A friend built his garage/shop with a cloistery roof and lots of
light in a second story office/storage area. Second story square
footage is about half of the lower. Orignal intent was to have
home office space for his wife, the kids wound up using it for a
huge playhouse. Now a days, it works well for all the Christmas
stuff, etc. Downside is that the shop level has to have posts to
get in the way and a defined height ceiling, his is about 8'. Of
course the ceiling can be insulated and sheet rocked, makes it
much easier to heat.

Peter Corbett wrote:

Well thankyou for the input there were a lot of great suggestions....I even
put my foot down and told my woman this is the way its going to be.....I now
get to plan an upstairs.....7/12 pitch gives me a 6'high x 10' wide x 32'
long room upstairs.....alittle heat.....a hot plate and bar fridge and i'll
be ready to move in......she has promised visiting rights to my kids at
Christmas.....AHHHHH bring on the construction season........

Pete