Ponderosa Pines, the Morning Walk

Of all the pines, this one gives forth the finest music to the winds.

John Muir, naturalist

Now, to work.

Dismantling the Old Workshop

Many established guitar makers began their careers in humble surroundings; working in cramped conditions without much light, and lacking basic items like a sturdy workbench or a warm room. If your enthusiasm is great, then almost any obstacle can be overcome.

Roy Courtnall, Making Master Guitars, 1993


I dismantled the "garage".

It was a simple 14'x20'building, framed in 2x4's, covered with 1/4" thick exterior grade plywood with no foundation, just a dirt floor. The wall bottom plates sat on simple cinder blocks or on the ground and most of those plates were starting to rot. The original owner had the building constructed about 1966 to protect his Cadillac when he and his wife lived here. When we bought the place five years ago, instead of dismantling the garage I framed a floor in it and added a double door for additional light. It was a good storage space for tools, firewood, chainsaws, etc., but the time has come to take down the building.

There are enough framing materials from this building to make a small 10'x12'shed, all I need to buy is the subfloor and roofing OSB sheets and 2x8's for the roof rafters. Once this shed is up and filled with all my "other" tools, the plan is to re-build a building on the site of the garage with the same foot print as the original. I know many people think that a 280 square foot building is too small for a workshop, for me, however, after working in 9'x10' spaces for the last 20 years, this new workshop will seem as large as our national Capitol building.

And it will be heated.