This is what happens when you take a little break from working on the workshop to do other things…

Towards the end of October we got about an inch of snow, and as you can see here I had not done any additional work on the workshop since my last post. If anything though, this was a nice reminder to get back outside and work as much as possible, since the winter would bring a lot of days where I couldn’t work outside.

I think I’ve mentioned this previously, but I really only have weekends and the occasional afternoon after work to build my shop. It has been pretty difficult to keep the momentum going and make a lot of progress. Every time I start to get going and get on a roll I’ve got to put everything down again and spend 40+ hours in the office. I’ve got a plan to one day be able to devote as much time as I want to projects like this, but for now I’ll stay patient and keep sharing the one year workshop build (I better get it done within a year).

Anyways, back to the build. Allyson and I decided to stick with the plans for this next step and install LP SmartSide siding. It was simple, came in 4’x8’ panels, and was pre-primed which will make for easy painting when we get there. For this project I did go ahead and rent a nail gun from Home Depot. I think it ended up being about $30/day, and with some careful planning I was able to get all of the siding hung in one weekend, which was only possible with the nailer. Had I tried to hammer everything by hand I think my arm would have fallen off.

With everything hung up we ended up with a nice looking box in our backyard.

Obviously the last photo shows a lot more progress than just the windows cut out of the siding. Next week I’ll talk about the process to build and install the roof trusses that you see above.