I am a firm believer in planning and I did a lot of this prior to any building process. The goal of planning is to reduce the likelihood of having to live with a mistake forever that could have easily been avoided just by thinking about it a little bit before hand. Also, building a shop is a major expense and I couldn't afford to get this wrong in some major way.  Although I am not an experienced builder, I do understand that the original plan will not survive 100% and even during the process there will be a lot of "I wish I had done that differently" situations; that's just the way things are.

I looked at and got quotes for several different construction methods, traditional stick built, pole barn, SIP, and CIF (foam concrete forms).  My preference was for CIF but the cost of a pole barn was more compelling so I selected this method instead.  For me, the pole building had the following advantages over CIF's.  It offered a higher pitch roof with a true walk-up attic and most importantly it also included the siding and roofing tasks for only a small cost difference compared to CIF construction.   Including the siding and roofing became the main deciding factor since otherwise I would have to spend a lot of time siding or roofing the building in cold weather due to the schedule- and I loath working out in the cold.

As requirements, ideas, and progress change, I will update these pages.  Reader feedback would be most appreciated.