The Microship Lab

The
Microship Lab

The Microship development lab and long-term home base is located on 11 densely wooded acres along the west side of Camano Island, Washington. This is a wonderful facility now, but it was a long and arduous journey from the vague "we need to find a new lab" specification as we rumbled north from Silicon Valley with a massive road train filled with equipment and partially completed boats. trench Jan 12, 2006
News Flash!

The lab and house are now FOR SALE, as I am shutting down the home base and moving to a ship. Check out the current photos and email me if you are interested in acquiring a superb R&D facility in the Pacific Northwest... for $379K. More details here.

undercoat After months of exhausting lab-hunting all over the Pacific Northwest and exploration of a variety of construction methods (most far too expensive for our meager budget), we found a perfect building site that came with a rather amazing house. We contracted Pioneer Pole Buildings to eract a 3,000 square foot metal "monitor barn" and hired an excavator to claw out a flat spot in the woods to receive it... along with a 700-foot utility trench and gravel road from the house. roof

With a level site prepped for construction, the team from Pioneer came in to work their magic. First, 20 holes were dug with a giant auger, footed with concrete, then the poles were positioned and braced together. frame After that received code approval they set about building the frame - in two weeks! We returned from a speaking gig in San Diego to find a beautiful structure with windows and doors framed and ready for installation.

boys The first splash of colour appeared in the form of a coat of primer and matching latex trim on the eaves... quite a workout, since we agreed to do it to help control costs. That done, the metal roof was installed, with a layer of thin insulation (later augmented with a full blanket of R-19).

concrete The Final Push: After the epic slab-laying (4" pad with reinforcing mesh), the boys finished covering the walls while we coated the concrete with an acrylic sealant. At this point it was time to deal with the power connection, a project that had been delayed for quite a while by an apparent shortage of sane electricians. floor

It was solved by finding a reasonable and creative fellow who spliced our 4-0 underground mega-cable into the existing distribution panel and set up a subpanel at the shop. At last we could fill in the trenches, cover with 17 truckloads of gravel, and switch on the first lights at the Microship Lab... a glorious moment indeed. Of course, that was just the beginning... by the time we had installed dozens of 4-plex outlet boxes, GFI's, fluorescent fixtures, and IR security lights, we had added "electrician" to the growing list of things we never want to do for a living. media lab The final structural step was building a floored-in loft (for offices and media lab) complete with custom stairs. The day before departure on another epic cross country speaking tour, the garage door was installed and the building could at last be be closed and locked. We returned a month later to begin the long-awaited task of moving the Microship Lab from evil self-storage units to its new home.

overview Since then, we've made a few key improvements. Two winters of trying to work all bundled up with only moderate warmth provided by Miss Piggy, the wood stove, convinced us that we had to break down and install a proper heating system... so the lab now has an actively vented 115,000 BTU unit heater running on LP gas, and a full blanket of good insulation. A monitored security and fire-detection system with both perimeter and IR sensors helps us sleep at night, and internal additions include a massive array of integral benches, framed dust-control areas for boat fabrication, a stereo system, and extensive fixturing for inventory and tools.

lab All in all, the Microship lab is a techno-geek's dream-come-true... a spacious and well-equipped lab in the woods, 700 feet down a private road from a solar house replete with chickens and cat. It's all seductively comfortable, which is rather dangerous for a nomad, but it is good to know we have something worth coming back to after a few years of technomadic adventure!

The Microship Lab The Microship development lab and long-term home base is located on 11 densely wooded acres along the west side of Camano Island, Washington. This is a wonderful facility now, but it was a long and arduous journey from the vague "we need to find a new lab" specification as we rumbled north from Silicon Valley with a massive road train filled with equipment and partially completed boats.		Jan 12, 2006 News Flash! The lab and house are now FOR SALE, as I am shutting down the home base and moving to a ship. Check out the current photos and email me if you are interested in acquiring a superb R&D facility in the Pacific Northwest... for $379K. More details here.
	After months of exhausting lab-hunting all over the Pacific Northwest and exploration of a variety of construction methods (most far too expensive for our meager budget), we found a perfect building site that came with a rather amazing house. We contracted Pioneer Pole Buildings to eract a 3,000 square foot metal "monitor barn" and hired an excavator to claw out a flat spot in the woods to receive it... along with a 700-foot utility trench and gravel road from the house.
With a level site prepped for construction, the team from Pioneer came in to work their magic. First, 20 holes were dug with a giant auger, footed with concrete, then the poles were positioned and braced together.		After that received code approval they set about building the frame - in two weeks! We returned from a speaking gig in San Diego to find a beautiful structure with windows and doors framed and ready for installation.
	The first splash of colour appeared in the form of a coat of primer and matching latex trim on the eaves... quite a workout, since we agreed to do it to help control costs. That done, the metal roof was installed, with a layer of thin insulation (later augmented with a full blanket of R-19).
	The Final Push: After the epic slab-laying (4" pad with reinforcing mesh), the boys finished covering the walls while we coated the concrete with an acrylic sealant. At this point it was time to deal with the power connection, a project that had been delayed for quite a while by an apparent shortage of sane electricians.
It was solved by finding a reasonable and creative fellow who spliced our 4-0 underground mega-cable into the existing distribution panel and set up a subpanel at the shop. At last we could fill in the trenches, cover with 17 truckloads of gravel, and switch on the first lights at the Microship Lab... a glorious moment indeed. Of course, that was just the beginning... by the time we had installed dozens of 4-plex outlet boxes, GFI's, fluorescent fixtures, and IR security lights, we had added "electrician" to the growing list of things we never want to do for a living.		The final structural step was building a floored-in loft (for offices and media lab) complete with custom stairs. The day before departure on another epic cross country speaking tour, the garage door was installed and the building could at last be be closed and locked. We returned a month later to begin the long-awaited task of moving the Microship Lab from evil self-storage units to its new home.
	Since then, we've made a few key improvements. Two winters of trying to work all bundled up with only moderate warmth provided by Miss Piggy, the wood stove, convinced us that we had to break down and install a proper heating system... so the lab now has an actively vented 115,000 BTU unit heater running on LP gas, and a full blanket of good insulation. A monitored security and fire-detection system with both perimeter and IR sensors helps us sleep at night, and internal additions include a massive array of integral benches, framed dust-control areas for boat fabrication, a stereo system, and extensive fixturing for inventory and tools.