Up at the farm, I’ve a dedicated wood shop but at our home in the Treasure Coast, it’s the garage. We’ll never park a car in there and the garage door was eating valuable space and it needed replacing. Worse, the opening faces West which gets the brunt of the sun and heat. There’s not enough room on the parcel for a free-standing shop and expanding the building footprint was cost prohibitive.
Creating a wall with a large door and removing the side door and continuing the wall gave me about an additional 64 SqFt at much less cost than a new, insulated door—plus I picked up some overhead space too.
The build is pretty complete. I received a Final approval from the county for the permit. I’ll be removing some of the vinyl siding and we’ll paint the old sheathing to match the new along the section of wall in the same plane as this reno. Long term, we’ll probably rip off all the vinyl and paint. The shop door will be painted to match the front door. So, the house becomes taupe and blue.
The window trim is Florida Cypress and is M&T with Sapele plugs I turned to cover the screw holes. There’s still work to do, but this is a milestone which will allow me to mix in other projects.
To do: Cypress trim around the door jamb. The new wall is inset about an inch from the main wall and will be covered with a thin horizontal natural Florida Cypress treatment. Two decorative vertical columns and a beam around the new wall each having a natural Cypress facade.
It will be a great space that you can temp control. Much more pleasant working in comfort!
So true. I insulated the front wall with R30 and covered it with inside sheathing which will allow supporting heavy stuff. I got a new 14,000 BTU portable B&D unit which is doing a good job for this space. It’s 95 outside and probably 76-78 or better inside and dry. No more dripping sweat in there!
Making progress. New framing is insulated and sheathed. Lots of cleaning done albeit more to do. The spot cooler works well—it’s a 14,000 BTU A/C vented thru the side wall. Need to get a couple more sets of locking casters.
Cozy! Maybe not a fun place to swing 14 footers or 4x8 sheets, but perfect for creativity. Nice thing about smaller is it's a lot easier to keep clean.
Going to be great to see what comes out once you fire it up and get busy!
I’ve been doing some projects while doing the reno. The exterior window trim, for instance, is Florida Cypress mortise and tenon with plugged screws where it’s attached. Several picture frames; this one is antique heart pine with a Shellac and Arm-R-Seal satin finish:
I should learn how to crop properly. The first pic makes it look like the mitered corners on one side are off. They ain’t.
Cozy! Maybe not a fun place to swing 14 footers or 4x8 sheets, but perfect for creativity. Nice thing about smaller is it's a lot easier to keep clean.
Fortunately, I’m not working many full sheets. When I have to, I set the horses up in the driveway and break them down using a shop made track. Anything longer than 10’ requires moving tools and planning or working outside. Or, I wait until I’m at the farm where my woodshop is a freestanding building 16’ X 32’ with 11’ from floor to the bottom of the joists. The big tools are there; this one has mostly contractor and benchtop tools although the planer and jointer have spiral carbide cutters.
Nice looking frame! Perfect for the photo 😀
Thanks. That’s what I thought. It’s reclaimed pine from a deconstructed house originally built around 1870 from trees milled on site about 7 miles from the farm.
Once the TS & chop saw are moved into their place and the folding sawhorses set up, it’s pretty easy. Up above there’s a picture of an open cabinet near a door—the first interior pic. The board rests on the cabinet top, against the fence and behind the blade. I just slide it forward and use a pair of push sticks to finish the cut.
