Ultimate dream woodshop

[Gary Salisbury]

This is my story of where I was, where I am today, and where I am going:

I left college and the cornfields of Iowa in 1967 to volunteer and serve my country in the Vietnam War. I was discharged with honors after two tours of duty, two years later in San Diego, California. Not wanting to face another cold winter in Iowa, I decided to stay in San Diego and got a job as an engineer with NCR Corporation where my fellow engineers introduced me to woodworking. We would meet every Wednesday night at a local high school for woodworking classes. Discovering woodworking for me was like falling in love for the first time. Over the years, I went from student to teacher which I found very rewarding. Inevitably, my tool collection grew and grew along with my experience. Garages had served as my woodshops but space for my tools was always a problem since I had to share it with family, pets, and cars. I dreamt of a dedicated woodshop – the ultimate woodshop!

Then, after 40 years of service in the IT industry, I retired. I sold my house in the suburbs and bought a 4,000 square foot retirement home with panoramic lake & mountain views on nine acres in the equestrian community of Blossom Valley outside San Diego, California. The estate overlooks Hang-Glider Hill where hang-gliders and para-gliders fly daily. You can also see mountain climbers scaling El Capitan Mountain and fishermen trying to catch that elusive trout down below on Lake Jennings. And on a clear day you may even see the ocean from here. It is also abundant with wildlife. It is the perfect location for my plans.

I formed two retirement businesses; Paragon Woodworks and Paragon School of Fine Woodworking, with the goals to build and to teach. For the past four years, I have been doing nothing but dreaming and planning of building an ultimate woodshop for these two businesses where I can build and teach others to build woodworking projects. Now, that dream of having that ultimate woodshop is about to come true.

I hired an architect two years ago and took an entire year to come up with a design that would fit my multiple purposes. I submitted the plans to the county building department a year ago and just now got my building permits. (That task alone is worthy of an article.) Right now, I am now at the stage of finding a contractor who can build this 2,700 square foot behemoth structure to my demanding specifications. Hopefully that won’t take another year to do.

It will be a multi-purpose structure containing a 1,200 square foot four car garage (for my ultimate woodshop), an 800 square foot RV barn, an 700 square foot upstairs loft (that will serve as a multi-media classroom) complete with a wildlife observation deck, a kitchenette, and bathrooms (both upstairs & downstairs). It will feature a professionally installed under-ground dust collection system, a dedicated finish room, a dedicated triple sharpening station (with microscopic camera & viewing screen to examine tool edges), slot-panel walls to display & store hand tools, solar power, LED lighting, a clean air recirculation system, built-in compressed air, and many other new technology innovations. The interior will be of the quality of the finest homes with solid wood floors, crown molding, custom built cabinetry with butcher block counter tops, recessed lighting, a built-in sound system, and many more custom features. I have a collection of antique woodworking tools and over $50,000 worth of new power tools patiently sitting in storage; waiting for their new home.

I will be hosting a regular Saturday morning open-house where anyone can come over for a freshly brewed cup of Starbucks coffee, talk shop, view my extensive collection of woodworking videos, read from my extensive woodworking library, or work on any projects they like. I’m going all out for my final building project and I hope that it will be nothing less than spectacular!

You can follow the progress on Pinterest. The plans are on Pinterest at: http://www.pinterest.com/garydsalisb...ream-woodshop/

Here is my question for you. As an experienced woodworker, do you see any flaws in my design or plan? Am I missing anything? Do you see any mistakes? You can contact me at: gdis46@gmail.com

Thanks you.

[Yonak Hawkins]

Gary it sounds like it will be a wonderful space to pursue your dream. I'm not prone to jealousy, but how could one help but be considering the enviable plans and location you have.

Here's my question, and it has to do with square feet. While you will have a total of 2700 square feet, 1200 will be dedicated to your woodshop (including space for finish room and bathroom, I assume). That sounds like a good-sized space but I find much of my work space (I have 1900sf, which I find cramped at times) is used up with storage, especially wood, both sheet goods and lumber, other materials and hand tools, reducing the actual working space for machines and general work area significantly. Since you plan to also have students using the space I wonder if 1200 square feet is, indeed, enough for your purposes.

[Dan Siedschlag]

Very nice, Gary. I'm in a similar process of having a workshop/RV garage built. Mine won't be anywhere close to as well thought out as yours. My one comment has to do with the plan for the RV garage. My RV is 40' but my plan is to build the garage 50' in length with the idea that it would then be able to accommodate the largest RV in the future. I came to this after building an airplane hangar (I live in an airpark community) and putting a 12' door on it. It would have cost almost nothing when I originally built the hangar to put a 14' door on it. But now, after buying an RV that is just over 12' high, it is expensive to have the door modified to accommodate the RV. You are probably in a similar situation in that the expense to build larger now would be minor versus modifying your building later if the size of your RV should change (or for resale for that matter). Just a thought.

Very impressed with your plan. Dan

[Wade Lippman]

El Cajon? It would be really tough to see El Capitan from San Diego.

[eugene thomas]

Rather than use all blindly give ya feedback can ya post shop drawing. I under stand the architect thing and all, still writing monthly checks to one we had design our house.but then could give ya some feedback.

[Christopher Robinson]

Larger dust collector 5HP minimum. Will allow you to also install larger diameter duct.
Make sure there are cleanouts for the duct.

[Jim Andrew]

Size would be my concern, I had 1300 sf, and found it not big enough to include storage, so I built a room on about 400 sf, mostly for storage. Also has the dust collector, and a little space in the center between the wood racks. I would be concerned about putting your dust piping below ground, as every time I move equipment around or buy something new I have to redo the piping. Glad now I went with spiral pipe as it is easy to take apart and re-use. Some of the fittings have lots of holes, but it improves each time I re-do it.

[Scott T Smith]

Gary it sounds like it will be a wonderful space to pursue your dream. I'm not prone to jealousy, but how could one help but be considering the enviable plans and location you have.

Here's my question, and it has to do with square feet. While you will have a total of 2700 square feet, 1200 will be dedicated to your woodshop (including space for finish room and bathroom, I assume). That sounds like a good-sized space but I find much of my work space (I have 1900sf, which I find cramped at times) is used up with storage, especially wood, both sheet goods and lumber, other materials and hand tools, reducing the actual working space for machines and general work area significantly. Since you plan to also have students using the space I wonder if 1200 square feet is, indeed, enough for your purposes.

+ 1. My main shop is 50 x 60, with another 1800 sq. ft devoted to lumber storage, dust collection, and other ancillary needs. 1,200 sq. ft sounds much too small for what you are proposing.

Congrats on having the opportunity to put your dream shop together!

[Fred Floyd]

Gary: Sounds like a wonderful plan. Congrats.

Mine is similar. Four years ago, I purchased a home in the Temecula area, not far away by SoCal standards. The five car garage seemed like a monster cavern for my shop. However, last year, a survey of the available space revealed that there was a shortage. I am adding another 500 sq ft, which is all that I could squeeze in to the available flat land on the property. That will create about 800 sq ft for my shop and still keep all the vehicles as well.

[Doug Ladendorf]

Insurance? If you are inviting folks over to work on projects they won't all be skilled, experienced, trustworthy, caring or potty trained.

[Rick Potter]

I hope you will show us the progress as your shop is built. It sounds like it will be very special.

Rick Potter

[Gary Salisbury]

Very nice, Gary. I'm in a similar process of having a workshop/RV garage built. Mine won't be anywhere close to as well thought out as yours. My one comment has to do with the plan for the RV garage. My RV is 40' but my plan is to build the garage 50' in length with the idea that it would then be able to accommodate the largest RV in the future. I came to this after building an airplane hangar (I live in an airpark community) and putting a 12' door on it. It would have cost almost nothing when I originally built the hangar to put a 14' door on it. But now, after buying an RV that is just over 12' high, it is expensive to have the door modified to accommodate the RV. You are probably in a similar situation in that the expense to build larger now would be minor versus modifying your building later if the size of your RV should change (or for resale for that matter). Just a thought.

Very impressed with your plan. Dan

Thanks for the input. An excellent point! I was at 50' for the RV barn but had to trim it back because of county building restrictions.

[Gary Salisbury]

El Cajon? It would be really tough to see El Capitan from San Diego.

Yes, I'm physically in San Diego County, in the community of Blossom Valley just below El Capitan. The mail comes through El Cajon's Bostonia office. An don't ask me why but I have to pay La Mesa school taxes. It is so confusing when you live in an unincorporated area but it has many advantages too.

[Gary Salisbury]

Insurance? Humm, I've been wondering about that. I'd better get an umbrella policy.

[Yonak Hawkins]

Insurance? Humm, I've been wondering about that. I'd better get an umbrella policy.

Gary, check with your insurance agent. It may be wise to get insurance that covers more than just umbrellas.