How did you pay for your shop?

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DaveD

New User
Dave
For my whole life I have generally operated this way.....

Family HAS to live off the basic pay check.
Any overtime money went to a mutual slush fund. Wife got half and I got half. Spend how you want it. This got me started when I was younger down the tool road. Sometimes we pooled out OT funds and bought something we 'wanted' at xmas time.

MY side jobs go toward MY slush fund. I do all my own car/truck work. Money saved goes toward MY tools. I always considered buying tools (when I didn't have them) to do a side job that I thought I was capable of doing if I could break even in the end.

On top of all that I mentally budget about $100/month for tools, consumable supplies. The wife 'budgets' at least that much for her 'stuff'. 'Don't ask, don't tell' as long as both of us don't abuse the process.

I don't mingle slush funds with household funds.

Anything I build for the family/home I figure what it would cost for someone else to do it, figure what it will cost me to do it and then figure that I can spend 1/2 the difference (assumes I can do it cheaper) on tools and 'stuff'.

Over the years the wife has had her part time jobs to fund her 'mad money' endeavors. I don't ask. I don't want to know.

I built a 1000 sq ft addition 20 years ago all from a slush fund that had been accumulating for a number of years with the goal of building the addition.

As you can probably tell, being in debt isn't one of my favorite positions to be in. Basic mortgage and that's it. I try to get 10 years out of new cars/trucks before I buy another new one. I'd rather have tools and drive a junker (as long as its reliable).
 

rhett

New User
rhett
I have always followed the philosophy of reinvest in yourself. After a sculpture major what do you do? I bought intro level tools and started making stuff. When something sells, a percentage goes into the "name that tool" budget. Right now it is a bigger planer;-) .
 

pcooper

Phillip Cooper
Corporate Member
When I moved to NC from Tennessee I had to sell my house and a piece of property that I used for rental income. That rental property brought more than I ever imagined it would so I used that to pay cash for my shop, but I built it all myself so there was no labor cost involved outside of the floor work. I hired a fellow to do the concrete floor, and IF I had it to do over, I'd do a wood floor. I've got about $22K in my shop, they tell me it would be about $45K+ to have turn key built by someone else.
 

alleng

New User
allen
i have a lot of sweat equity in mine,it dosent hurt that my cousin and his brother,and another friend helped me frame it,we started on a friday and had it dried in by sunday afternoon.but they were 20 hr days that weekend.home eqiuity line and lots of hard work from good friends.the only thing i paied to have done is the overhead door and the block work,i can do a lot of things,but brick masom im NOT.the shop is 32x32 with vinyl siding,concrete floor.
 

cpowell

Chuck
Senior User
I don't know if you are referring to tools or the building itself.
I built a 1&1/2 story 12x16 "shed" to put the riding lawn mower and garden stuff in.Total cost was $1500.00 did everything myself along with help from my wife, paid cash as I went.
Once the table saw came out of the dining room and into the"Shed" the "Shed" became the shop.
I put an 8x 16 addition on the"shed" to house the lawn mower and garden stuff along with lumber.
I cant move from one end of the addition to the other, and the lawn mower sits outside along with the lumber that doesn't fit in either building.
Space and stuff.

Brilliant strategy to put the TS in the dining room!! :rolf: :rolf:

I think if I had tried that one LOML would have buried ME in the back yard!!

Chuck
 

Travis Porter

Travis
Corporate Member
As you can probably tell, being in debt isn't one of my favorite positions to be in. Basic mortgage and that's it. I try to get 10 years out of new cars/trucks before I buy another new one. I'd rather have tools and drive a junker (as long as its reliable).

I am definitely with you there. My work car has 160,000 miles, and my truck (which sits and has received 5000 miles in 6 years) has 96,000 miles. A car is a fast depreciating asset.
 

NCPete

New User
Pete Davio
A car is a fast depreciating [STRIKE]asset[/STRIKE]liability.

my personal car is paid for, 96 Saturn - 238,000 miles going strong.

my truck is paid for 88 Nissan - 186,000 miles going strong

my wife's '00 Explorer will be paid for before the summer is over - 88,000 miles going strong.

I want a larger truck, will not however buy without all the cash on hand.

The business will pay the shop lease when that comes up. Personal shop space is the one car garage which LOML would still like to be able to park in.
 
M

McRabbet

I've gone from no shop to a bench-in-the-back of a garage to one half of a two-car garage to my present shop in my basement (all in different homes). When I retired from the government in January 2003, I cashed out over 400 hours of unused vacation time and used that as a fund to refurbish our home in Durham to sell and to finance several power tools for my shop in our retirement home. We move to that home in Hendersonville in early 2004 and I got the shop space I wanted in an unfinished, unheated basement (I'm using about 800 sf of 1,100 sf available). I've spend about $2,000 on shop wiring, lighting and full insulation (I still need to put up drywall) and have installed about $7,500 worth of tools ($4,000 new from that nest egg). I had scrounged a number of old wood and metal lab base cabinets and I was fortunate enough to get 5 large laminated maple benchtops for free. The shop is still a work in progress and I use part of the profits from commission work to purchase new tools and wood. But, everything is paid for.

Rob
 

cskipper

Moderator
Cathy
I have no idea how much money is invested in our shop. It started as a workroom for cutting cabochons (sp?) - John was really good at this and the plans were to start faceting stones. His arthritis ended that. He built, insulated and wired the original part and has and the subsequent additions. We've bought the wood or other supplies when we could get enough set aside, took advantage of really good deals, and he worked his behind off. He even set the trusses by himself. I wasn't involved in wwing back then at all. Our next goal is to widen/reorganize at least part of it and put a ceiling in the newer parts so it will be easier to heat and cool. We have enough clearance so the ceiling will not be a problem.
 

Steve D

Member
Steve DeWeese
The attached shop used to allow cars but they are now relegated to the drive and detached 2 car additional wood storage area. The tools have been purchased over time and gradually upgraded but all of them have been more than paid for with cabinet, furniture and deck jobs done on the side.
 

Steve W

New User
Steve
I took some of the money I had left over when I moved here from selling our overpriced house in the Northeast and had a 12 x 20 gambrel-roof shed built back last August. I am still moving stuff around in there in preparation for something bigger than just dubbing around with birdhouses and such. eventually I will build new kitchen cabinets in there with the tools that I mostly brought with me. Those were bought to make the cabinets of our kitchen in the old house. It was money well-spent.

Seeing as the real estate market up there has imploded, I am counting my blessings now:eusa_danc
 

scott hamm

New User
scott
i had a small engine shop.
a customer had me repair her mower at ther house in the barn,
her husband had passed away several years earlier and had tinkered in the barn.
i noticed an engine in a stall and asker her about it.
she told me i could have if if i would claen out the room for her,
i did what she aked and got several engines in the deal.
the engine turned to be a 1937 indian cheif engine that is a rare find.
i then got on the internet and looked for some info.
i replied to an add wanting these engines and the guy was interested.he cam to my house from vermont and looked the engine over and then floored me with his next words.
" the engines worth a lot more than i can offer, but i'll give you $ 4000 for it"
i jerked his arm off and helped him load it.
needless to say by 8 am i was the proud owner of a brand new 10x20 metal building for a shop.
i used the rest of the cash to buy some tools from a friend who was selling his dads stuff.
it's all paid for along with my truck, wifes car and daughters car and my motorcycle and it feels good not to owe anything other than the regular bills, especially sins my heart problems have stopped my from a full-time job.
how's that for a shop purchase story? :eusa_danc
 

cpowell

Chuck
Senior User
i had a small engine shop.
a customer had me repair her mower at ther house in the barn,
her husband had passed away several years earlier and had tinkered in the barn.
i noticed an engine in a stall and asker her about it.
she told me i could have if if i would claen out the room for her,
i did what she aked and got several engines in the deal.
the engine turned to be a 1937 indian cheif engine that is a rare find.
i then got on the internet and looked for some info.
i replied to an add wanting these engines and the guy was interested.he cam to my house from vermont and looked the engine over and then floored me with his next words.
" the engines worth a lot more than i can offer, but i'll give you $ 4000 for it"
i jerked his arm off and helped him load it.
needless to say by 8 am i was the proud owner of a brand new 10x20 metal building for a shop.
i used the rest of the cash to buy some tools from a friend who was selling his dads stuff.
it's all paid for along with my truck, wifes car and daughters car and my motorcycle and it feels good not to owe anything other than the regular bills, especially sins my heart problems have stopped my from a full-time job.
how's that for a shop purchase story? :eusa_danc

Wow, that's a great story!! I really believe that good deeds get rewarded. Thanks for sharing the proof. :)

Chuck
 

WoodWrangler

New User
Jeremy
Well, my shop is a 2-car garage without any cars in it ... d'oh ... but lots-o-tools-n-stuff.

The first healthy chunk of my woodworking shop was paid for by part of a severance package offered by a previous employer when they were looking for volunentary layoffs (and I was happy to go since I already had plans to move from Florida to NC). After that I've been spending it as I make it ... and sometimes even faster than I make it! Always looking for good "deals" like the ones SteveColes offers :eusa_danc occassionally!

One day I hope to have a dedicated 4-car garage for the shop, and give my regular garage back the SUV's ... one day ...
 
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