Took the first step towards building my shop

[Frank S]

To be honest I should start a thread called how not to build a shop building.
A few things I have been thinking of doing to it as time goes along. First off I have a School buss that is just sitting in the woods collecting weeds around it. It has a good diesel engine I need to pull out to be installed in one of my "B" model macks that I want to turn into a pickup or a flat bed straight truck the buss though body wise is in great shape and would make for some really good mezzanine storage atop of the shipping container So what I will do is remove the body from the frame cut it off right at the windshield cut the skirt off the body so the bottom of the floor of the buss will sit flat on top of the container roof This will make a great storage area up out of the way of everything else.
There is a good chance that I may do this to the 2 trusses on the West or Entry end of the shop a lot depends on how much excess materials I have laying around

If I do then I can construct a 15 by 68 ft. office space between them and still maintain the clear span opening for a 3 top hung sliding door opening allowing me to have a 44 ft wide opening from either side or just open a 22 ft. wide single section
this will also mean I will have a place to construct an elevator to lift materials to the mezzanine where the school buss will probably be placed and then on up to the office floor.
But it will also mean that the building will wind up being 28 ft tall in front instead of the 24 ft height at the center of the trusses now
But it will give me a lot more sq footage. Actually by the time the 45 ft machine shop van is attached to the South side and the 26 ft tool and bolt storage van attached outside of the East or the rear of the building I will have close to 6000 sq ft of useable floor space while still only having to pour a 4000 sq ft slab
The plans are also to add a 38 by 40 ft lean to canopy on the south side to park my tractors and other equipment under