Cost Breakdown & Hindsight

Here's a detailed expendature spreadsheet.

I paid about $37 per square foot even after paying for some construction help. This building would have easily cost $70-$120 per square foot if I had a contractor do all the work for me. That’s a saving of $10,000 for putting in a little elbow grease. Besides the cost savings it feels pretty awesome...nah scratch that, I feel like a total freak’n bad ass because I built my workshop. I’m glad I did it and we’ve been enjoying the space working on projects with the kids.

Hindsight

I probably could have saved a few thousand dollars doing the electrical, siding and roofing myself but honestly I'm glad it's done right. Making a cutting mistake on a 2x4 isn't a big deal. Miscutting a piece of metal roofing costs you days of time and hundreds of dollars. Also falling off a roof 14 feet up doesn't sound like fun either.

I wish I would have added one more window on the northside, it's a tad bit dark in the building. I also wish I installed a little roof protection over the doors for the rain, so I can have the doors open when it's raining.