Todd's Penalty Box - New Workshop/Garage Build

[PenaltyBoxGarage]

Just found this forum today, can't believe I haven't seen it before. Well, I am getting close to finally being able to move in and start organizing my shop, however I'll give you some history...

Recently married, and we wanted to buy a property on the west side of town in a 'shop-friendly' HOA. Surprising enough, we found one on an odd shaped property, about a half acre.

It's been a dream of mine for many years to be able to build a shop and do a full body-off restore of my '76 Bronco, that is now more of a rock crawler than anything. So we made plans for a 1400' foot shop that would fit an RV (just for resale), got our contractor, and that is when things started...and immediately slowed down. Long story short, LOTS of issues with our Contractor - he took our final payment and skipped down, leaving me with a LOT of work to do. So for those in Texas, I hear that is where he is now, AVOID Chris Morton (Trident Construction) like the plague. So I went to the Registrar of Contractors and am working with them, but found another GC who is doing it right for me. Below I'll post a few of the pics and then I will hopefully post progress as I move in and get it organized.

I'm excited to hear ideas from you all. Lots of great minds on here it seems.

Oh yeah, intended uses: automotive workshop for my Bronco, Reloading, some basic metal work (nothing crazy, just stuff for my Bronco) and some wood working...

I am about 3 weeks out from Final inspection I believe. They are doing the interior trim and lighting today... Hopefully get the lights hung (heavy suckers!) and energize soon!

 

[dubber]

Sweet shop! Congrats on the recent wedding and home purchase as well.

 

[CNGsaves]

Wow, that will be nice with the slate roof !

Curious if you've got enough electrical outlets inside garage . . . and plan for all your 240v outlets ??

 

[DynoDave]

That's a great looking space. Congratulations!

It's never easy, is it?

 

[Terranova]

Every time I hear penalty box.....

View media item 44338
You do that, you go to the box. Two minutes by yourself. You feel shame, then you get free...

If you're not familiar...

Looks great looking forward to seeing the progress.

 

[Jay Sco]

Welcome to the GJ! We saved you a spot. Nice space so far and I like the Bronco too. Keep the pics coming.

 

[PenaltyBoxGarage]

Wow, that will be nice with the slate roof !

Curious if you've got enough electrical outlets inside garage . . . and plan for all your 240v outlets ??

CNG,
I am hoping it's enough, although I am sure i will be adding more later, however I need to get past my final inspection in the next 2 weeks. I have a pretty inclusive 'wish list' for the electrical needs however I found to get what I 'wanted' would require a 200AMP subpanel, which would require me to get a 400amp panel on side of house, which would need more wire pulled and quite the job from our local power company. Maybe down the road, but for now, my 100amp panel will suffice.

I currently have the 100amp panel, and several 20A circuits just for power tools, and then one 240/30A for big boy toys. I will most likely be adding in one more 240/30A and then a couple more 20Amp dedicated circuits. My original electrician was an absolute ***** and didn't give me the dedicated circuits I asked for, as it seems just about every circuit has at least ONE light on it. DUMB DUMB DUMB. Nevertheless, I just need my final inspection (so close) and then I can do the power I need, however it just might not be behind drywall. oh well.

I do have an issue though for my metal halide lights, as they keep popping my breaker after about 30-60 minutes of being on. The GC is going to try and convert them to 220 so we don't have to pull as much amps on them, but he's get a Master Electrician on the job, so I'm not worried.

Thanks all for the feedback. I'm going to post another pic or two in a few as I want your opinions on how I should handle some counter tops.

 

[larry_g]

My original electrician was an absolute ***** and didn't give me the dedicated circuits I asked for, as it seems just about every circuit has at least ONE light on it. DUMB DUMB DUMB. .

Are you telling us that he did not follow the blueprint? Or did some ***** just expect ambiguous verbal instructions to be followed?

lg
no neat sig line

 

[madoc1]

nice looking shop. looks like ariz. or n.mex.

jim

 

[PenaltyBoxGarage]

Are you telling us that he did not follow the blueprint? Or did some ***** just expect ambiguous verbal instructions to be followed?

lg
no neat sig line

He didn't follow the blueprints AT ALL...I just spoke with my GC and he knows how we'll fix it, just more time and $$$... Deep sigh...

 

[PenaltyBoxGarage]

A few more as I slowly get more stuff moved in...I haven't started the countertops or my workbench yet.

 

[PenaltyBoxGarage]

Lighting still not done as you can see one Fluorescent in back not lit up... When the metal halides are on you can barely tell if the flourscents are on or not, however it ads a little extra light when you are in those niche's...

I was VERY fortunate that my wifey had some remodeling done where she works and I was the benefactor of some of the cabinets and most importantly all these metal drawers... I have 12 of those units, all metal heavy duty ball bearing.

 

[PenaltyBoxGarage]

nice looking shop. looks like ariz. or n.mex.

jim

You got it Jim... Arizona.

 

[larry_g]

He didn't follow the blueprints AT ALL...I just spoke with my GC and he knows how we'll fix it, just more time and $$$... Deep sigh...

I don't believe this should be a "we'll fix it or more $$$" If the EC failed to follow the print, then why was the payout done?

Any way your looking real good in what you have shown. Great looking.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[PenaltyBoxGarage]

I don't believe this should be a "we'll fix it or more $$$" If the EC failed to follow the print, then why was the payout done?

Any way your looking real good in what you have shown. Great looking.

lg
no neat sig line

Larry,
I wish I could explain why, however I can tell you that the guy has since skipped town, actually state, and has 7 cases against him with the Registrar of Contractors. The original electrician claims he wasn't paid. So many issue with the old GC, however I just have to move on.

Very frustrating, trust me...

Thanks for the comments.. I am very fortunate to have such a nice place, now...I gotta start building stuff to back it up.

 

[PenaltyBoxGarage]

i have 10 of these metal cabinets... They are all tan and all chipped up from years of use in a financial institution...

Here is what one of them look like painted up. I'm going to have them in a couple stations, but most will be on the right side of shop (under nascar stuff), and a few in back reloading station...

I haven't taken the tape off the bottom 4 drawers or the tape off the lock, but you get the idea.

 

[PenaltyBoxGarage]

I have had my share of issues since the last post however its coning along slowly. I got passed my final inspection so that was a big sigh of relief as I can start moving my stuff in for real. The drawers that I have finally have taken shape. .any people think its one giant toolbox. It could be but I haven't even move my tools in here yet. That comes tomorrow hopefully. The countertop (12' black laminate) should be here in a week or so. I am making the rest of my countertops as I want to be able to beat on them etc.

[/IMG]

I also have some other cabinets that I want to paint just to clean up the look at so it doesn't look like the place I got the cabinets (I worked there for many years, don't need a reminder.

More fun stuff moves in tomorrow. Needs ventilation.. Paint..fumes..fading....away........

 

[hoho98925]

The cabinets turned out great, Tons of storage, nicely done.

 

[Riley]

I'm sorry if I missed it, what are the dimensions?

1400 sq ft, long enough for an RV, so 40 ft plus, so something like 32 x 44?

I love the layout, the bump outs on the side and back are great!

 

[PenaltyBoxGarage]

So the long wall is 48' deep and the pop outs are all 8' deep. The one with the blue cabinets is 32'x8'... With 2x6" construction we are just under 1400 sq feet.

I have some more storage I want to paint into the whole gray/blue/black theme and they will look nicer ... Appreciate the feedback. These blue cabinets turned out way better than I ever thought they would. Not bad for 30+ year old drawers.. All metal and ball bearing... Old school quality

 

[PenaltyBoxGarage]

Well, I have come a long ways, and admittedly, I have worked on some of the fun pretty stuff, only because I haven't had the money to get into the real ******** shop equipment, like plasma cutter, press, etc...

So if you see the 'cutout' that is on the side of the shop in the early photos, I've made that kind of my little cave area where a 12' countertop goes along with TV, and my toolboxes.... See below.

The 2nd photo is my workbench that will be for reloading. I just built the table out of extra 2x4s from the shop, but bought a Red Oak top for it. I plan to still trim it out, stain, and polyurethane it. That's a Dillon 550 for the reloaders out there..

 

[JordonMusser]

Looks good.. regarding the lighting situation.. had a similar one. I gave my electrition a load calc for the garage lighting, he ignored me. 20amps on a 20amp circuit. durrr.

was a typical engineer vs tradesman :-/

He split it up after move in, but not after cutting several holes in my ceiling and wall in the garage.