building a shop addition this summer

[maple flats]

I have an Amish built shed (14x28') that I use for a shop, with a 100A subpanel in it from my sugarhouse. It has benches and shelves all around except where I store barrels of syrup on one wall.  It has proven to be too small. I have drawn an addition I might build this summer to add onto the shed. Originally I had the shed built with a man door on the left side (looking from the front double doors) and another man door out the back where I planned to build a blacksmith shop. I have now changed that plan.
Now I'm thinking I will add a 16' wide addition off the right side and make it 32' deep, aligning it flush across the front and 4' longer, giving a 4' wide hallway from the man door across the back of the original shed and straight into the addition. I have it planned to be for about the rear half as my blacksmith shop (hobby) and the front half with double doors to drive and park my tractor in, along with storage shelves along each side of the tractor area..
The existing shed has a hip roof, I plan to extend the upper slope of the left side of the hip up to a peak directly over the right side wall, then a single slope from the peak down to a 10' high wall on the right side of the addition. While the shed is on skids and rests on a base of 18" sand fill topped with 8" of crusher run limestone, the addition will just be a dirt floor in the front half and stone dust packed well in the blacksmith shop. I'll likely have 2 windows on the right wall, maybe 3 and one on the back wall. The addition will be a pole barn type build and except for the poles it will be all made using hemlock sawn from trees on my property. I have enough with a DBH of at least 18", some are up to DBH of 26", and most are pretty straight. I get little or no shake from my hemlocks. Sawing will begin after maple season and after I get my blueberry spring work done. My 11 yr old grandson will tail the sawmill.

[millwright]

Sounds like a fun project. What do you do in yours spare time?

[maple flats]

Well, the old story, "Best laid plans" failed. This year with Covid shutdowns I didn't even get started. When the state started shutting down everything, I told my BIL (he had helped with maple for about 4 years) to stay home, and I did it all by myself. Before Covid hit, we had finished all of the tapping and expansion for more taps. I just worked the sugarhouse, cleaning and all of the boiling and hauling of firewood, and filling barrels with syrup, then hauling them to storage by myself. Once that was finished and I'd fertilized my 4.5 acres of blueberries, when I'd originally planned to cut some moderately large hemlocks and with the help of my 11 year old grandson saw them into lumber for the addition and begin the build. That never happened. I can drop trees, buck to proper lengths and haul them out by myself, but at 74 I no longer even try to cut lumber on the Peterson alone.
MY 11 yr old grandson's dad is a Chiropractor and he continued to work every day. With my wife having extremely low white cell counts since she had Chemo back in 2007, I couldn't risk being exposed to Covid because of my SIL and bring it home to my wife.
I will now need to see if the vaccines help reduce the risk so I can build it this year. If this doesn't clear before June, it will be 2022 before I can build that addition.
I still want to build that addition, mainly for 3 purposes. First to park my tractors in , more storage and to make a blacksmith shop.

[farmfromkansas]

I hired a neighbor's kid to help me get some projects done this summer and fall. Unfortunately I strained my knee and about the same time developed a hernia, so have just been doing chores lately.  Got a few panels glued up, but shop work is suffering.  Have an appointment to see a surgeon in January, and the knee is getting better, so maybe this summer I can get a little work done.

[maple flats]

Yes, I find the "golden years" are not all glitter. Parts ache that never bothered me before. Besides that both cold and hot bother me now. Just a few years ago, I could work a few hours outside in -10 or -15F as long as I was out of the wind. Being put on a blood thinner changed that. I now need to bundle up when it's 30F, more than I did for -10F just 5 years ago.
On the other extreme I used to not like hot weather (over 85F) but I worked thru it, drinking lots of water, now I find it very hard to work even when it's over 70F for more than about an hour max. Then I need to cool down in our house where we keep it 64-67F all summer.

[Tacotodd]

Maple, I resemble that 😐

[maple flats]

The shop addition has been delayed 1 more year. I sold my Peterson WPF and ordered a Woodland Mills HM130max. Unfortunately it will not be here until about Aug 31. Maybe I should have kept the Peterson another year. At any rate, when I get it, the first thing I'll build is a saw shed, then a lumber shed. After that will be my shop addition.
Covid is getting better in our locale, I've been vaccinated and by August my 12 yr old grandson will too, so I can have him help (in between his school work and ball practice and games).
I will cut some wood for the shop during the winter on better days, and I already cut most of the Rafters. Hopefully, by next year the price of ground contact treated posts will come down some. I'll need 7 (I think) 6x6x12' treated posts, I'll saw the rest out of Hemlock and Spruce. The roof will be steel, over the purlins. Just a stone floor in the addition in the front half and stone dust in the blacksmith shop part.
Yes, I'll get pictures, something I've always been very lax on my whole life.