I would like to preface this post by saying that I am in no way shape or form a carpenter. I was also very pressed for time. I had just one week to tear the carport down, load it, bring it 150 miles home, and reassemble it. We are not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination so this thing was built on a shoestring budget. In all the work shop was built from a gifted carport, repurposed posts, pallet wood, and a repurposed bunk bed.This building was accomplished by shear force of will and the help of some very good friends.

I built this to free up space in the garden shed out back. It is also going to be my man cave. It is Man Cave 2.0 to be exact. I will be using this primarily for woodworking, leather working, black smithing and general tinkering.

This is the floor and foundation as you've seen before. It is quite possibly the only level and square part of the structure. My neighbor Warren dropped by one day and told me how to accomplish getting it level. I used trusty YouTube to learn how to get it square.

Here's the skeleton of the carport. This part was surprisingly simple to erect. As a matter of fact, if you ever want to buy a carport and can save some money by putting it up yourself, I highly recommend you build it yourself. It really isn't that difficult. At first I was very worried because the whole thing seemed very wobbly. Come to find out, the sheet metal really shores the whole thing up. It ought to because a 22 feet long piece of sheet metal is quite heavy when you're hoisting it up on a roof.

This particular piece of lumber began its life as a bunk bed. This particular piece was a 2x6 that we ripped down to a 2x3.

Here we are just beginning to construct the front wall. Since the carport itself wasn't square and really had no prayer of ever being so, we trimmed around the trusses to get the shape right. I had no intention of doing this level of geometry and still not having it come out right.

Helen, my wife, primed the front wall while we were building the back wall. Then while we built the doors she primed the rear wall.

These boards, the ones in the front and the back, are the only ones we didn't trim off of the trusses. Well these and the doors.

I was very lucky to have my buddy Silas here to help with the overall design of the front and back. Until he came up with it I was kind of just winging it. I've known this guy for a long time and had no idea how good of a carpenter he actually is. He taught me quite a bit in this process.

Using the saws all to trim the cover at the peak. I'm pretty sure Jesse was telling me how I was going to fall off of my makeshift scaffolding and die. I think his actual words were, "and on this episode of Jackass..."

Silas must have taken some credence in what Jesse was saying because he felt the need to shore me up with a hand on my back. What are friends for right?

The doors are hung. The door on the right was mistakenly cut an inch shorter so I had to later improvise to get rid of that gap.

I had hot cinnamon buns by the time I got off of that roof. The sheet metal heats up quickly! To get the sheet metal on the roof we put a C-clamp on a wall support beam and tied a rope to it. We then ran the rope under the sheet metal while it was up against the wall. As Jesse and I lifted Helen pulled on the rope to help get it on the roof and to keep it from flying away. It was very windy. Once the sheet metal was on the roof Helen tied the rope to keep it in place while I tacked it down. I have to give Helen the credit for this idea.

I very rarely buy anything new or at full price. I am super frugal. *cough cheap cough*. The Dewalt drill you see in this picture is something I purchased new from Rural King for $99. I really put this drill through its paces. It has two different speeds and is variable speed. It's a 20v lithium ion and came with a bag, charger, and two batteries. This same drill is $50 more at Lowe's. It pays to shop around. Also the batteries charge at an amazing rate. By the time I ran through a battery it had the other one charged every single time.

Stayin' alive! If John Travolta had just put the last screw in the roof I'm sure he would dance a little jig too.

Other than the finishing, weatherproofing, and flashing this was the very last screw. Also, concerning this particular piece of sheet metal, we got this piece for $15 when it was priced for $36. It was the last sheet they had at Lowe's and it had some scuffs and a tear. Don't hesitate to ask for a discount on defective materials when you can still use them. They won't bat an eye. A contractor would never take it.

A well deserved beer and a smooch after a whole lot of hard work. Those two bottles are on permanent display in the peak of the roof inside the structure. By the way I didn't pay for those bricks either. My scaffolding was totally safe!

Since this picture was taken the flashing, door handle, and hasp has been put on. After the first rain the whole place leaked like crazy. Come to find out, the flashing really helps draw the water away from the wood. I have also filled in some gaps with Great Stuff and done a lot of caulking. I still have more caulking to do. If I can't get all of the leaks to completely go away I'm going to have to coat the roof with a sealant. It really only has one tiny leak left and it only leaks when it rains really hard. I'm sure I can fix this. As far as the outside of the structure goes, all I really have left to do is put up trim to cover the seams in the plywood and then paint the whole thing. I've decided to go with a grass green color. In all, without having done anything to the inside of the building, we have about $750 in a decent 18x20 work shop. A building like this, pre-manufactured, would cost at least $7,000. I think we did pretty good. We learned a lot in the process and we had fun. My wife is an absolute dream to work with. We didn't have one little quarrel the entire time.