OT: Who all lives in a warehouse/shop?

im in the early stages of renovating and old barn left in our industrial park into a house/3 bay shop-paintbooth

 

I know this guy (a fellow HAMBer) that "temporarily" moved into his shop so he could finish re-building his first car (a pre 1950's "Hot Rod").

He hated paying rent at both his apartment & his shop ... and since his apartment was about a 15 mile drive to his shop, it was hard to get motivated to work on any of his car(s) ... so he bought a self-contained motorhome (for cooking, showering, & sleeping) and parked it in one side of his shop.

That was over 12 years ago ... the car still isn't finished!

I'm hoping that if he stumbles upon this post, he won't kill me ... but rather that the post would motivate him to stop all of his other projects and focus his talents on finishing the car he started working on 12+ years ago!

 

I bought a project from a guy years ago who was living in a shop building in a business park. He had a sofa-bed in the office, a steel shower stall with cold water only in the shop and all his car stuff. He had three parking spaces out front to park cars in put only used one in day time and pulled inside at night when the "business" was closed.
It was a rough but satifying life, he told me, because it was the first time he ever had space, tools, money and time all in the same place.

What I bought was an unfinished project. 1934 Ford 1/2 ton Panel truck, chopped with the "Bump" taken out of the roof", channelled and full fendered with runningboards too. The body was channeled just so the front lower corner of the cowl just cleared the slope of the front fender at the frame. The hood was sectioned removing the "Ford" oval but retaining the "V-8" in the center of the louvers. The radiator and shell were dropped in front of the crossmember to keep hood alignment good and full cooling of radiator.
I bought the truck for the engine (buildable 4bolt 350), rebuilt and modified 350 Turbo, and the complete chrome and stainless, disc-braked, four-bar equipped ready top rock and roll front end ***embly. At the time the front end would have cost more new than I paid for the package. SO we used all that stuff on the chopped 32 5W coupe my brother still has on jackstands in his garage, and parted out the truck.
Shame too, finished it would have been a head-turner, with a body with a flat sedan style roof, shortened with gas tank in rear, full-fendered, with runningboards, Sedan Delivery size with a Commercial twist.

OH YEAH, why was he selling? He got a job overseas in Africa which in 18 months would pay well enough for him to BUY an expensive, very expensive, built hotrod when he returned. Right place at the right time for my brother and me, easy exit for him!

 

Soon as I get another job and hold it down for a month or two this is what I'm planning on doing. I don't have much household stuff but alot of cars and parts, and I'm still single so it suits me perfectly. House where I'm moving abou $600 a month garage probably $200 that leaves 400 for more cars and parts and BEER!

 

Here in New Zealand there are a lot of blocks of Warehouse Apartments being built. The ground floor is warehouse and office space with a apartment above. A great way of living and playing.

Slightly different but when I started my motoring book business it was run from the spare bedroom in our suburban home but as it grew it ended up taking over the house. Started looking around and found our current place. It is a old brewery grain store that has been split up into 7 retail residential units. It was built in 1860 and we have the shop on the ground level and 3 floors of living above. All the advantages of working from home and only a 5 minute walk to the centre of the city. You can see a bit of it in the vid on the home page of my web site.

 

i don't know about where you live but around here most of the little towns had service stations on the outskirts. usually run down because they couldn't become convience stores and there is no service in gasoline except self.

i bought a 2 bay sinclair station about 6 years ago that had been empty for 10 years prior. came on an acre of land and even the floorlift worked and best of all, it was cheap, could not p*** it up. and the town supported the effort because it was an eyesore.

originally just to be a place to work on my car but soon after i added on living quarters and now my wife and i are totally happy there.

nothing better than working on cars till wee hours and then falling into bed without having to drive home.

just down the highway another guy is doing the same thing in an old texaco... so they're out there just waiting on some industrious dudes to jump into.

i think you should go for the warehouse/shop. even talk to the landlord about lease with option to buy. then whatever you do to fix it up will be for yourself.

 

Exactly my plans. I'm gonna retire in 8 years to the N.Georgia Mts. Build a pole barn for me & my stuff only!

 

i bought an 8000 sf warehouse in Bainbridge Ga.
i'm building a house in one end and a shop in the other end.
its on 2 acres in town,2 blocks from the courthouse and its zoned industrial.
we can have a house inside, a caretakers residence!
100x80 x 24,the building is real close to the street which means i have a huge back and side yards.
Randy

 

I love that guy! And it wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that Cussler is a member here. As for the living arrangement, I'd love to have a warehouse/apartment, but I don't know if the wife would go for it. Guess she's not invited

Jack

 

My father lives in an old YMCA. They converted the office into living area and it is comfortable. One thing that is really neat and you should look for is commercial power. It is amazing how much lower your electric bills will be if you use 3 phase for lighting, heating, cooling, etc.

 

ahh it s a dream of mine to do that
my parents house has got a garage attached so i dont need to even leave the house to work on something but it isnt the same is it?

 

My garage has an apartment in it that I rent out, sometimes they complain of certain fumes that come into their apartment. The worst was one night I soaked the **** out of something with BP Blaster, you also have to watch your hot water tank and furnace for gas fumes from the cars inside.

 

I have several friends that own hanger /homes inside, on airports.tried to do this my self but no go. after they build a home ,sometimes many yrs after. they rent the home inside out. good cash flow.

 

What I wouldn't give ... The closest I came was a Gambrel style house. It's like a huge garage with a house sized aprtment above it. My woman said NO in no uncertain terms ... Jealousy.

 

When I was a younger man I lived above the body shop I worked at and drove the 24 hour wrecker. This was prior to the days of cell phone and my boss was too damn cheap to get us pagers (mid-80s). Made for lots of free time with the 'ultimate set of tools' close by. Its the only job I ever had where I put in a '4-weeks' notice I was leaving so I could finish body work and paint on my car before leaving.

 

Didja hear the one about the illiterate pros***ute who ended up working in a warehouse......?

 

i am looking for one south of houston right now. help me out if you know a good spot

 

felt like i did exactly that all last winter in a 30 x 32 pole barn with wood for heat..but i got the job done and moved back into the house

 

Can be done. It is best kept secret from your landlord, neighbors, and government officials. People will have their su****ions and some will figure it out, but it is best kept unspoken. Might want to consider using a friend's residence as a mailing address. Also, industrial areas at off hours and weekends attract some unsavory characters. Even if you own a gun or two, you'll feel a lot safer if someone else lives with you. Don't know about Lockhart, Tx, but here in Vegas as you can probably imagine, apart from obvious health concerns, your personal safety should be your first and foremost concern.

 

I own a 1800 sq ft building w/ an effiency appartment (600 sq ft) that I have lived in since 95. No complaints except I NEED MORE SPACE for the cars and toys!!!!!!! lol

 

there was a guy that posted his pad on here about 3 or 4 years ago. forget his handle, think he was from texas. his pic was a panoramic shot... curtained off sleeping area, 59 or so chevy, i think a roadster of some sort, a bike, couch, concert speakers the size of the 59... and a rug that tied the whole room together. it was either that, or the larger place he moved into later, that he had indoor black powder shooting and archery as well as indoor motorcycle racing... an inspiration to us all.

on the neighbors and unsavory characters bit, according to him, the homewarming party and his nutcase friends were enough to scare the neighbors and unsavory types away.

 

ha, "a rug that tied the whole room together" i love the dude.

anyhow, I wish my place was a workshop too as I live in what is zoned as "industrial/comercial". My place is an apartment with no place to work, the way my landlord gets around it is that they rent them out as "artist studios". So if youre not running an actual business out of the place youre about to acquire, just tell anybody who asks that it is your artist studio. Ive been living in my place for a few years and never had a problem.

 

Here in the Californy Bay, space is a premium. I somehow convinced my gf to move into an artist live/work loft (a former foundry) in Oakland in the ghetto simply because we get space. For $1700/month we get 1700 sqft. The downstairs is the living room/ work shop, with a seperate bedroom and band rehearsal room. The upstairs is the sewing room and kitchen. We've spent 2 months so far remodeling this place so it's liveable. It's getting there. I have 10 bikes and 2 old cars. I wish I had a garage for my cars, to be sure. I dream of moving back to the country with a 10 acre property and 4 car garage. Here's some earlier pics
http://vorhese.com/gallery/album259

 

I guess I would qualify as I live in a 700 square foot apartment on top of an 1800 square foot shop where I work. My shop is on 2 acres of land. I also have two more buildings where I can store cars and parts( one 1200 feet, and the other 800 feet)
Pros:
-You are always at work.
-You can save on travel time and gas.
-Personal projects seem to get done faster.

Cons:
-You are always at work.
-People come by at all hours wanting things worked on just to BS.
-You never need to go anywhere, so the world seems to be p***ing you by.

 

I lived in my hanger the last 5 years I was in Cali. It hade a 12x12 bedroom in one corner and the bath/kitchen in the other corner. I used to run into the rudder at night when I had to take a piss. Wouldn't trade that time for any thing.

 

I lived in a 1000 sq ft A/C'ed office in a industrial park type thing, I only had a motorcycle at the time, so I just drove it through the front door and parked in in the front offce. I slept in the offce in the back, closest to the bathroom.

Same deal, put in a stand up shower, but no water heater, so I'd spend the night with my GF a lot of the time just to take a hot shower. Important thing is that just because you can take the smell of old diff. oil while you are working, doesn't mean you can sleep with the smell. Insulate and seal the doors and walls, and get a water heater hooked up.

It's REALLY quiet at night... You won't have neighbors to shoot the **** with, or to look after your place when you aren't there, get an alarm that connects to a service.

Just because your landlord is cool about you living there, doesn't mean that he knows his insurance co. isn't cool about it. Keep a low profile when it comes to living there, don't tell people you don't know that's what you are living there, it could be an insurance person, and he'll inform the landlord that he isn't covered if you die or hurt yourself in there.

 

I live in a two room building that used to be a recording studio. They built a new facility and I do handyman work there for rent. And my band records for free... and I can go play the drums at 3 in the morning.

Which I do, often.

 

howdy all !
my shop and home are in the same building , just a fire proof wall between ...
I have a 100' x 40' shop and my house is a two story batch pad on one end ..... all I do is go thru a door to work ......
nice part is no comute , and customers do not bug me after the doors are closed , well most of the time
I have had alot of people ask why or whom would want to live where they work , how are you ever going to sell it .........
I call my place a two story , two bath house with a 7 car garage and has two drive on lifts ...... would any one out there want that ?

 

I built an 800 sq. ft apartment along one wall of my 3000 sq ft. hanger and have plenty of room for the plane,cars,bikes and yet undetermined future projects. Its divided into bedroom, living room, kitchen and bath. As nice inside as any house i ever lived in, hell a lot better than some. Even if I had the money I wouldn't trade it for a more traditional dwelling. Just me and the damn scorpions!

 

My Dad is trying to sell his 3-story warehouse in Taylor, TX, just 20 minutes from Austin. I have no idea what he is asking. He lives on the 3rd floor. He used to have one in Wichita and he lived on the second floor. Here's his place now.


Bathroom




Outside, he just had it painted.