If I were to do it all over again I'd look for a large warehouse and build a loft type living quarters high on one end. If you've ever read any of Clive Cusslers books about his action hero Dirk Pitt and his living quarters that's how I'd do mine. His was large enough to house his antique car collection and a couple of airplanes that could be taxied out to the runway from his living room. I think it would be neat when you can't sleep to wander out of the bedroom and do some tig welding on your current project until you felt drowsy enough to fall back asleep. The walking commute to work inside would also be great when I'm faced with that 100" foot walk out to the shop through a foot of fresh snow that we get here regularly from November to March. Frank
I did it.....Became single, rented shop in a buisness park. Built apt. in the rear. Got horney, met woman with kids......bought home.....Damn mothernature lol
I keep tellin the wife that's what I would do if she ever left. She says it would make me too happy, so she's staying.
My shop is the largest building in my neighborhood...standing on the roof you can see every house in the hood.
I used to. I still own the shop though. It's pretty awesome. It has 4000 SF footprint. 2500 SF is the shop with some storage upstairs above the machine shop. The other 1500 SF (on the ground) is the loft apartment (with an additional 1000 SF upstairs) in it for a total of 2500 SF living space. I have two overhead hoists in it. One in the shop and the other in the house so that I can lift furniture up to the 2nd floor without carrying it. The guardrail has gates in it so that I can open it up for the furniture. After moving furniture, the crane has a light fixture hanging from it. We used to have a pool table under it. There was a ton of really cool features to it. It's for sale cheap if anybody wants to buy it. Located within 30-45 minutes of both Waco and Temple, Texas.
I've wanted to do this, and plan on doing it when I graduate college... As far as the insurance issue goes I don't understand why it would matter... insurance doesn't make sense to me, ever...
i have a quonset hut for a garage/shop. the neighbors all think its ugly as all hell but it gets the job done. i spend more time in here (yes im in it right now) then i do in the actual house if it were up to me the house would get knocked down so that there would be more space for cars and motorcycle's .
My girlfriend and were looking for a house when she found a home built into a hanger on a private airstrip... Now I open my back door into my 1900 sq ft shop! I love that girl....
House for the last 30 yrs. is small,,2bdroom,1 bath. Six yrs.ago I tore down the old,old small garage and put up a 32x48x12 pole barn bldg. Its well insulated with a mega wood stove,bath w/shower, drain for washing cars,seperate elec. service,cable t.v., xm radio for oldies music,telephone, and very important a lift. Wife said we were official rednecks because we have a garage bigger than our house. I told her thats the way it should have been when we were married 40 yrs. ago.
Add me to the list of rednecks too, as I (and everyone I know with a shop, for that matter) have a shop bigger than my house.
Count me as one who wishes he could live this way. Damn if I don't like JDee's pic. Perfect vantage point to be when some asshat breaks into your shop. Just break out the tranquilizer gun and pop him with a "mickey"........ he'd never figure out where you left him....assuming the train stops somewhere and he can open the freight car. Roger
I park my car in the house. That's me jumping out of my T-Bird while wifey waits to greet me. Does that count?
We had a topic on this in the past: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11463 I ended up moving out of the smaller warehouse in 2005 after real estate development caught up with me. I've since been in a traditional house with a two-car garage and another two-car garage rented from a coworker. It sucks. I'm about to move to Dallas and renovate an old home. The renovation will include adding a four-car shop space. This is what I wrote back in 2004:
My house and shop are seperated by one wall. One door. Works for me. Besides the actual machine shop space, I park 4 cars and a tractor inside.
damn think i want to sell my house now..been resingled and get a firehouse ...slide down the pole jump in car an away i go dont see the downside at all ...just hope theres stairs be a bugger trying to climb a pole
I turned half of my garage into my bedroom .It use to be 20 x40 and now the garage is 23 x40 Then I cut a hole in the wall to the original bedroom .Made access to the house and walled up the other side ...20 ft wall .No door .
recently i bought an 80 year old Briggs and Stratton motor from a guy about an hour from me. He Had a 2 car size garage attached to his house. 1 side wall of the garage had an old couch, a small TV, a radio and a wood stove. It looked like he definitely spent a few nights out there. I was jealous.
my boss loves living in his shop he likes being abble to walk out at nite and tinker around if he cnt sleep
I've been thinking about doing this as well...theres a shop that should be going up for sale within the next year it was a former fire station and it has a living room, bathroom, huge kitchen, two offices, and above the shop is a pretty large upstairs which would make a nice apartment..basically everything I need in one place sounds pretty nice to me oh and why is there 5 pages and only a few picts!...we need more picts!! haha
Are you parking them in the house . . or in the shop Pete? You better watch out, us flathead boys are keeping an eye on you
before i came to work at Hot Rod Chassis, i had my own shop. I walled off 300 square feet of it into a small apt. I had a mini kitchen, a sleeping loft(shop had 14ft ceilings), tv area below the loft, bathroom, and an Office. it was kinda cool. only thing i didn't like about it ....you couldn't get away from work after the day was over. i really had to learn how to turn my brain off.
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