divide garage or build an outbuilding for "studio" space?

[englishteacha]

My hobby is refinishing furniture. I've gotten pretty good at it and I enjoy making ugly (and often free!) furniture nice again. Unfortunately, living in Maine means my "season" is limited to warm weather. Sanding, painting, etc. is too messy for inside the house!

We're looking for ways to extend my painting/staining/refinishing season. We have a large garage that is impossible to heat (10 foot ceilings and 2.5 bays, not insulated). One thought is to rig up curtains (likely heavy tarps suspended on a rope or cable) to make the space smaller and easier to heat (we have a heater). My husband has also thought he might build an outbuilding-12 ft. by 12 ft. or so.

Obviously sectioning the garage would be cheaper, but also more inconvenient. I'd have to move the vehicles out, clean the floors, put out drop cloths, set up the curtains, and haul my painting gear up from the basement (since it will freeze in the garage). I'd have to plan to work on projects-no quickly adding a coat of paint during my daughter's nap time, for example. A pro to dividing the garage this way is it enables us to use, and heat, the garage for other uses, like parties in spring and fall, if you don't mind "blue tarp chic" decor. It would cost a few hundred dollars to get everything.

Building (or buying) an outbuilding is going to be more expensive, but it would always be ready to go, and small enough to heat. We'd have to make sure it was properly ventilated, of course, and have adequate light. I could have projects-in-progress and come and go as I have time. We wouldn't be building anything till spring or summer, since our yard is covered in 3 feet of snow. Part of the rationale to this option is that it would be my space all the time. My husband has a home office, my daughter has her own bedroom, and I don't have my "own" space...my brother calls it a "Mom cave." But this option is at least $1000, unless we can find a suitable shed on Craigslist and can get it here. We live in the country with no nearby neighbors and don't need a permit to build or install a shed. Perks to living north of nowhere.

What would you do? There are pros and cons to both scenarios, and I'm hoping other people might help me see things I might be missing. My husband figures enabling my hobby is cheaper than therapy. (It's been a very tough year to be a teacher.)

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

For resale sake building the outbuilding would be better. A lot of folks want a two car garage. Plus the next owners will look at the outbuilding as added storage.

 

[RitaE]

I'm going to vote outbuilding because that's something I've wanted to do here for years. I'd like a workspace for myself and then maybe even a small restroom and a kitchenette living area.

We have more than enough land but whenever I've looked at our building codes it is far more complicated than just buying one of those pre-fab kits. I'm pretty much going to be putting up a small 2nd house and in addition to all the building codes I'm likely going to have to upgrade our sewer system too.

Definitely not something that is going to happen while I'm paying the college bills. If I could get away with $1000 I'd be all over it.

 

[englishteacha]

Any division in the garage would be purely temporary. We like being able to park our cars inside! The garage is only a year and a half old. We added on when we had our daughter. We didn't have enough room to run a business and a raise a baby in a 2 bedroom house. The garage is attached to the house and has a laundry room/pantry and office in it, as well as the garage for 2 cars and the lawn tractor. (I SO wish we'd put in another bathroom but it wasn't in the construction budget. Maybe someday.)

 

[sksjasams]

Is there anyway you can make the basement work? Maybe hooking up some additional ventilation?

I think the garage would be way too cold and inconvenient. A shed might be ok, but still a pain to tromp thru the cold and snow to get to your work area.

 

[Chelley00]

My Brother and SIL converted a storage shed into a music studio for SIL to teach music lessons. It's ventilated and has an air conditioner built into the wall and a portable space heater. She decorated it beautifully and it's really a nice space.

 

[MomToOne]

I personally would probably start with just the garage approach. I'd use it as a testing ground, to see what really worked and what didn't in a separate space. Then, once I was sure of all the things I wanted and didn't want in a space, and especially what all the gotchas are that I might not have previously anticipated, I'd go forward with building the outbuilding.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Build a larger out building suitable for 2 cars at least, then section off a part of THAT for your projects.

 

[jgreco]

There could be a property tax increase with an outbuilding...

 

[clh2]

My 2cents is: will you need electric put in an outbuilding? We have a shed ( not quite a 1-car garage) and we do not have electricity out there, too expensive at the time, and now we are considering moving. our estimates were in the $1000 and up range to get this done.

Our she'd is primarily for storage, so we just simply do jot go out there at night.

 

[chris31997]

I second the option of using the basement. People look for finished basements. If you finish it completly, you can divide it to play area/family room/study area for kiddos and then your work area. Depending on size even put in a guest room.

Ventilation would be a must. Electricity and heating would be easier to tap into.

 

[barkley]

There could be a property tax increase with an outbuilding...

that was my first thought too. any place we've lived, unless the outbuilding was considered 'temporary' (not affixed to a slab, not plumbed/no electric...) it caused a property tax increase. there's the issue of insurance as well-even with a 'temporary' outbuilding it can cause an increase-and I suspect a substantial one if flammable materials (paint and such) are stored in it-esp. if a space heater will be used.

if you go the permanent route with the idea of starting out w/plans of expansion (bathroom) check your sewage restrictions. both septic and city/county plumbed properties are often originally permitted with a limited number of bathrooms for the entire property. if you are looking to possibly do business-check your zoning. some residential (and some rural) strictly prohibit business out of private homes (and our old residential neighborhood had city laws that prohibited sectioning a portion off of the garage for non vehicle related activities-so no craft rooms, extra bedrooms, home offices...it was city code).

like others-I would suggest looking to your basement. we have one outbuilding that's a bit bigger than you described, not insulated and it was a couple of thousand to put together including the land prep (have to level and prep. for drainage or your flooring rots and the structure shifts). electricity was a good amount more-so it's not an inexpensive endeavor for a 'lets see if it will work for the purposes we need it for'.

good luck on what you decide.