Thanks to all who replied, and I especially am honored to be Chad's hero!
More thoughts and responses:
Regarding splitting the house in two: It was suggested that I am really
looking for a house to convert to a duplex, as a way to explain my
wanting to duplicate the kitchen upstairs, split the entry way, and get
two separate hvac systems. And then the downstairs apartment becomes my
'craft area' or 'artist studio', emphasizing that I am an amateur and
that this is not a business as is implied by the word 'shop'.
I am not old enough to consider an elevator, but thinking of other
infrastructure changes to do when I do this remodel was the specific
reason I posted. So I appreciate the suggestions that I work on
isolating the upstairs air from the downstairs air, greasy work from
clean work, and noisy stuff out back. As it so happens, my current
house has two separate heat pumps, one for up and one for down, and I
think I will replicate that.
I also understand the need to respect the structural issues before I
start removing walls, and that I need to get an engineer to look at the
house before I fire up the SawzAll. This will all be looked at as I
look at possible houses, obviously, an open floor plan would work better
for me. As long as I can get stuff from the garage into the house and
my cars from the outside into the room with the high ceiling, I'll be
fine. And I wouldn't mind having an office and clean workroom in what
would have been the den. Anyway, I will try real hard not to bring the
house down on top of me, and if I can find a place where this massive
modification is unnecessary, even better.
The HOA / building code / insurance issues are unclear at this point. I
will deal with these as I begin to look for the specific place to buy.
I'm at the very beginning of this plan (fantasy?), and I have only
looked at one place, randomly chosen because it was in front of me and
met my initial criteria -- twice the space at half the price of what I
have been looking at. I had not realized that this huge price
differential existed based on being in town, where prices have been
holding up and even rising vs. 10 miles out in a half-empty
subdivision. I had been assuming that I would stay in town, where I
have been for 27 years, but just by going a few miles away, I have
hundreds of houses to look at...
So thanks again, great feedback, exactly what I was looking for, and
I'll let you know my thinking as I move ahead.
steveh
Chad on LEG wrote:
> You are my hero!
> chad
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