Shop is a commin'

[Greg Newell]

Rob,
    Seems as though congratulations are in order, you lucky dog!!! Also
sounds as if you overfilled it already. Have you left room for the pianos
your going to work on? What about action storage and or piano storage? This
is all on residential property? What about waste removal and such? If you
refinish what about zoning for sprayers? Folks might not say a thing if you
didn't build a big building. Once you do folks want to know what's going on.
Very best of luck to you! I hope all goes as smoothly as possible!

Greg

Robert Goodale wrote:

> Hello folks,
>
> I've been intentionally delaying any announcement for quite some because
> there have been so many details and questionable resources, but I
> believe that this might be the appropriate time.  I am now well underway
> at building a full scale rebuilding shop.
>
> A couple of years ago my wife and I began searching for a property.
>  After six months of realtors and driving all over Las Vegas we finally
> found an absolutely perfect location on 3/4 acre.  The house was only
> built in 1998, although it has needed numerous improvements thanks to an
> independent home contractor who apparently has a reputation for building
> nice houses with cheap features, (such as poor plumbing requiring me to
> re-plumb the entire place last summer).  Now that this and a variety of
> other nonsensical details have been addressed, we can turn our attention
> to our original objective.
>
> We are building this facility from the ground up to our custom
> specifications.  This first step was to bring in exactly 100 18 wheel
> truck loads of dirt to level the property.  I got it super cheap,
> ($20.00 a truck), after hooking up with a dirt contractor who had over
> 300 truck loads to haul away.  Having leveled that out, we are ready to
> begin.  I am rapidly learning how expensive this will be, although I had
> a pretty good idea already.  We are required by the county to have a
> grading/plot plan. Last week we forked over $1,800.00 for that.
>  Yesterday our architect was here to get property information and go
> over our specifications. Fortunately we are saving major money on that
> because we are using an architecture student from the university  He is
> serving an internship for a firm and should be able to get the required
> signatures and stamps.  Normally this starts at about $3.00 per square
> foot and up, so we are really lucky to have him.  He also has to get a
> structural engineer to design the pad/slab and roof requirements, and we
> need an electrical engineering plan as well.  Then we need two
> independent soil tests to prove that the ground is stable, (stupid).
>
> The facility will measure 2,000 Sq. Ft when completed, actually larger
> than our house!    It will include an office, a separate dust free room
> for rebuilding actions, and a rest room.  The remaining space will be
> open shop area.  There will be multiple windows and skylights for
> natural light.  The interior will be fully insulated with textured and
> finished walls.  We will have both 110 and 220 volt power via multiple
> outlets.  There will be a large compressor and vacuum system  located
> outside the building for noise reduction.  These will be plumbed
> throughout the shop for easy access. There will be a 10 ft. roll-up door
> on one end, a side entrance, and an outside entrance directly into the
> office. There will also be a utility sink.  Machinery planned includes:
> a large table saw, a full size drill press, a jointer,a  large band saw,
> a large buffer, and a combination vertical/disk sander.  We will also
> have the only soundboard press in Nevada.  Along with that goes the hot
> box and, eventually we hope to have a small spray booth.  Of course
> there will be LOTS of bench space and work tables.
>
> We will be building the entire structure ourselves with the exception of
> the slab, (too big a job), and exterior stucco, (too big a mess).  My
> brother in law is a licensed contractor in California and has agreed to
> help us frame it.  We are using a truss design so the roof should be
> easy.  Eventually I hope to build a patio outside for additional work
> space for when the weather is nice, and we will have a concrete driveway
> that goes around the house to the roll up door.
>
> When completed I believe that we should have a heck of a facility.  Alan
> Meyer and I will be running it as business partners under the name
> "Southwest Piano Technologies", (we already have embroidered shirts with
> a cool logo).  My wife will be our esteemed action rebuilder and
> official secretary.  Then of course to round it off is our black lab
> Joplin who will be the official "shop dog", (no piano shop should be
> without one).
>
> So that's the official announcement.  We have a very long way to go, and
> by building it ourselves, the process will take quite some time.  Having
> said all of that, I would now like to open the floor for discussion.  If
> anyone has any suggestions or ideas before we finalize the blueprints, I
> would appreciate hearing about them.
>
> Rob Goodale, RPT
> Las Vegas, NV

--
Greg Newell
mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net