the low $30K’s to the low $60K’s from 4 different contractors. We negotiated a bit and made some tweaks…and settled somewhere in the lower-middle end of the range. However, this didn’t include finishing the interior…I had them put in the ceiling, but stop short of interior walls and flooring and provided my own light fixtures.

I used SketchUp to do a rough plan that helped me explain to the contractors exactly what I was looking for. I had to make some significant changes based on my build lines (be sure to have a plat of survey on hand and review it).

We really didn’t have a clue what this would cost going into it and I told the contractors I called up front that I wanted them to give me a rough ballpark first so that we wouldn’t waste anyone’s time if it turned out to be way beyond what we would be comfortable with. This was well received…and ultimately we got what we wanted.

I’d recommend you check our your plat of survey, make some sketches and call a couple contractors!

-- Patrick, Chicago, IL www.TenonAndSpline.com

Funny that being attached to the house adds cost – I would have thought with only 3 walls, not having to run extra power / plumbing & heating/cooling, it would have been cheaper. Did you hire an architect first, or go straight to the contractors?

PS – what’s a “plat of survey” ??

-- -- Kevin in Mentor, Ohio

I share your joy, I built a new shop in the U.P. last Summer and can hardly wait for the snow to melt so I can get up there to set up my tools. (thankfully, no subdivision rules here)

I used to live in Naperville in the early 70’s, just above 75th st. A lot has changed since then.

-- "Heaven is North of the Bridge"

Very nice shop, love the time lapse. Wish I’d though of that. I just took pics of mine as it was being contructed, if your interested you can check out my blog he on LumberJocks. I just posted some pics of the inside now that I finally got it cleaned up enough to start working in it again.

-- Sawhorse - Sulphur Springs, TX - www.sawhorseworkshop.com

Kevin- Plat of Survey: http://www.dupageco.org/gis/generic.cfm?doc_id=339
It’s basically a drawing of your plot with the property showing the build lines and easements. The part that I was completely unaware of was, being formerly a condo-dweller was “build lines.” Even though we’re on a corner lot with plenty of land to the side, the angle of the house prevented us from adding on wider than 14’ (interior).

As for the cost of addition vs. standalone, I was surprised to hear that as well, but I heard it from more than one contractor and have no reason to doubt them. I’m thinking at least part of it has to do with the code requirements when dealing with a dwelling vs. out building…and some is likely due to the added complexity of tying the foundation and walls together properly…but I guess I really don’t know.

8iowa- Welcome to LJ and at least virtually back to Naperville! I’ve only lived here for ~5 years, but from what I’ve heard this was mostly farm land out here back in the 70’s…very different indeed!

Sawhorse-I actually read your blog and visited your site just a couple hours ago..but was on the train on my way home and didn’t have a chance to comment. It’s very nice! Thanks!

-- Patrick, Chicago, IL www.TenonAndSpline.com

I know where you are. I sometimes go to walmart that is on RT. 59 down there past tamarack golf course. Nice shop. Looks like you will have a very ncie layout when finished. I like your video.

-- Tyler, Illinois

Thats a nice looking shop.

-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker