One of the projects that Matt wants to get done immediately is my woodworking workshop. Every time I mention my workshop, it seems to cause confusion for some people. To be clear, my studio was never meant for “dirty” projects. I never intended to drag my miter saw, table saw, planer, etc., into my studio to use them.

If the studio had been intended for those things, I never would have gone to any trouble to make it pretty. But then again, I would never choose to have that kind of workshop, with all of the dust it creates, directly attached to my house. The studio has always been intended for use as my office, first and foremost, but also as a place where I do the “clean” projects — painting, sewing, upholstery, etc. I don’t mind creating a little bit of dust in here, but saws and planers are a bit much.

So we’ve always planned to build a separate outbuilding for that purpose — a building where I can have my miter saw, planer, and table saw permanently set up for use. I also need a place to keep and use my smaller tools, like my sander, routers, jigsaw, and the like. And one day, I’d like to add to my tools with a drill press, a jointer, a much bigger table saw, and maybe even a lathe. I’ve dreamed of having my own woodworking workshop since I was a young girl walking around my grandfather’s workshop, looking around in awe at all of his tools and the amazing things he made with them.

Anyway, Matt has said that he wants to do that sooner than later, and it makes sense. I probably won’t be able to get it completely finished right away. Things like running electricity to the building will have to wait (but I have a solution for that in the interim). Finishing those things will be more of a long term project. But at least for now, we could get the building and then I could not only put my tools in there and get them out of the weather (they’re currently sitting in the carport where I use them regularly), but I could also use it to store things that I need to clear out of the sunroom so that we can move forward with our demo and construction plans. It makes more sense to put our money towards something that we actually get to keep long term rather than putting it into something temporary, like renting a POD for months to store things.

The problem is that I can’t find any customer photos or reviews of this exact building. Most of the reviews show pictures of much smaller sheds (the kind you put together yourself), and the reviews are very mixed. So that doesn’t make me feel very confident about that brand. It seems that it’s one of those “you get what you pay for” things. I read all of the questions and answers, and I didn’t see any mention of house wrap (like Tyvek) being used, either.

But if any of you have purchased an installed building from this company, I’d love to hear about it! The company name is Handy Home Products, but when I called the customer service number, it said the name is Backyard Products. So if you have purchased an outbuilding from this company that they install, let me know about your experience! I’m curious about the quality of the building as well as the quality of the work in installing it.

Also, I already have windows for my workshop. I bought them a long time ago when I had that crazy idea to turn the carport into my workshop. And the windows I have are nice. They’re the same windows we used on the house. But that company will only use their own windows.

So I decided to look at local shed companies to see what they offer. I looked at three different ones, and they each had a 3D shed designer on their websites. The ratings and reviews for all thee companies look comparable. Their products look comparable. But one was a bit cheaper than the other.

I used the 3D building to design a workshop and then talked to the man on the phone to ask all of my questions. They can build on a concrete pad, but there’s a 10% upcharge because they have to build it on site rather than building it in their manufacturing facility and then just bringing it here and dropping it off. But they’re also happy to use my windows, and they’ll give me a discount for that since they don’t have to provide windows. Another thing I love is that they will paint it any Sherwin Williams color I want, which is perfect because I want it the same color as our house, which is Sherwin Williams Mindful Gray.

I had originally designed a 16′ x 24′ building. That’s what I marked out with spray paint in our back yard the other day.

But yesterday, several commenters said that that’s not big enough for a workshop. So I went back to the website to see what sizes they have available. The biggest one they have is 16′ x 60′, which seems crazy long to me. I mean, I’m sure I could find a way to fill that thing up 😀 , but I can’t imagine such a long building in our back yard.

The size that really appealed to me is the 18′ x 32. That’s 176 square feet larger than the carport that I’ve been using as my workshop for a long time now. That one would look like this, with a roll-up door on one end, and a standard 9-lite door on the side with two windows…

Here’s the front view…

And then the back view and the other end. I want one solid wall that doesn’t have any doors or windows in it.

So the cost of that comes to right at $20,000, not including the concrete pad. I’m not even sure if I need a concrete pad, so those of you who have workshops can let me know what you think. Do I need that added expense? Or should I just go with the wood foundation they build to put the building on?

I do like that they do everything, including all of the caulking and painting. They won’t leave anything for a DIYer like myself to do. They finish the whole thing themselves because they have a warranty on the building and on their work. So if there’s a leak, they know it’s their problem to fix. If paint starts peeling, that’s their problem to fix. I really like that.

So the other option that several of you mentioned is a metal building. I do love that metal buildings cost so much less. Obviously, that appeals to me. But I just have such a hurdle getting past the fact that a metal building doesn’t look like what I have envisioned all of these years. Something like this 20′ x 30′ building starts at around $11,300, not including the concrete pad.

That’s just not what I’ve envisioned all of these years, and I don’t know that I would be happy putting a metal building directly in my line of sight from the back doors of my studio. But that price sure is appealing to me!

So I’d love to hear from those of you who have woodworking workshops (or other kinds of workshops). Did you consider both wood/siding buildings as well as metal buildings? And what did you go with in the end? And why? If you went with the wood/siding building, did you pour a concrete pad? Or did you go with the foundation they build for it? And if you could change anything about your decision, what would it be? I don’t want to rush into a decision and then regret my decision later. I want to get on this and get it done as soon as possible, but I also want to make a wise and informed decision.

Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.

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