A few years ago, I built the Atomic World HQ and covered most of the process here on The Garage Journal. If you missed that build, you can go back and check out most of the action here:
Atomic Industry World HQ: Part 1
Atomic Industry World HQ: Part 2
Atomic Industry World HQ: Part 3
Atomic Industry World HQ: Part 4 (FLOORS!)
Atomic Industry World HQ: Part 5 (The Door)
Atomic Industry World HQ: Part 6 (Lighting)
Atomic Industry World HQ: Part 7 (Security)
We bought the property where the Atomic World HQ is located with the intentions of eventually building what will become our “dream” house on the same piece of land. That dream is coming a little closer to reality, so I figured this winter would be a good opportunity to get a jump start on the project by building what will become my shop space.
For all intents and purposes, I haven’t had a real shop space since moving to the Austin area eight years ago. Instead, I’ve had a three car garage that pulls double and sometimes triple duty by housing a couple of old cars (and the accompanying tools and parts to keep them moving) along with a whole bunch of household items to keep the wife and kids happy. More often than not, the garage is an absolute mess with no identity and no real organization.
So, the idea of having a shop… real dedicated shop space… has me more excited than I can write. It’s been a long time coming and I can hardly wait to get it up.
Anyway, the plan is to actually add on to the Atomic World HQ building with another metal building in a fairly unique way. The current structure is a 30′ by 40′ building with a 1/12 roof pitch and 12′ walls. For all intents and purposes, it’s your standard metal building that we did our best to make look a bit like a modern shack of sorts. The new addition will be 32′ by 40′ with an 8/12 roof pitch and 14′ walls – proportions that give the building a profile very similar to a classic Texas barn.
The idea here is that once this structure is standing proud (almost 30′ tall), the original World HQ building will look almost like a modern lean-too on an old galvanized metal barn. Essentially, we are mixing very traditional shapes with really contemporary building materials and simple ideas – a principal we will also be using when we eventually build our home a few hundred yards away.
Admittedly, this is hard to explain with words but these simple plans illustrate the shapes fairly well:
We broke ground last week… And, we took out our fair share of bobcats doing it. Our property is essentially a gigantic rock covered in thousands of dreadful cedar trees and sprinkled with gorgeous oak trees here and there. As such, the land clearing and leveling aspect of this build was rough as we worked to not only flatten and clear the space required but also took care not to take out any desirable trees. It’s finally done and I’m hoping to see concrete this week.
To be continued….
