The Workshop

One thing that I miss from my childhood is having a space to build things. The house I grew up in had a full, mostly unfinished basement that was perfect for working on all sorts of projects. I repaired my bikes there, undertook many woodworking projects alone and with my dad, and stockpiled all manner of materials. I have not had a comparable place in the nearly twenty years since we left that house. Even though the farm in Leipers Fork had several sheds, they were only good for storing materials and not working, due to dirt floors and a lack of electricity. Now at the condo I don’t even have space to store my tools, let alone use them.

Fortunately that situation is about to improve. I will be building a 30 by 48 foot workshop out at the farm. It will have a concrete floor, 12 foot high walls, electricity and maybe running water, and I might add some additional covered space to store materials and firewood. To say that I’m excited to have this building would be a serious understatement.

I have already ordered steel trusses and the metal roofing from an outfit in Shelbyville. I will buy the wood for the board and batten siding from a guy down in Alabama. I will build the sliding doors myself using hardware from TSC. The poles and framing lumber will probably just come from Lowe’s. I need to find a source for about 25 old windows. I want to have natural light coming in from two sides. I also need to find a nice wood burning stove. There are tons on Craigslist so I just need to narrow it down to a good one at a decent price. I have some old cabinets in storage that I will probably hang in order to help me be better organized.

The building should go up fairly quickly. I am a little nervous about setting the posts and trusses myself, and installing the roofing for that matter, but I’m sure it will be okay. The project will move forward once the concrete guys come out to do the foundations for the house and garage. They will pour the workshop slab at the same time. That will help keep costs down a little bit. Or so I hope.

So, what will I use this space for? A little bit of everything!

It will be a woodworking shop. I have a lot of very nice tools that are currently in storage. I will build tables and benches in order to get maximum use out of them. It is going to be so much fun to set up this space. But it will be even more fun to really start using it. My first project has already been determined – a dining room table for the new house. Hopefully I will be able to reuse some of the wood that I have already salvaged.

It will be a fitness center. Last year I did the Insanity workout and it was very effective. The problem was that I had to go somewhere else to do it – either the park on nice days or the YMCA when it was raining. That decreased my motivation. The concrete floor of the workshop would destroy my joints if I worked out on it, so I will build a wood and plywood platform, and cover it with closed cell foam for even more cushioning. It will have hinges so I can fold it up and out of the way when not in use. I might also get a few basic weights to use as well.

It will be a food processing space. Hopefully we will have a very productive garden and orchard in the coming years. I am most excited about fruits and pumpkins, although everything we grow should be great. I would like to set up an area where I can efficiently turn the raw materials into something more useful. That means canning apple and pear sauce, pureeing and freezing pumpkins, preparing other vegetables for canning and freezing, and maybe doing some actual cooking and baking. I would love to build a wood-fired pizza oven.

It will be an experimental laboratory. I just love taking old junk and repurposing it into something more useful. There is tons of stuff out there that people are just giving away. I also want to try my hand at some metal working.

It will be a classroom. When I was growing up my dad taught me all about tools and how to use them in our basement. I hope to do the same with Junior, and I hope my dad will be involved with that as well.

It will be a refuge. There is something to be said about having a comforting place to go to during difficult times. And difficult times are an unavoidable fact of life. So it will be nice to have a place to let off steam, refocus my energy, and relax.

Dang, I am ready to build this thing! It will be several months before it is complete and I am in a position to use it, but it sure will be great once it’s ready.