# ZMotorsports 50x60x16 Shop/RV Garage



## zmotorsports (Oct 17, 2017)

I thought I would post up a brief history and overview of my new home shop.  In July 2016 my wife informed me that we were moving from our declining neighborhood and we would be selling our paid for home and shop.  She was more concerned about finding a large enough lot for me to build my dream shop and have a place to park our coach inside and out of the elements.  I wanted all of these things too but really enjoyed being debt free, although I saw our home's value continuing to decline with the rest of the neighborhood if we opted to stay put.  I struggled for a bit because I did not want to take on a mortgage again.  After months of looking we found our dream home on 3/4 acre lot.  The house was only 3 years old but needed complete repaint, new flooring and a very, very thorough cleaning as the previous owners were absolute pigs.  The yard (along with most everything else the previous owner touched) was half-assed together and so I thought when I built the shop I would merely rip out the back yard sprinkler system and start over.

Here are a few pictures of the exterior of the house and yard when we purchased it last November.
Front view, the lawn doesn't look too awfully bad in this picture but it was much worse in person.






Aerial shot of the back yard where the shop will now resides.





Here is a sketch of our new shop/RV garage prior to commencing the build.





Getting the house remodeled took just about three weeks in which we then moved in the end of December 2016.

Here is what the back yard looked like on January 31st, 2017 when we officially broke ground on the new shop.  The large concrete pipe you see was about 7' in diameter and 8' long weighing well over 12k pounds.  Under the pipe were about a dozen large rocks and HUGE sections of concrete that the previous owner had piled up in some weird form of play area for the kids.





This was a few hours later.















Foundation poured back in February 2017.















Floor poured, walls erected and sheathed.





Dry wells that I dug and constructed throughout my property.  I have five for the house and two double deep ones for the shop.  This particular one is in the front existing lawn that I wanted to keep the grass as intact as possible.





Trusses up, roof sheathed and being dried in.  I also have my east side fence installed.  This was the first part of April 2017.





This is the front of the house after getting my fence erected and my front lawn nursed back to health from previous owners neglect.  I also have my downspouts dumped into dry wells, irrigation sprinkler system redone and landscaping completed in the front by this time.





Shop taking shape in the back yard.










Roof shingled, brick complete and stucco being applied.





Insulation in the walls complete and starting the sheetrock.  This was approx. middle of May 2017.





Partway through the driveway pour.





Sheetrock in the shop section complete and ready to start mudding/taping.





Driveway and approach poured.















While they were taping/mudding the shop and getting ready for paint I continued my landscaping.  Hauled in about 6 yards of ornamental rock for under my deck and back kindney area.





Can't believe how much more room I have compared to my last place.















Next I formed up a small curbing/mow strip around my front area where I also wanted to put the same ornamental rock and separate my grass from my irrigation boxes.





Shop painted and finishing up the electrical.










Rock in back corner of back yard.





Watering the new grass for the first time right after it was installed.





Taken from the deck looking into the back yard





After pouring my small curbing/mow strip section.










The same ornamental gravel as I put under my deck and in the back yard. 





Lights and remaining electrical in the RV storage bay completed.





Electrical in shop completed along with fans installed.  All that was remaining in this picture are the ceiling flush mounted speakers.





Shop doors installed.  RV bay door yet to be installed.





All doors installed.  Exterior complete with the exception of the plastering of the foundation.





Night shots.










First and most important item to be moved into the new shop.  This was on July 4th, 2017.





Fabrication and machining corner coming together.





Coach backed into her new home.





Back lawn after a couple of time mowing.  I put the flag stones in as per the wife's request.  I kind of like the look of them.










West side fence installed and awaiting my gates from the powder coater.





Two-post lift installed.  I brought this from my last shop.





Last section of sod in place.





Air lines installed in the shop.










My two man gates installed.










Fabricating my work benches.





Gates finally installed.  This was the first of August 2017, just a month after my final inspection and starting to move tools and equipment in.





Workbenches completed with the 10-gauge hot-rolled steel tops in place.










Shop and yard completed.










It is so awesome to not to have to pull out into the street to hook the Jeep up to the coach.  I can get hooked up and ready to leave ALL from the privacy of my back yard now.





Beautiful view of the mountains from my back yard.  I have the same view whether on my deck, standing in the back yard or out the windows of my shop.





All in all it has been one hell of a long year but I feel so blessed to have been able to have made this move.  I feel that my wife and I have been so blessed throughout all of this to find our forever home and for me to build my dream shop.

Now I can get working on projects IN my shop rather than working ON my shop.

Thanks for looking.

Mike.


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## Franko (Oct 17, 2017)

Wow, Mike. I'm tired just looking at the pictures of all the work. Nice!
I have a friend who has a similar set-up, but it's a hanger. Instead of tools, he has an airplane in it.


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## Billh51 (Oct 17, 2017)

Wow, lot of work to get done in such a short amount of time and it looks great. Beautiful shop and home which I'm sure you will enjoy.


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## woodchucker (Oct 17, 2017)

Where's my room?  It looks really nice. Good luck with that home. Hope your neighbors are good people too.


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## brino (Oct 17, 2017)

Congratulations!
What a great looking property...the house and the shop.
I certainly prefer concrete over asphalt.

-brino


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## Alan H. (Oct 17, 2017)

Mike, thanks for sharing.  What a project and glad the move has gone so well.  

Now you can start getting that shop a bit messed up from time to time.


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## tweinke (Oct 17, 2017)

Nice!!!!!!!


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## dave2176 (Oct 17, 2017)

That looks great Mike. Are you still doing your home business or are you to the point of just working on your list?

Wishing you many years of enjoyment in your new location,
Dave


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## zmotorsports (Oct 21, 2017)

Thanks everyone for all of the kind words. My wife and I are extremely happy with our new home and the way everything has turned out. It was definitely a lot of work and for the most part we did it in a fairly short time period looking back on it, although it sure didn’t feel like it at the time. 

Thanks again for all the great comments. 

Mike


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## zmotorsports (Oct 21, 2017)

dave2176 said:


> That looks great Mike. Are you still doing your home business or are you to the point of just working on your list?
> 
> Wishing you many years of enjoyment in your new location,
> Dave



Dave l, we actually dissolved our business back in December of 2016. The counties nor cities would let me merely transfer addresses as I had a conditional use permit in the city we lived in. I have not tried getting a business license in the new city because I doubt they would issue one and I really don’t want to pursue it with the new neighbors and subdivision. Besides I have my hands full anymore just maintaining my own stuff. I will however still do work for family and friends on occasion when time permits for a little extra cash flow. 

Mike


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## Robert LaLonde (Oct 22, 2017)

I have a 50 x 60 shop and RV garage.  Its too small, and I don't even have an RV parked in it.


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## zmotorsports (Oct 22, 2017)

Bob La Londe said:


> I have a 50 x 60 shop and RV garage.  Its too small, and I don't even have an RV parked in it.



So far mine isn't too small but as large as I could build on my property.  I hope in 20+ years it isn't too small either because I am NOT moving again.

Mike


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## zmotorsports (Nov 13, 2017)

I thought I would toss in some random pictures of the inside of my new shop now that I have everything pretty well organized and in place.
































Thanks for looking.

Mike


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## dave2176 (Nov 13, 2017)

Well color me green ! That is beautiful.


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## zmotorsports (Nov 14, 2017)

dave2176 said:


> Well color me green ! That is beautiful.



Thanks Dave.  My old shop was pretty nice, albeit a bit small, but still nice.  This one is on a whole different level.

The wife gave me the go ahead to build my dream shop and I took her up on it.

Mike


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## RandyM (Nov 14, 2017)

Life is good.


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## zmotorsports (Nov 14, 2017)

RandyM said:


> Life is good.



Sure is Randy.  Much better than the last year of stressing over not having a shop and putting a yard in while the shop is being built.  Life is much better with a shop where I can work in and clear my head.

Thanks.

Mike


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## zmotorsports (Nov 16, 2017)

I thought I would update my shop pictures with the completed work benches now that I have my compartment doors fabricated and installed.

I think they finish off the work benches quite nicely.















Thanks for looking.


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## wrmiller (Nov 16, 2017)

OK, I'm going to have to permanently stop looking at this thread. It's too depressing. 

Congrats Mike. Enjoy your life (which apparently, you are).


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## zmotorsports (Nov 16, 2017)

wrmiller said:


> OK, I'm going to have to permanently stop looking at this thread. It's too depressing.
> 
> Congrats Mike. Enjoy your life (which apparently, you are).



Thanks Bill, but you don't need to quit stopping by.

I'm not gonna lie though, the wife and I have been extremely blessed the past few years with a lot of work that has come through the shop and allowed us to move and build my dream shop and for our dream home.  I have to pinch myself each night when I pull in the driveway because I still think I'm dreaming.

Thanks for checking it out Bill.

Mike


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## wrmiller (Nov 16, 2017)

Seeing as I'm not working anymore, I may have to come up some day and see this beautiful shop of yours in person.


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## zmotorsports (Nov 16, 2017)

wrmiller said:


> Seeing as I'm not working anymore, I may have to come up some day and see this beautiful shop of yours in person.



You're more than welcome Bill.

Mike


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## MozamPete (Nov 17, 2017)

zmotorsports said:


> .... as the previous owners were absolute pigs.



I'm thinking you have probably set the bar for 'clean and tidy' pretty high.  Hate to think how you would describe my workshop.
Amazing shop,  something to aspire to.


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## zmotorsports (Nov 17, 2017)

MozamPete said:


> I'm thinking you have probably set the bar for 'clean and tidy' pretty high.  Hate to think how you would describe my workshop.
> Amazing shop,  something to aspire to.



Thank you.  I appreciate the comments.

Mike


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## brav65 (Nov 17, 2017)

OK mike enough with the shop porn, your killing the rest of us with the pictures of the beautiful shop! Seriously that is a work of art, thanks for sharing.


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## Robert LaLonde (Nov 17, 2017)

I have to say I am very impressed.  My shop is the same size, and its very crowded.  Yours is very neat and organized.  I really liked the steel frame benchs with the bottom box tool boxes installed.  That cost a pretty penny I am sure.  

And a two post lift.  NICE.  That's something I'll probably never have.  If I do it will be outside.


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## zmotorsports (Nov 17, 2017)

brav65 said:


> OK mike enough with the shop porn, your killing the rest of us with the pictures of the beautiful shop! Seriously that is a work of art, thanks for sharing.



Thank you.  I don't know about anyone else, but I can't get enough of looking at other people's workshops.  I like showing mine off now that it's real.  It's only existed in my head for the past half a dozen years or so.lol 




Bob La Londe said:


> I have to say I am very impressed.  My shop is the same size, and its very crowded.  Yours is very neat and organized.  I really liked the steel frame benchs with the bottom box tool boxes installed.  That cost a pretty penny I am sure.
> 
> And a two post lift.  NICE.  That's something I'll probably never have.  If I do it will be outside.



Thank you.  I can't take credit for the style of workbench though as I saw it over on garagejournal and I duplicated it with a couple minor variations.  I sure like my storage capabilities with it though and the fact that it is rock solid when working on it.  I prefer to have stuff in the drawers vs. in my last shop where I had pegboard over the workbenches.  This is much cleaner and looks less cluttered than my old pegboard.

And I love my 10k pound 2-post lift.  I have had it six years now and wish I would have purchased it sooner.

Thank for the comments guys, I really appreciate them.

Mike


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## HMF (Nov 17, 2017)

Your property looks fabulous. I wish I had all that space.


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## zmotorsports (Nov 17, 2017)

Nels said:


> Your property looks fabulous. I wish I had all that space.



Thanks Nels, I appreciate that.  It's been a LOT of work over the past year but happy I can now enjoy working in it.

Mike


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## ArmyDoc (Oct 25, 2019)

That's a wonderful shop.  Would you mind posting a sketch of the layout?  The pictures our very nice, but it would be helpful for me if I could see a "birds eye" view for spacing considerations as I design my own shop.


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## NCjeeper (Oct 25, 2019)

Going through the same trials and tribulations of moving and building a new shop.


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