My first workshop was a space on the back porch of our first house. It was a rental, but the price was right and our landlord wasn't too bad. (My father-in-law) The shop was about 7 x 7 feet and the 'workbench' was a piece of pressed particle board on six milk crates. There were a few shelves with paint buckets and a small tool box with some basic hand tools. I think I even had my Skill saw by then. This was back in 2000, I think. When we bought our first house, the one we live in now, I scored my first real tinkering space.

Workbench - Its not hard to tell this workbench is a homemade jobbie. It was the first fixture I built in my shop and has really served me well. I do 90% of my work standing here. I added a space for the 3-drawer Craftsman tool box later, with the metal pull-out shelf following shortly thereafter.

The shelf is just a metal computer desk shelf meant for a keyboard. I mounted it to the underside of the bench. I use it to store often-used items like a tape measure, standard wood screws, drill bits and several pairs of safety glasses. (I'm always forgetting where I laid them, so multiple pairs come in handy. I have about 4 different pair of safety glasses all found at yard sales or in a boxes of junk from auctions.)

The pictures below show all-around views of my shop. If you're even half-way interested in such things, you'll spot right away the problems I'm planning to address. Most of these problems stem from one original mistake: poor planning. As a result of not planning out my shop from the beginning, you see tons of cobbling together, 'MacGuyvering' and all around bad craftsmanship. There's so much of this, you'd rightfully assume I'm a jerry-rigging kind of Half-Asser. I'm really not. I swear. The remodeling of my shop going on right now will prove it. ;) I promise.

The last picture above shows both the dirt floor of the shop and the impromptu raised plywood floor I built over half of it.