RRP
Member
A little background:
2007 - I started my own small motorcycle road racing shop with a friend. We specialized in paint and bodywork and turned out some pretty cool race stuff in addition to occasional custom projects.
It was pretty cool and supported itself at least enough to allow me to pursue my racing program which was also pretty cool.
Last but not least, it also provided me with 2000 square feet of space in which to work and store my bikes and related projects.
Fast forward to 2010 - a combination of factors, most notably the failing economy, forced me to shutter the doors on the shop. Simply put when people are losing their homes they aren't painting their motorcycles. As disappointing as it was to abandon the venture, the lack of sleepless nights and heartburn was a welcome result. The other result was no place to put my stuff. My house is ~ 900 square feet with a 16x10 attached garage --- enough space to shove it all in but def not enough to work at all.
^^^^^
So that's what I did, shoved everything in the garage (and my race rig, the 14' box truck and 12' enclosed trailer). And hopefully I would figure out a long term solution of some sort in the meantime. I wanted to build a shop, however the cost was just too much to incur given the economy and the fact that this was a hobby shop not a business anymore.
So I pondered about it awhile and finally settled on the idea of a portable building. It would fit conveniently next to my existing garage, cost me only $50 for a permit from the city and not increase my property tax given its "non permanent" status. The next step was how to pay for it. I don't like debt ( translation = hate). The obvious thing to do trade one portable shop (the 14' race rig in the earlier pic) for this somewhat less portable shop. So up for sale it went. The guy that bought it actually used it to race AMA pro for a couple seasons and I saw it a few months ago for sale out west on another race forum. The important thing is it basically paid for my 24x14 building. (Woohoo, a place to tinker on my bikes again!)
The problem is I never really set up the building very well (or as well as I could have). A racebike build along with pretty much all my gear got tossed in it (see previous pics). A bit later some power and insulation, but the rest of the time until recently has been rearranging things as needed or as I cluttered it up badly enough to require a purge.
Fast forward to the last few months, a friend sent me a link to the "12 Gauge Garage" and that got me hooked on the forum. Ever since, I have been stealing ideas and getting motivated on making my small space more user friendly. I also have been pondering what to call my little space.
My whole family is very in touch with our German heritage (only 2nd generation in the USA) and so after some thought I settled on the name "Das Winzig Geschaft" or "The Tiny Shop".
I will do my best to update as the project continues. I hope to have it fairly well set up by the end of August.
2007 - I started my own small motorcycle road racing shop with a friend. We specialized in paint and bodywork and turned out some pretty cool race stuff in addition to occasional custom projects.
It was pretty cool and supported itself at least enough to allow me to pursue my racing program which was also pretty cool.
Last but not least, it also provided me with 2000 square feet of space in which to work and store my bikes and related projects.
Fast forward to 2010 - a combination of factors, most notably the failing economy, forced me to shutter the doors on the shop. Simply put when people are losing their homes they aren't painting their motorcycles. As disappointing as it was to abandon the venture, the lack of sleepless nights and heartburn was a welcome result. The other result was no place to put my stuff. My house is ~ 900 square feet with a 16x10 attached garage --- enough space to shove it all in but def not enough to work at all.
^^^^^
So that's what I did, shoved everything in the garage (and my race rig, the 14' box truck and 12' enclosed trailer). And hopefully I would figure out a long term solution of some sort in the meantime. I wanted to build a shop, however the cost was just too much to incur given the economy and the fact that this was a hobby shop not a business anymore.
So I pondered about it awhile and finally settled on the idea of a portable building. It would fit conveniently next to my existing garage, cost me only $50 for a permit from the city and not increase my property tax given its "non permanent" status. The next step was how to pay for it. I don't like debt ( translation = hate). The obvious thing to do trade one portable shop (the 14' race rig in the earlier pic) for this somewhat less portable shop. So up for sale it went. The guy that bought it actually used it to race AMA pro for a couple seasons and I saw it a few months ago for sale out west on another race forum. The important thing is it basically paid for my 24x14 building. (Woohoo, a place to tinker on my bikes again!)
The problem is I never really set up the building very well (or as well as I could have). A racebike build along with pretty much all my gear got tossed in it (see previous pics). A bit later some power and insulation, but the rest of the time until recently has been rearranging things as needed or as I cluttered it up badly enough to require a purge.
Fast forward to the last few months, a friend sent me a link to the "12 Gauge Garage" and that got me hooked on the forum. Ever since, I have been stealing ideas and getting motivated on making my small space more user friendly. I also have been pondering what to call my little space.
My whole family is very in touch with our German heritage (only 2nd generation in the USA) and so after some thought I settled on the name "Das Winzig Geschaft" or "The Tiny Shop".
I will do my best to update as the project continues. I hope to have it fairly well set up by the end of August.
