I've been ten years without a shop. Last year we bought a place with an attached garage that is too small for the truck soooo.... It's a workshop. Last winter I didn't do anything with it and it sat full of junk and detrius from life. This spring a friend convinced me to get in gear and start building a workbench. I live in Northern Alberta and it is very dry here. Wood moves a lot in the winter. I saw these plans for an english style workbench on Paul Sellers Youtube channel and it seemed ideal for me and the climate that I live in. This should be very stable and shouldn't have much movement. The whole project took less than three sheets of plywood. The plywood is pretty lousy "Birch" ply. The outside veneer is about .001" thick and will chip if you look at it wrong. It's about a four hour drive south to Edmonton where I could get some nice ply so, I went with this from the local Rona. I justified using this ply with "It's just the workbench, it'll be fine", and it is. Finished it with a water based poly with a built in tint. It was the cheapest finish I could find. I found a cheap vise (vice?) on Amazon Warehouse for $60. and installed it, also added a shelf under the left end for sharpening stones. I may yet add some dog holes but unsure yet about size, spacing etc. so that will wait.
This has been a great re-introduction to building and I never want to go that long again without a dedicated space to build things.
If anyone is interested in Paul's build you can find on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqyeNiM0BJuUPM0NC5m7iQxK4XoszovPp