wes.harville
Well-known member
Before I go into what exactly my intentions are with my garage renovation, I think it is important that I explain how exactly I got to this point. Or, you could always just skip to the pictures; I’d be lying if I said I have never done that.
In April of 2003, I was 21 years of age and my wife and I had just bought our first house. Before we had even signed the contract, I had already delivered the block to the property so I could start building a shop (my wife called it a garage) right away. I had got the block for a few cents each from a K-mart that was closing; they had used the block to make shelves in their Lawn and Garden area. They were also selling off the lifts from their oil change center; looking back I can’t believe I didn’t buy one.
The shop was a 24x32 with a single garage door and vaulted ceilings. It took me about 2 years to finish with only the occasional help of my wife, father and brother-n-law and sadly these are the only pictures I have of it.
One in Progress (That was one of my favorite vehicles by the way; I kick myself all of the time for selling it.)
And here is a finished product (with one of my not so favorite vehicles!)
I put the money into this Garage, and the house because I expected to live there for at least 10-15 years. So even though I knew I would move eventually it was worth it to me to build it anyway. In December of 2003, we bought the ford excursion you see above. We wanted a diesel because I had a 45+ min drive to school every day and even further for work sometimes and the 454 dually was getting about 8mpg pulling my trailer every day. At that time diesel was around $1.60 then and much cheaper than gas, that coupled with the promise of 20+mpg of the new 6.0L was the deciding factor for us, so we purchased it.
As most of you know, by the end of 2004, diesel had climbed to over $5.00 per gallon. At this time, I couldn’t afford to fill up, I was putting around $225.00 in it every 3-5 days. Our house was in Berea, KY and I was driving to Lexington, KY every day and sometimes further, so I decided to rent a house in Lexington and just come home on the weekends. After doing this for about 6 months it only made since to put the house for sale and just move to Lexington.
The only dilemma with this move was storage. While going through engineering school, I started a construction company so I could schedule jobs around my classes. Over the past 3 years, the company had grown greatly and I had acquired contracts with 7 LOWES stores across the state. This had resulted in a lot of tools and large equipment that I had to store somewhere and there was no way it would fit in the garage of the house I was renting (which would have been against code anyway). So at this time I rented a 2000sqft building, 200sqft office, 1800sqft warehouse. This was great! I had plenty of room to work on my personal stuff and store anything I needed for the business. But because it was a rented shop, I never really felt “at home” there when I was working on my personal projects. It was great for business, but never really “my shop”
By 2009 the business had grown so much that I had to move into a 3000sqft area. As the business grew, I just kept acquiring more tools and had to have more room to store them all. I know what a lot of you guys are thinking “you can never have enough tools” this is true, however when the tools are multiples, or tools specific to construction (like an aluminum brake) they are only purchased out of necessity, not out of my love for tools.
By now, I had graduated from U of Kentucky with my Mechanical Engineering degree, My wife and I had lived in our new house for a few year and I was really losing motivation with the construction company. I guess I was tired of worrying about making payroll during the winter, and rising insurance cost and had been contemplating closing the company but never did anything about it until in the fall of 2010 when an employee stole from a customer. After this, I decided that I was going to close the business and get a job where I could use my degree.
As of 01/01/2011, Precision Doors & Windows, LLC has dissolved. I now have a job using my degree and so far love it. The only problem was that pesky warehouse that I have a lease on until December of this year. This means on 01/01/2012, everything that I haven’t sold or given away has to fit in my 2 car garage along with my household JUNK! I know I don’t want to have everything just piled in the floor, so I have decided to completely overhaul my garage. While contemplating how I was going to do this, I decided on one thing for sure. If I was going to do it, I was going to do it right and make it a place I wanted to be in! I want doors on everything, no open shelving. And I know you guys aren’t going to like this, but I want very limited work surfaces. The more counter space I have the more I tend to pile stuff on them, so I like to minimize my working surfaces so I am forced to store things where they go. The only flat surfaces will be the workbench and table saw out feed table.
Now, I am getting ready to turn 30, I am working on my 4th Shop in 8 years and it is going to be my smallest one yet! This seems backwards to me. But hey, if done right, even the smallest spots can work!
In April of 2003, I was 21 years of age and my wife and I had just bought our first house. Before we had even signed the contract, I had already delivered the block to the property so I could start building a shop (my wife called it a garage) right away. I had got the block for a few cents each from a K-mart that was closing; they had used the block to make shelves in their Lawn and Garden area. They were also selling off the lifts from their oil change center; looking back I can’t believe I didn’t buy one.
The shop was a 24x32 with a single garage door and vaulted ceilings. It took me about 2 years to finish with only the occasional help of my wife, father and brother-n-law and sadly these are the only pictures I have of it.
One in Progress (That was one of my favorite vehicles by the way; I kick myself all of the time for selling it.)
And here is a finished product (with one of my not so favorite vehicles!)
I put the money into this Garage, and the house because I expected to live there for at least 10-15 years. So even though I knew I would move eventually it was worth it to me to build it anyway. In December of 2003, we bought the ford excursion you see above. We wanted a diesel because I had a 45+ min drive to school every day and even further for work sometimes and the 454 dually was getting about 8mpg pulling my trailer every day. At that time diesel was around $1.60 then and much cheaper than gas, that coupled with the promise of 20+mpg of the new 6.0L was the deciding factor for us, so we purchased it.
As most of you know, by the end of 2004, diesel had climbed to over $5.00 per gallon. At this time, I couldn’t afford to fill up, I was putting around $225.00 in it every 3-5 days. Our house was in Berea, KY and I was driving to Lexington, KY every day and sometimes further, so I decided to rent a house in Lexington and just come home on the weekends. After doing this for about 6 months it only made since to put the house for sale and just move to Lexington.
The only dilemma with this move was storage. While going through engineering school, I started a construction company so I could schedule jobs around my classes. Over the past 3 years, the company had grown greatly and I had acquired contracts with 7 LOWES stores across the state. This had resulted in a lot of tools and large equipment that I had to store somewhere and there was no way it would fit in the garage of the house I was renting (which would have been against code anyway). So at this time I rented a 2000sqft building, 200sqft office, 1800sqft warehouse. This was great! I had plenty of room to work on my personal stuff and store anything I needed for the business. But because it was a rented shop, I never really felt “at home” there when I was working on my personal projects. It was great for business, but never really “my shop”
By 2009 the business had grown so much that I had to move into a 3000sqft area. As the business grew, I just kept acquiring more tools and had to have more room to store them all. I know what a lot of you guys are thinking “you can never have enough tools” this is true, however when the tools are multiples, or tools specific to construction (like an aluminum brake) they are only purchased out of necessity, not out of my love for tools.
By now, I had graduated from U of Kentucky with my Mechanical Engineering degree, My wife and I had lived in our new house for a few year and I was really losing motivation with the construction company. I guess I was tired of worrying about making payroll during the winter, and rising insurance cost and had been contemplating closing the company but never did anything about it until in the fall of 2010 when an employee stole from a customer. After this, I decided that I was going to close the business and get a job where I could use my degree.
As of 01/01/2011, Precision Doors & Windows, LLC has dissolved. I now have a job using my degree and so far love it. The only problem was that pesky warehouse that I have a lease on until December of this year. This means on 01/01/2012, everything that I haven’t sold or given away has to fit in my 2 car garage along with my household JUNK! I know I don’t want to have everything just piled in the floor, so I have decided to completely overhaul my garage. While contemplating how I was going to do this, I decided on one thing for sure. If I was going to do it, I was going to do it right and make it a place I wanted to be in! I want doors on everything, no open shelving. And I know you guys aren’t going to like this, but I want very limited work surfaces. The more counter space I have the more I tend to pile stuff on them, so I like to minimize my working surfaces so I am forced to store things where they go. The only flat surfaces will be the workbench and table saw out feed table.
Now, I am getting ready to turn 30, I am working on my 4th Shop in 8 years and it is going to be my smallest one yet! This seems backwards to me. But hey, if done right, even the smallest spots can work!
. Looks like you are headed in the right direction ( although I doubt this is your " last " shop ) 
)with this?
