Art & Inspiration Shop Space, how much is enough

I can relate. I moved a boat out of my shop to the garage, and had room for a 40 Merc and lots of parts.

 

Here’s the plan for my new house, but I may enlarge the garage area, beforei actually start building!





Bones

 

Someone was planning ahead, note the vault was installed long before it was needed, may have been a buy one get the other at a discount.

 

Where are your priorities. Everyone knows the bathroom should connect to the bedroom and the kitchen should be on the end with a pass through bar.

storage space is a priority. The 30X45 2nd floor has 4 foot wide stairs with only 7" rise so an appliance dolly can get even heavy parts up and down. Might put a track mounted winch and a door from the storage side to the upstairs. Just depends on how much reinforcing I would have to do.

 

>25,000-square-feet.

 

Looks like you have almost enough room to park all your vehicles, but what're you gonna do for a workshop............

 

1 car garage and a 20x40 carport which I just started pouring concrete in. I could use more room. I also typically have 2 or 3 cars going at once

 

Damn…..how did I mess that up! Thanks…you have saved me many steps…..or at my age a few steps, anyway! lol






Bones

 

The bedroom should be above the kitchen, less floor footprint taken that way... .
Marcus...

 

Build an extra room ...free room and board for the shop assistant....The little details....

 

Enough is just a temporary starting size. It won’t be enough soon. I built my shop at 2300sf almost,20 years ago. It was enough for a few years. I could use much more, but I have no more space to build on. I need to start getting rid of my excess stuff.

 

I have come to a point where my 4000 sq ft shop would be perfect if I get rid of 6 of my 10 cars and parts for them that I have collected over the last 40 years. It would give me the finances to finish the 4 that I really want to finish and have a nice area on one end to store them in. otherwise I would need another 4000 sq ft to store all of them. Besides I will be 69 in September and have been losing a number of friends as of late. time is getting shorter all the time. One friend left behind a 40 x60 shop stacked full of cars, bikes, parts and equipment for his 79-year-old wife to deal with. And yes, I and a number of club members will help her when she is ready. But like most of us only Joe knew what all the boxes and shelves full of stuff were for. Things to think about. Larry

 

My idea of a big enough shop keeps getting smaller rather than bigger although the 20x80 quansit hut style building a guy has for sale on FB sure is interesting.

The neighbor a half mile from me has his place for sale but wants too much for it, 3 year old house that most wives would go nuts over and a 3000 sf shop with one side being a drive in one end and drive out the other end semi truck bay. It was built and has been used for a semi truck shop but would be a hell of a hot rod shop. they want 950 K because of the commercial building but the realestate folk don't push the shop and 4-1/2 acres rather than the house.
https://www.remax.com/wa/toppenish/...0932712801906777/M00000656/24-41?gallery=true
The shop and land were for sale for a decent price about ten years ago but I didn't have the means to buy it.

 

To Quote my Grampa, " he said : "Marry a small woman, they tend to get big, and build a big of a garage as you can afford, they tend to get small.....

 

Hello,

All throughout our “together” lives starting back in our 20 something college days, my wife and I have always thought of what our house would look like if we had space, time and funds. Back then, we had the time, space was usually minimum, dictated by the lack of allowable spending money. So, we adapted and were satisfied at saying what we wanted to have, a nice house or location.

Real estate folks we knew always said you can’t change a location for its amenities, so your house is what you get when you move to a new environment. From an old early tract house in the Westside of Long Beach and/or the 50s tract houses from the empty Knotts Berry Farm areas of So Cal, we grew up in homes built for families, not the wide open ranges or space for huge yards.

As we realized living near the coast was going to be different proportions, like a small apartment near the water or small home up in the coastal hills. So, decisions were made as per our newly married lifestyle we wanted to follow.

Jnaki

Wishing for a 5 car garage was the start, but impractical where we decided to live and enjoy our lifestyle. So, we settled on small two car garages to do work and keep our cars nice. We had to be extra cautious or continue each week to clean the “salt mist” off of our cars. But, when we did get a large three car garage + big house, to supplement a new build space with plenty of cabinets and counter space, we decided to go sailing…

So, as our lives continue to get through "couples only" to family to extended family with the addition of a granddaughter, it is coming around as a big circle. Space for builds is how and where you make it work.

The conversation of having a 5 car garage and one workspace large enough and close by has always been discussed by my wife and me during our memories game. She was a relatively newcomer to hot rods growing up, but once she met me, her styles and ideas changed to adapt to this weird guy she met in college.
a sister to the 65 red El Camino we used for 125k miles...

A variety of cars for almost every condition or location. From a small sporty car to a larger 2 door station wagon to an impractical, but fun open roadster. It has always been fair game for the times of the discussions. Location not withstanding, each car would have its own garage space Recently, my wife has taken a liking to a large AWD truck with 750hp plus, but only if we moved to the mountain range areas of California or the Rocky Mountain states.

“…Round and round, in the CIRCLE GAME…” YRMV

 

How much can you afford to heat and / or air condition? And taxes if any?

 

At this point I would love a spot that I could work on my project. For now it's on a trailer in a storage lot. When I want to work on it I pile the tools I think I'm going to need into my shitbox, haul it someplace and work on it until I'm asked to move along, or run out of battery's for the tools.

 

The McCormick Place Convention Center would be about the right size.

 

Just added some more shelving today to help alleviate the clutter. Trying to really maximize the space I have in my garage and basement workshop. The issue always is the more space you have, the more stuff you end up with to fill the space.

 

Me as well.
If I had a 10k sq ft shop, I’d be making plans for a 1k sq ft shop to actually get something done.

 

getting rid of stuff you'll never use is the hardest, and most useful, thing you can do to get more shop space.

 

But I have soooo many regrets about getting rid of stuff I could have used some 20 years later

 

start stacking.