New from Oklahoma

[jbmatth]

I have been a member for a while but haven't posted yet and figured I should since I'm about to start on a project of my own. I have a 2 car garage with a couple of small kickouts one at the back and one on the side. The entire garage is packed with stuff. My wife does get to park her car inside and must have room to manuver kids and car seats but the rest is packed, I can't hardly even get to my workbench without moving things out of the way.

That has led to my project. I'm going to be building an 8'x1?' garden shed. It'll be home to my riding mower, all other yard type tools, some misc. storage and powerwheels for my girls. That way I have room to pull my car in and out of the garage without having to move everything out of the way. The shed is my own design that I've drawn up in MicroStation 3d. I'm debating on making it 12 or 16 feet long now and will have that decided before I buy materials in the next few weeks. I'll be doing most of the work on it myself over a 5 day weekend I have planned. If I get into a bind I'll call my FIL who lives here in town to come tell me how bad I messed things up.

 

[HOTFR8]

Welcome to the GJ.

 

[Wingnut65]

Welcome to GJ, jbm! Glad you found us. Your garage setting sound exactly like how mine started out. My wife also believes in that strange concept that a garage is to park a car in! Well, since she is my Finance Minister, she can have what she wants and allows me the rest of the garage.

Your priorities sound right on track! Get the bulks items out of the garage and have more room for the important stuff, Tools!

For the size, I have never heard anybody here on GJ saying that they built their shop/shed/barn/etc, too big. Never gonna happen! Before you finalize your plans and start the build, measure every item you have to put out there and cut them out to scale in paper. Lay out the size of the shed and figure out how you can get the mower out without moving everything else and same for each item. If it takes moving things around to get to something, it will be too much of hassle and wont get used much. Consider if a 10' wide would solve any potential problems... My suggestion, go for the 16' and wait for the new bicycles to fill it up.

Take your shoes off and browse around. Start a thread when you start the build!

 

[jbmatth]

welcome Okie,what part of Gods country u live in?? Central Okla?

I'm in north central Ok. in Ponca City, I moved here 5 years ago after college to work as a mechanical engineer in the refinery here.

Wingnut,
I want to build it as big as possible without getting a building permit, which means it has to stay under 200 sq ft, but as for now I'm limited to a budget of $1000. The 8'x16' would put me over the limit, as would the 10' by **'. I have the floor plan all drawn out in 3d right now other than the equipment, they are just rectangles. With that size I'll be able to set the mower in and out easily by the door, and the two power wheels front to back beside that with good room between them. I'm still trying to finalize the plan for the trusses to make the strong and cost effective. Thank you all for the welcome, I really like this board a lot.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Welcome to the GJ from downunder, enjoy.

 

[Glenn M.]

Welcome to the GJ from VA!
Save another $1000 and build the shed as big as you can get away with. It'll fill up quick...

 

[jbmatth]

Welcome to the GJ from VA!
Save another $1000 and build the shed as big as you can get away with. It'll fill up quick...

That sounds like a great idea, I'll play around with some numbers and see if I can sell some old car parts for a bit of extra spending money. I just don't want to put in a nice little shed/shop then sell the house in a year and have to do it again. Of course I could try to just build it in a way I could use handy man jacks and move it with a flat bed... Hmmm sounds like I need to engineer some $8*%!

 

[Wingnut65]

Glad you thought about making everything accessible with out creating a domino effect to get to something.

If you are limited on size and budget, consider in the design having the back wall being removed at some time to expand the shed. That could be shearing off nails with a sawzall or using lag bolts to hold it together. It could be fairly easy to do if planned ahead of time.

Good luck on your planning and build fun!

 

[jbmatth]

I have designed it with lags/carriage bolts at the corners of the walls and floor and roof. That way I could theoretically remove any part of it and expand if I wanted to. I don't like nails, I never have, and will try to use the only of the roof for shingles. I'll be using screws for everything else even though it will cost more it'll make a much stronger joint.
As for the budget, sadly we could put quite a bit more into it if we wanted to because my wife and I both have great paying jobs that are very steady. But when we decide to move in a year or three I don't want all of that work to go to someone else, or the smaller it is the easier it will be to move to our new place.
I have started a build thread here:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3818050#post3818050