<VV> Prefab shop (was garage)

[Edelstein and Payne]

     About 14 years ago I had my shop built.  It's from Morton Buildings, which I think has dealers in lots of states.  It was not a "get your friends and put it up" project.  I had the slab poured (with water pipes for radient heat in the floor).  They delivered all the pieces on a couple of falt bed trucks, and then a crew of 2 guys showed up and put it up over a couple of days.  There was cosiderable cutting of some wood as well as the some sheet metal for the walls and roof. The builing is 31'x31' (I think), with 10' "porches on each side.  One side I use for doing real "dirty work" like sanding off paint, cleaning parts, etc, and the other side has 2 project cars stored under cover (a 67 Stingray coupe that I'll get to after the 2 vairs, a 2002 Bimmer, a 51 Chevy and the Nomad are all done right).

      I did not buy a "finished" building, with interior wall panels, etc, but did all of that myself over a year or so. Had an elctrician wire it.  I installed R-19 insulation in the walls and R-30 in the ceiling.  I then put quarter inch plywood over it that I painted, but installed peg board from 4' to 8', and most of my tools hang out in the open around the shop.

     From my research, Morton Buildings cost a bit more, but I became convinced that you did get better quality for the money.  They are essentially "post and beam" buildings, with the "posts" (3 2x6's) on 7'6" centers.  Makes it easy to insulate.  While we don't quite get hurricanes in Raleigh the way folk do in Florida, it has nicely weathered at least 2 such blows where winds gusted over 70 mph.

     The reason I changed the subject from "garage" to "shop", is that if you treat it like a "garage", lots of extraneous "stuff" starts getting stored in it, until you have no room to do your car work.  We all know folk with 2 car garages that are so full of junk that they can't even get one car in.  DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOUR SHOP!!!   During the first year or so that my wife and I moved into our new house with my shop, she occasionally would suggest that a closet in the house was getting full and we should "store" some of the stuff down in the shop.  ABSOLUTLEY NOT!!! If it ain't car-connected, it does not go into the shop.  I am a "fanatic" about this.  When folk come visit and say "that's a nice garge", I correct them that it ain't a garage but a shop.  We've got a 4 car "carport" (soon to be doubled in size) that is our "garage" to store the rolling stock.

                          Travis Payne, Raleigh NC
                          65 Monza coupe
                          65 500 coupe