I have trained her to hold parts in place for me hehehe ;-}
'Spidy" and I have been together a very long time and she has bore many children, she is usually in the main shop but she wasn't real happy in front of the sliding glass door in the afternoon with 115F temps so I put her by the N facing window in the metal shop room ;-}
As for room, I
HAD all the room I could use, ~ 1000sf of this 1800sf house, 3 rooms once we got our son out and it was just my wife and I.
Go figure my wife's sister moved in, has no intentions of moving out any time soon and screwed up all my plans for a shipping/receiving/part storage room.
I had it setup soo nice, and then she moves in and just dumps all her s**t all over my bench and the middle of the floor obstructing all the parts along the walls.
A basement would be a good place for your metal shop, but I don't think you would enjoy taking bikes in and out of it.
