welcome to the doghouse

[mustanggarage]

I thought I would post a bit more about my shop.

the bionic doghouse
I have been in the process of building a man cave for 10 years now. I built a 24 x 32 foot shop with attic in nebraska then moved to utah, after five years I built a 40 x 42 foot steel miracle truss building. did all the work myself on these 2 (with a lot of help from my friends and family of course) then right after I finished that building I had to move again. I hope that this is the last time I ever move I told my wife I would not move if I couldn't build a new shop. This time, since I injured myself slightly on the last one, my wife convinced me to have the shop assembled by a pro. It went up so fast that I am very glad I had them do it. now I have just been working on finishing the inside.



here are some pictures of my shop. I call it the bionic doghouse. it is 60 by 40 inside I have a 44x40 main shop then I have a 16x20 foot separate woodworking shop that I can close off and keep the sawdust off my cars. I will have a small bathroom area and a 10x 16 ft area just for my dogs. I have a 10 x 10 foot wood deck off the back of the shop, inside there is a small fridge and microwave. I have a pretty good collection of hand tools, 2 air compressors one 60 and one 80 gallon bead blaster, powdercoating oven, woodworking tools. with a selection of 3/8, 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch sockets drills and since my dad retired and moved out to iowa he has added all of his tools to the shop so I am feeling pretty good about things now.

it is still in the construction phase but it is coming along. the outside is done but the inside is still being worked on. as you can see the term dawghause has two meanings. it is a house for my dogs and a place I can go when I am in trouble with the wife. it is bionic because I keep building it better than it was before.

this is the original floor plan.







this is a picture of the land after clearing the grass.

I can hardly believe that this is the entire garage.

a view from the road back to where the shop is going. we have about 3 acres of land.

final picture of the outside.

 

[mustanggarage]

now on to the improvements :thumbsup:

looking out of the dog kennel along the west wall.

the lounge

here is my doggie deck. it is inside the fenced in dog run at the back of my property. the run is about 20 x 200 foot. plenty of room for the dogs. the door now has a dog door.



this is looking in from my main garage door. to the right through that garage door is my woodshop. the door at the far right goes into the kennel. on top of this wall there is a loft that is 40 x 16 feet. it has a pull down stairway and is used for storage.

 

[mustanggarage]

this is looking down my woodshop area from what is now the bathroom.




this is my air compressor and tool cabinet storage. I have added a light above the compressor door so that when I turn on the power to the compressors it lights up to remind me to turn it off before I leave. I will get better pictures later. I have also urethaned this cabinet since the picture was taken..

inside the cabinet. all my air lines are run with airnet aluminum lines to the point of service and then short rapid air lines to the implements.

I have 3 hose reels. one in the wood shop, one in the main work bay and a retractible one by the secondary bay.

my blast cabinet is hard line plumbed with a shutoff in front.

this is looking down towards the bathroom.

the drywall should be done tonight and I will then paint and trim out the bathroom and post some pictures of it when I am done.

 

[mustanggarage]

sorry about the mix of images and thumbs. some of the pictures are on webshots, and some are on photobucket.

 

[SlowRollin']

Awesome garage/warehouse...Your mustang is amazing also. Did you restore it yourself?:rockin:

 

[mustanggarage]

yes the mustang is a work in progress. I have had it for over 20 years and have rebuilt it from the ground up more than once. sadly I don't drive it as much anymore. since I have been working on the shop I have kind of lost interest in it a bit. I need to get it out and drive it and remember what a fun car it is.:thumbsup:

 

[Neonnblack]

Well, you could just ship that car this way... shouldnt cost much for shipping...

 

[SlowRollin']

20yrs worth of fine tuning - it shows. I have an 05 Mustang I bought with the intentions of modding out and giving to my son for his first car (beats the hell out of the 77 MGB I got for my first). I didn't complain though, it was better than walking! Well, I probably towed it more than I drove it, but it was good to cut my teeth on.

Your Mustang truly looks mint - job very well done.

 

[mustanggarage]

yeah thats the thing. I like tinkering on it more than driving it sad as that seems. it is a hobby for me. so now Ive got it pretty much where I want it so I bought a 67 to start on. i plan to give it to my daughter to drive to school. she will have to be the coolest kid in school when it is done.

 

[mustanggarage]

Decided I needed a little seat time in the stang after these last couple of posts. I drove to omaha yesterday to a mustang club meeting. it is about an hour away. The stang ran great. it is fun to drive. miss the air conditioning this time of year but I was not on call so I did not have to worry about answering the phone and it was a fun trip. that car is a blast to drive.

 

[mustanggarage]

Woohoo. My Dad and I just decided to bite the bullit on the lift. I have been lusting after a 2 post lift for some time now but I was not sure whether I wanted to lose the floor space it was on. we decided to go ahead with it. I looked at a lot of lifts but the one I decided on was an eagle 11000 mtp lift. it will fit the best in the space I have and it is heavy enough to lift my f250 if I need to. eagle is also a great name in lifts and has been around a long time so I think it should be good for me. I will post up some pics as the work progresses.:thumbsup:

 

[havasu]

Congrats! We will all be waiting to envy your new addition!

 

[mustanggarage]

the lift arrived today. 11000 pound eagle. I would love to get it installed this weekend. I am off call and have time but my Dad has to be gone to one of my nieces events so I have to wait.... patience is not one of my virtues. but good news. the guy who built my building is a really class act. when I told him I was ordering it he said I could ship it to his business and he would unload it from the truck and put it on my trailer. he did that today, and when I stopped by after work to pick it up he asked me how I was going to lift it to install it. I said I would probably rent a skid loader. he then offered to let me use his huge forklift. then he asked me if I had a rotary hammer and I told him no but that the lumber yard would rent it to me. he said that he had one if I needed it also. I never asked he just volunteered. It is extremely unlikely I will have another building built in the foreseeable future so the only thing I can offer him for his generosity is praise and an excellent referral. talk about going above and beyond for customer service.

 

[havasu]

Really nice!

 

[rustywrangler]

the lift arrived today. 11000 pound eagle. I would love to get it installed this weekend. I am off call and have time but my Dad has to be gone to one of my nieces events so I have to wait.... patience is not one of my virtues. but good news. the guy who built my building is a really class act. when I told him I was ordering it he said I could ship it to his business and he would unload it from the truck and put it on my trailer. he did that today, and when I stopped by after work to pick it up he asked me how I was going to lift it to install it. I said I would probably rent a skid loader. he then offered to let me use his huge forklift. then he asked me if I had a rotary hammer and I told him no but that the lumber yard would rent it to me. he said that he had one if I needed it also. I never asked he just volunteered. It is extremely unlikely I will have another building built in the foreseeable future so the only thing I can offer him for his generosity is praise and an excellent referral. talk about going above and beyond for customer service.

That my friend is what you call an excellent contractor. Good quality work, Great customer service and then going out of his way to help out with the small stuff. That's a business card you hold onto.

 

[Admin]

That my friend is what you call an excellent contractor. Good quality work, Great customer service and then going out of his way to help out with the small stuff. That's a business card you hold onto.

Agreed, the best thing you can do for that guy is let everyone know how great your experience with him was.

 

[mustanggarage]

we actually got a lot done this weekend after all. We worked on it friday and sunday afternoons. we have the lift installed and ready to have the electrician wire it. I need to call him tomorrow.
in this first picture we have the first post in place and bolted to the floor. the second post is in position and we are ready to install the top piece.

top piece installed, checking position. everything looks good and square. the trucks still fit. looking good:thumbsup: had to call in a favor to my buddy Mike. I needed to hold the top piece on the fork lift and position it while Mike got the bolts started. thanks Mike. didn't get a picture of that though.

Dad installing the locks.

the motor installed

we were going to either rent or borrow a rotary hammer but Dad was at harbor freight and saw this one. it would cost 36 dollars a day to rent it. this was on sale for 49 dollars. how can you pass that up.

just putting the decals on now. I had Dad take a picture just to show I was there ha ha. yes I did more than just put the stickers on but I was the one with the camera

almost done. we need to have it wired, run it up and down a few times to make sure nothing binds and then drill the mounting holes on the other side. I just put one in to hold it stable for now.

I will get some better pictures soon with the trucks out of the way.

 

[mustanggarage]

Okay it is completely installed, it goes up and down. the cables have been adjusted and all the anchor bolts are in. I need to give it a couple days, and retorque all the bolts and then we are ready to lift a car.:rockin:

dang it, laying down on the job again. you just can't find good help these days.

well what do you think guys?

 

[havasu]

That looks really good. My concern with the single pedestal lifts is that they appear very unsteady. I know it's mounted strong, but it just seems like it would be more stable with some I beams tied into the trusses.

 

[mustanggarage]

I imagine you are right but almost all of the mechanic shops I have seen have these same kinds of lifts.