Sandpoint Shops and Garages Photo and Project Gallery.

In the 15 years we have been building in North Idaho, we have had the privilege to work on quite a number of shops and garages that also contain full service guest quarters or apartments. This page features a handful of these buildings that we have had the privilege to build.

We hope that our work speaks for itself, so this page is mainly a photo gallery of our work. If you want more of the details of our day to day operations and more construction details for each of these projects and for our latest projects, including more shops, please visit our blog. Also, to see what our clients have to say about us, we have collected a number of client testimonials here.

This page features 3 custom shops with apartments:

1. The Riverside Shop on a Small Lot with Guest Apartment
2. The Large Shop with Apartment and Full Kitchen on Acreage
3. The Garage with Upstairs Apartment and Full Kitchen

Riverside Shop with Guest Apartment

A couple of years ago, a vacation home owner from Calgary called us and asked us to design and build a shop with an apartment on his riverfront lot in the Sagle/Priest River area. Siting the building was a challenge, since the lot is only 75' wide and of an irregular shape. The challenge was to fit the building and design how the homeowner would access the building for primary vehicles and for storing his boat.

Several things had to happen first. The lot was also quite sloping, and there was an existing root cellar on the building site, which had to be incorporated into the design. Using our home design software, we came up with a floor plan that incorporated the root cellar access, the slope and the need for a full guest quarters in the building. The home owner provided the dimensions of the boat and trailer he was buying so that we made sure the building would fit it. There was also an RV parking pad desired on one side of the building.

The result is simple, affordable and highly practical. It also is pleasant to the eyes.

The following video shows the greatest challenge of this project - incorporating an existing concrete root cellar into the floor plan on this relatively small waterfront lot.

Shop plan rendering before construction:

The building pad before construction with a small shed over the root cellar entrance:

After concrete work, the old root cellar access can be seen here. Part of the garage floor slab is the roof over the cellar stairs:

And here is the completed North elevation. Our work included a sprinkler system and sod:

In the following photo, the posts and beams for the shed roof we milled from trees logged from this site:

This is the south elevation showing the boat roll-up door access and he RV pad at the right. There is full power and a dump station:

The shop floor received an epoxy finish. Siding is Certainteed fiber cement lap siding with Cedar trim. The board and batten was simulated with textured plywood and real wood battens:

The vaulted ceiling upstairs received tongue and groove Western Red Cedar, and the countertops are Formica 180FX:

The bathroom features built-in shelves and a tiled tub surround (not seen in this photo):

Large Shop with Guest Apartment and Full Kitchen

On many lots, we are constrained by space, and of course there are always budget constraints. Many times when building a shop, owners will say at the some point that a shop could always be bigger, but when we were contracted by an Alaskan fisherman to build this shop near Clark Fork, from the beginning of the design process, it was apparent this was going to be the ultimate shop and apartment.

The footprint of the insulated space is 40' x 80', and there is an additional 15' wide x 40' covered patio at one end. The location is remote, and the views are gorgeous. In fact, it is so remote, there is no cell phone service at this location.

The main idea behind this building is plenty of room to work, store materials or equipment and the provision of ample living space with a full kitchen. If the owner departs the property for extended periods of time, the exterior is designed to be relatively maintenance free.

A lot of these types of buildings are simply pole buildings, wherein 6x6 treated posts are buried in the ground, usually surrounded by concrete, and then a slab is poured inside, and walls are essentially framed horizontally between the posts. We don't put even treated wood into the earth as a foundation, since that necessarily has a limited lifespan. It is also more difficult to get those buildings completely rodent and varmint proof. This building is built on a traditional poured concrete footer and stem wall, and the walls are 2x6 stick frame.

The following video shows the full details of the completed building.

Shop exterior front. All metal siding and roofing:

The back exterior view:

The large covered concrete patio has a 3/12 pitch ceiling that we covered with rough sawn plywood and 2" custom milled trim/battens. The lights are then painted to match the texture and color of the wood:

We'll go ahead and include a bunch of interior views of the apartment. The cabinets are hickory, the flooring is tile and good quality laminate. All of the interior trim is stained hemlock, and the countertops are our favorite budget-friendly option, Formica 180FX, with a Corian edge detail:

There is a raised bar counter for three bar stools between the kitchen and the living room:

A view back at the kitchen from the living room:

Corner of the living room:

We'll finish the photo tour with three photos of the apartment bathroom, which is also accessible directly from the shop work area:

Garage with Apartment and Full Kitchen and Laundry

This is a recently completed project we did in the Bonners Ferry area on a 21 acre parcel. This property will become the homeowner's retirement property, and we were contacted to help design the future home and attached garage that also contains a full apartment. With an eye on the future, we developed the entire building plan, but phase 1 is the construction of just the garage with the apartment so that the homeowners can enjoy the property prior to development in the future of the actual home and outbuildings.

We have not obtained yet all of the finished interior photos, but we can share with you the future home development plan, the completed exterior garage photos and a video tour of the completed garage with apartment.

First, here is the photo of the future home plan that we developed with our Chief Architect design software:

The following are two exterior photos followed by a full video walk-through of the completed garage/apartment:

The following video is a tour of the completed garage and apartment. There are 12' ceilings downstairs, full laundry facilities, epoxy floors, a one bedroom apartment upstairs with 9' ceilings, built in custom cabinetry, closets, a full kitchen, living room with a wood stove and a full bathroom with a beautiful tile tub surround:

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