Anyone live in a non-standard house? Like a shop house or converted barn?

I have always wanted to build something that isn't necessarily a standard run of the mill house. Like a converted factory or an old car dealership.

 

For 10 years.

 

I have a barn on a few Acres that I keep my stuff in, boats, cars, etc. I've been giving consideration to turning it into a barn-da-minium or whatever they're calling um. My buddy just built one and it's beautiful.

 

Don't leave us hanging...

 

It was an industrial complex, 3000 sf unit total. 600sf of it was office I converted to apartment . The area above the office got finished off, W&D up there, lounge area with media and pool table. It was really nice. So like 1200 living area and I even had my hot tub room. I kept it under the radar though. I eventually took 2 more units for 9000 sf shop.
Several factors beyond my control prompted a move otherwise I would still be there.
While looking for a new place we looked at many alternative properties. Wharehouse buildings, churches (lots of churches) day care center and what ever else popped up. Down the street from me is/was a small congregation church with large church hall and pastors house. The guy that bought it gutted 2/3 of the building and that’s his shop. Did a nice job and spruced up the house. Nice place.
The problem I had with the places we looked at had all kinds of issues that were incredibly expensive to correct. Very doable but somebody would need a large bankroll.
We found a place with 8200 sf of building up. They were completely bare and dirt floors, loved the house. Concrete, in floor heating, electric, insulation for 4300 sf shop 3900 over flow barn.
Here I’ve got all the regular “home stuff” I didn’t have to deal with at the old shop. That eats a lot of time. Plus building out the shop while you’re trying to work in it ain’t for the faint of heart. This is probably why I used to have free time and extra money. My hot rod suffered because of the move, my wallet suffered because once again I’m a home owner trying to build a shop out of a horse arena.

 

I've dreamed of a "Barndominium" situation for years. I think Amy would even be up for it if it suited her needs, but seems like a pipe dream.

 

Does a garage for 8-10 hr's daily count ?

 

Fire stations in rural towns make great homes and Shop/garages.

 

My home was a one room school house at one time. It was moved to town and remodeled inside as a house a long time ago. I few years ago while cutting holes in the floor to fit heat run outlets in each room I found that the floors where 6" thick. 5-6 layers of planks. I figure that worn soft wood floors were just overlaid with new boards several times. I've seen square nails, wood pegs and a lot of hard lumber. So hard it has to be drilled to accept nails. And of course no insulation in the walls.

 

Built a log home when I retired.

 

Back in the late '90's I rented a place that was originally a wheelhouse on a barge
Story goes that back in the late 40's /early 50's there was a s****yard on the southern end of Lake Lansing and apparently they bought a junk Barge that was on Lake Michigan and had it flown from there to Lake Lansing where they cut it up.
They built a foundation with block knee walls just 2 blocks high and placed the wheelhouse on it.
I don't know what it originally looked like but it was a strange house. Very small rooms especially the stairs( yes 2 story) with marine plywood for paneling. small evenly spaced windows down both sides but none on the ends which I thought strange for a wheelhouse but they were probably filled in. When I was there the junkyard itself was long gone and the rest of the original property is now very affluent. They all hated that ugly little house in front of their fancy digs so I'm sure they celebrated when it burnt down a few yrs after I moved. But I thought it was a cool little piece of history myself and Haslett is a town with a lot of strange history

 

Here in the Northwoods of Wisconsin more than one man has had a large pole barn built and then built a home/apartment inside. This is generally on acreage where restrictions/building codes are few unlike a residential area and inspections are few/nonexistent. You end up with a unique home, very large storage area, pretty reasonable cost BUT resale ability is tough IMO as it's not everyone's cup of tea, guys maybe, wife's not so much. Good Luck with your adventure.

 

I have pondered a shop/house for a retirement plan.

 

I couldn’t talk her into a missile silo. But she really was all over the barndominum kind of things and converted structures. Financing them requires some creativity.

 

There’s several contractors putting up wood post and frame barns around my area and converting them into houses. They have to add more wood framing in the walls to stabilize the outside walls . So they don’t flex in the wind and break the drywall . My concern is even though treated post are set into the ground and a slab floor is poured . The post will rot off in time . A Friend of mine has a Morton barn , its wooden post and wood framed. He has had to replace the treated post that go into the ground. The barn is 40 years old . My Grandfather and Dad built a large pole barn here on the farm 45 years ago . Using old high line poles for the uprights. The poles on the outside of the barn are deteriorating.

 

Yeah, that's the issue with the post/beam structures. If I did the red iron building, I would use SIPS panels inside.
https://raycore.com/
Have them free standing, so the wind load wouldn't affect the drywall. You know what kinda wind we have around here Kurte. Folks in other parts of the US don't have to worry about it as much.

 

We live in a converted WW II Army barracks that was moved to our location when the army fort near here closed. My wife and I have worked on it for 43 years. The building is the same as the one I spent my first few days in at USN boot camp many years ago. Not exactly what you are thinking but it is repurposed.

 

I’m on a few farm, shop, pole building sites and groups. Poles in the ground is always a hot topic putting it mildly. There’s many different view points on this one. One of the biggest issues is getting the poles with the right treatment. Obviously there’s concerns there but pole buildings were supposed to be fastest cheapest way to get equipment and livestock out of the weather.
There’s quite the debate about foundations, stem walls, posts on concrete peers with metal brackets, where concrete floors start or stop in relation to post faces.

 

Where I live in Northern Oklahoma the clay soils are extremely active. It expands greatly when wet and shrinks as much dry . The foundation at my house moves as does most of the foundations in this area . The only houses that don’t move are the ones with full ba*****ts . A neighbor built a house he dug a 3’ dia hole 12’ deep every 8’ along the outer and inner walls . Poured those full of cement and rebar . Then poured a stem wall on top of the piers . The house is covered with stone . Is 25 years old and hasn’t moved .

 

That is very cool, but only works if you want to live alone, like no wife or significant other.

 

There was a member here at one time that lived in a cigar factory, I think his name was Larry. HRP

 

After my wife and I married in 1984 we bought a church (circa 1820) that was in the process of being renovated into a residence. We lived there for four and a half years before we sold it due to a change in job location.

When we moved in, it was heated strictly with wood heat. We are happy with where we live now, but we will always have a fondness for the place.

Here is a picture of the cemetery located directly behind the church. When we lived there, we maintained the cemetery, but the current owners have let it grow up as can be seen in the photo.

 

A farmer built a tri-steel building and turned it into a home . North of Newkirk 25 years ago. When the ice storm took out power and the steel got chilled. When it warmed up the steel sweated and he had to replace all the sheet rock

 

Check out Scary Larry's place. Photos on the first page of the vintage houses thread. Vintage houses, post a pic of yours. | The H.A.M.B. (jalopyjournal.com)

 

My brother lives in an old church. The sanctuary is the living room and kitchen area. He built the master bedroom in the corner of that area. On the other side is a hall from front to back of the building. Other side of the hall has five evenly spaced rooms that were Sunday school rooms. He transformed on room into a bathroom and the rest were the kids bedrooms. At the far end of the hall is the original restroom.
He calls it the House of Rowe.

 

This drawing was from memory of staying in the unusual housing that my brother had built in the far reaches of the downtown area of Santa Barbara. It was a mix of old houses, single story commercial buildings and construction lots all mixed together. It had to be zoned r-1, r-2 and c-1 to be all mixed together as it was.

Hello,

My brother’s friend had a small art gallery and gift shop in one of those little old storefronts along State Street. He converted the back area of the long shop that fronted the big gl*** window facing the street. It had a set up of a platform bed and the toilet/shower area was on the other side of the back area of the whole shop.
The original art gallery build in a similar shop in lower State Street.

The customers that came into the shop could not see the back platform area as it was high and there was a temporary wall /door leading back to that area of the store. When we visited, it was an unusual build to say the least. The experience of doing the design and construction helped later on for my brother.

Those two guys built this conversion of an old garage industrial building, several blocks away, on a side street off of the main drag (State St.) of downtown Santa Barbara. It was 1984 and it was a cool place to have access to his toys. But, the building was just a large garage door opening at one end and a cave past the front door visitors entrance. The plumbing was in place for a small kitchen and full bathroom/shower area. But, there was no bedroom. It was one big empty industrial building.

So, they started with the tall space over the two plumbed in areas. With two heavy duty support beams and two 6x6 poles for support, the top landing area was well supported. The 1 inch outdoor plywood was used as the base floor covering for the platform bed.

They made a ladder to get access to the platform bed area. Also, there was an opening window on that far wall next to the bed area.

Jnaki

It was a cool set up and fell into the city’s code for building a garage workspace and living quarters. We visited for a week in 1984 and for me, the platform bed area gave me a great view of the living room area where the conversations took place and across the way, the projects work area had plenty of space, too.

It was interesting to be talking in the sofa/chair seating area with the car/motorcycle project work area just steps away. For all of the garages I have been in, the smell of gas and oil was not in this warehouse. My brother was meticulous in keeping the process of cleaning the remnants off of the floor and work area. He had a project going on each time we had stopped in later visits. But, as usual my “keen nose” wife and I did not notice any typical garage/gas smells emanating from the workspace.

But, when the Yater Surfboards Shop Factory started their glossing of surfboards, the smell of curing resin was obviously floating around outside and it came in through the windows… as surfers we were used to the curing resin odors. At night, it was the ocean breeze that came in the same windows…

So, a living space, a few steps away from a large workspace with several projects going on in their respective locations was nice. No need to fire up the car and/or go to a separate car garage area, it was just a few steps from the living area in the same building. YRMV

 

Yeah, he has a crazy place. Not much of that available around here. Oklahoma has only been a state for a little over 100 years. If the city doesn't raze it, tornadoes do.

 

I've seen picsof different style home/shop combos being built out of stacked shipping containers. Would be different!

 

@Roothawg I saw @ Big Ken back over the holidays. He said he's now living in a shop/house combo in Missouri. Sounded like a nice gig to me. Maybe reach out to him, Im sure he'd be glad to p*** on any helpful info.