When Dick Jones Trucking sold to Ryan Bros. over two years ago it was the right time for Tim and LeAnne Kindred to build their forever home.

“Well, in that sale, my shop … was at the back end of their lot, the Ryans decided they wanted that as well,” said Tim, a contractor and owner of Tim The Toolman. “So I was shopless and we were looking to downsize a little from the house we had and so it just kind of made sense.”

The home is being built by Tim and his crew and the plans were drawn by LeAnne. They took the plans to Bloedorn Lumber where Mike Kincy helped refine them. Concrete for the foundation was poured on June 27 of last year.

Getting to work

While the majority of the work was done by Tim, his crew, family and friends, they did hire out some work like plumbing and electrical. TH Custom Builders and Jaeden and Tanner Herd helped with the trusses for the covered porch and Mike Martin will be pouring the concrete for the patio and front entryway. 

The home which will be a shop house is right next door to the brick house they’ve lived in for years. The shop portion of their new property is what visitors will come up on first — the house is at the back of the property and faces the Bighorns, which not only provides a great view but helps reduce the noise of traffic traveling on Road 9.

“Everybody always asks me ‘Why’d you point it this direction?’ Because everybody here wants to look at Heart Mountain, I wouldn’t have a view [of] that. I love the Bighorns and I have a great view of the Bighorns,” LeAnne said. 

What’s in the shop?

The shop is slightly larger than Tim’s old shop, coming in at 6,480 square feet, and it has a lot going on. While it will serve as a space to work out of, it’s also designed with retirement in mind.

“He’s a car guy so this will be a little bit for the business, his construction business, but a lot of it’s going to be more towards retirement, messing with his classic cars, and he has race cars, so part of this is designed to store all of the cars he already has [and] to work on them,” LeAnne said.

The shop has two hoists so he can “stack basically four cars in the footprint of two,” then a third hoist to work off of, Tim said. 

For his business, the shop has what Tim calls a clean room in the back. 

“It’s just a small room we built … when I have to paint, trim or finish some woodworking stuff. I can do it in there and be clean,” he said. 

Moving closer to the home is the 744-square-foot breezeway, which was put in the design at the recommendation of several people Tim talked to who had built shop houses. 

“All of them said if you use your shop at all, you need more than just one common wall for separation, for noise, fumes, all that kind of stuff,” Tim said.

The breezeway is 12 feet wide and the same height as the shop, while a second floor will serve as storage space. Boxes will be loaded through a door on the second floor and placed on pallets with wheels so Tim and LeAnne do not have to haul heavy boxes up and down the stairs.

They’re “getting too old to pack things up stairs,” LeAnne said with a laugh.

 Back on the ground floor is a bathroom for the shop, space for a dog kennel, the mechanical room and additional storage.

Inside the home

Inside the 2,400 square foot home, the living room and kitchen area follow an open floor plan. The kitchen will have a gas stove and gas fireplace and the kitchen island will have a sink and dishwasher. The home also has  a walk-in pantry which will have a refrigerator, freezer, icemaker and cupboards. It’s not quite a complete butler pantry because it won’t have a sink, but there are a lot of countertops and prepwork could be done there if needed. However, as they like to cook and entertain the kitchen itself will have a lot of counter space. LeAnne said she doesn’t anticipate using the pantry countertops as much.  

Nearby a small room will serve as an office space, while farther into the home there is a guest bed and guest bath. The home’s master bedroom has a walk-in closet and the bathroom has a walk-in shower and dual sink vanity. 

Outside of their bedroom will be a hot tub right next to a porch that will be the width of the house.

As work progresses in the kitchen they’ll be able to get cabinets in soon and they hope to be done in August, as Tim’s been “patiently waiting” to start work on his 1955 Ford pickup truck.