I am downsizing and moving sometime in the next 3-6 months or so. I am
an old single guy, so I can do whatever I want. I am a sculptor,
metalworker, carpenter, and racer/motorhead, with a race car, 3 other
cars and 2 motorcycles all currently in project mode.
Rather than my original plan of finding a ~1000 sq foot house and then
adding a 25'x40' shop in the back, I am considering a new approach,
inspired by the cheap foreclosure houses that are available in a nearby
bankrupt development. My hare-brained scheme is to put my shop _inside_
a two story, 2000 sq ft, 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath house, taking up the 1st
floor and garage, and actually living only up on the second floor. The
houses I am looking at all have attached garages and no basements. This
is outside of Austin, where the shop would have to be air conditioned.
Let's not talk about all the legal, insurance, building code, HOA, OSHA,
FNMA or other issues. Those won't matter for a long time, if ever, I
don't think. I would be paying cash for this house and all these
modifications, less than $150k total, no bank or mortgage involved.
I am thinking I would only have to make a few structural changes, all of
which could easily(?) be changed back when I want to sell it:
1. move the kitchen and and extend it's plumbing/electrical into the
bedroom above it,
2. wall off the front door entry way and stairs leading up to the 2nd
floor, much as an old 2-family urban house or a students' rental
house would have.
3. remove any inconvenient, non-load bearing, interior walls.
4. open up the doorway into the garage to be wide enough to easily
move materials, tools, and projects in and out through the garage
and it's garage door.
5. widen and convert the sliding glass doors that lead out to the
back so that they can be opened enough to roll a car in and out
6. take up the 1st floor carpet and either epoxy the concrete
subfloor or lay some kind of tile or whatever.
7. add power, air, dust collection, exhaust fans, and all the normal
shop infrastructure, but this and the floor would have to be done
anyway in a new shop building
8. in one house I looked at, the living room ceiling was high enough
to have a lift; if I build a shop, it will definitely have a lift,
but I don't own one now so it is not a firm requirement
What do you think? What have I forgotten? Is this foolish or the
ultimate lifestyle improvement??? Do you know of anyone else who has a
similar setup?
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