Contractor building my garage asked me if I wanted a window. I had windows in my previous garage, and spray-painted the glass so no-one could look in on me or case the joint while I wasn't home. I told him "no window".
Garage is finished in early summer. Hottest summer in years. I have no window to put a window A/C unit into. I had to open the sheetrock, cut-out the siding, rip out insulation, and build a window frame before I could get heat relief.
As inexpensive as window A/C units have become (Chinese junk) it pretty-much doesn't make sense to plan a shop without one. I go years at a time without using it--but when I need it, it's essential.
Contractor insisted on using a certain local subcontractor for gutters. I told him not to hire these folks, they've screwed me before, they're incompetent, they're lazy, and I don't want them on my property. Guess who gets hired? I had to tell the guy that the way he was planning the gutter system, my sidewalk would be an ice-rink in the spring and fall on the one side of the building, and the gutter spout will violate city Code on the other side by running onto my neighbor's property. He elbowed and twisted the spout to comply with code on the one side, but I had to rework the other side myself.
I tell the contractor that I want the person-door at the back of the shop hinged so the door opens outward. He installs a door with removable hinge pins accessible from outside, so thieves can pop the pins and open the locked door in about thirty seconds.
Contractor asks me what color I want for the steel siding. I tell him to "match the house". (Duh!) He installs the siding--a close-enough color match to the house, but the laps are half as wide. I now have narrow-lap siding on the garage, but wide-lap siding on the house.
I hand the electrician a schematic for wiring the garage. There's two groups of three-way switches, one beside the overhead door, and one beside the "people door". He installs some of the switches in the group by the overhead door upside-down, so that some switches are "up" and some are "down" to turn all the lights on or off. He didn't give me a chance to paint the plywood that the circuit-breaker box attached to. Also, I forgot to install an outside light by the "people door", so when I close-up shop for the night, I have to walk to the house in the dark.
