Now that would be the way to do it. Just buy the whole town. Oh and I am with everyone else. Either move there or don't do it.
45 miles to my shop is calculated before going gas bridge toll time it's at Infineon Raceway and that is the only motivator most days another asked about your real life kids and etc .... Better weigh the time value
Guess I'll be the devil's advocate here as I did just what Mickyc is interested in doing. Tired of paying monthly rent to store my projects, I bought a little 1 1/2 acre place exactly 2 hours from me. It had an unfinished 25x50 building on it with a couple small cabins from 1939. At the time, 12 years ago you could spin around 360 and everything in the town was for sale. I bought it cheap and cut a hole in the end of the building yielding a 6 car garage. Filled it up and built a Miracle Steel 30x60 steel building next to it I can work in. We go up April - Oct. most weekends and the entire summer (wife teaches). Fixed up one of the cabins to stay in and built a couple gardens to keep wife happy/busy. I get to work on projects as I wish and can always drag one back home for the winter if needed. At the time we felt the property pretty much worthless to others and would be stuck with it for life as well. 12 years later the town properties recovered and its worth 10x what we paid. I'm happy, wife is happy and the dog loves being able to run around free compaired to our 50x100 lot back home. I get to store as much crap as I wish (no zoning town) and its one of the best things I've done. Lets not be doom & gloom here guys, not everyone can can afford to play in our own backyard. If you can buy it "cheap", I'd say go for it.
I built my shop at my cabin, 440 miles / 8 hours from my home. I put the building up in 2003, with the intention of retiring there. Worked out great, as I retired last January. In the interim, we spent virtually all of our vacation time / long weekends there. I wouldn't have done it any other way. Alan
Mickeyc You didnt say what size the building is but here is what I once did.. There was a 100 X 40 building in a town not much unlike what you describe . It had been on the market for over a year and I offered them 1/3 of the asking price and I accepted an counter offer of 1/2 asking price . I sectioned off 2 30 X 40 and rented them out to fellow hobbyists and kept 40 X40 for myself . The rent paid off the building and paid taxes , plus we all have individual skills that complete projects faster Good luck what ever you decide
My shop is about 30 yards from the back door. If I had it my way I would walk out the back door of the house and be in the shop.
I have no shop at my house and I have a friend that has a full shop with tools just 15 min from my house. He has told me a number of times i could use his shop. The thing i run into is that somedays I just thought i felt like working on my truck only to turn around and go back in the house. I say the closer the better.
sounds like the price is right, but it will suck when u get home and u remember that u forgot to shut some thing off! ha
I would have to say no. We built our vacation home about an hour and a half away. At first we spent every weekend there, and our vacations..as time progressed we spent less time there. When we were there, we knew we should be getting things done at the other place, and visa versa. Our main home has a four car garage, the vacation home a three car garage (going from 7, to a 3 car garage sucked though). I ended up retiring early, and moved into our vacation house, and now we rent out the other house..just got to be too much of a hassle going back and forth for us. If you decide to do it, I hope it works out for you.
My Shop is 6 mi. from home. Perfect. When I lived in Toronto, our shop was 75 mi. The cost of getting there and back would build another rod. I hated the time it took. I wanted to be there working, not working to get there. JMO
I bought a house and bldg. 40x60 55 miles from home just to store my stuff in, I can fit 16 cars in with paint touching and it has been great, yet I still have 10 or more cars at home and I rotate cars as I want to drive them, my shop is at home so no problem working on stuff and by renting house out I recouped almost all of what I paid for the place to start with, now I,m redoing house to sell it and should come out with a profit. I also have a 30x50 steel bldg. stored in that garage not put together yet just in case I sell it all and can put it up on property I have at home.
My shop is only about 45 min. away, and its a real pain in the ass some times. At least for me, weather plays a big part in the winter time. I guess if you have weeks at a time to spend there, it may be ok. But for me its something that has to be planed, rather than just walking out to a shop on your property. After the 45 min. drive, then its another 30/45 min. for the shop to heat up. Some times I find myself, not wanting to make the drive if I only have a few hours to work. But if the shop was at the house, I would be more likley to spend the time. Just my .02.
Dude life isnt full of endless minutes. 3 hours in the car is crazy. I wouldn't drive that far for more than a week even if there was a orgy full of hot chicks and free food and drink. You'll grow to hate it. Incidentally, my shop is in my back yard too. Perfect on these snowed in blizzard days.
I'm with the guys who say that unless you are single and can figure out a way to stay up there at several days at a time when you go up to work on the cars it's not that great of a deal. I'd spring for a smaller shop within a few miles of the house and even that can get to be a pain. You could pick up an inexpensive camper of camp trailer and even tuck it in the corner of the shop for a place to sleep. three hours of driving time to go work on the hotrod is going to be a big factor in deciding to not go after a month or two.
shop? what shop? i live on a postage stamp here in so-cal. garage is full (cars and parts) my driveway is steep, made from spamped cement, hard to use a creeper or floorjack... i've got 3 projects, i use a winch to drag my cars up and down the driveway... that said i wouldn't drive 1.5 hours to have a shop and i would cry about having to drive 10 miles...
TOO FAR AWAY. If it was broken into even with an alarm it would be empty before you got there. Right next to the police station isn't necessarily the safest place to be. Years ago a friend lived right next to one here in MD and his pot plants were taller than the 6' fence around the house. I would find some place closer.
Apparently, being next door to a police station doesn't count for much. Hahahaha..... http://sparkreport.net/2009/11/marijuana-farm-busted-25-feet-from-l-a-police-station/
It would be neat if you could do a thread on this and post some pics of the "town". It would be worth checking it out on a road trip someday.
That's a great idea! I haven't been out there in a while and I've been wanting to get back to see how he has been progressing. It's a work in progress, but it was already pretty cool the last time I was there. I'll make plans to get out there withing the next couple of months, talk to Mike, take some pics and see what he thinks.
Hello everyone, thanks for the thoughts on this subject. Most of your responces mirror the things I have considered. I would spend more than one day at a time there by converting the office to a small living quaters or placing a camper on the premises. the building is 40ft. x60ft. with high 12ft. side walls and a pitched roof. I did offer a low ball price of half of the asking price. The realtor said the owners were insulted and would not even care to make a counter offer. Ater I refused to raise my offer they did make a counter. I was considering trying to come in at half of the difference, but now will stick to my original offer. If they accept my offer I will buy it. If not ,I will move on. I find considerations from guys with similar interests most helpful thanks MickeyC.
If the town is dying, how long will this "police station" be there? It takes a tax base to support a cop shop. And if you're considering staying there for a few days at a time, keep in mind that you will also need occasional downtime to unwind, 'cause if you're like me after 8-10 hours in the shop, I need television, beer and bed. Unless it's an absolute steal of a deal, I'd keep looking.
I now drive 23 miles one way to and from my shop , most days I love the drive to the shop ,however when I work late (which is every night) sometimes the drive home, about thirty minutes is a pain in my ass. I say think it through a few times.......It will get old ,quick......
I'm in a similar search. Everything here in Salt Lake is pretty crammed together so finding a house with a shop is not a likely possibility, so I've been looking all over. I 've come to the realization that I don't want to be far from my shop. A couple miles at most. There are a few reasons why: I'll be more likely to stop by at random which is a good thing for security. I'll be able to kill a couple hours if I want and not have the majority of that time be spent on driving. Also, like someone ele mentioned, being forgetful. If I need to run back and grab something or go check on the alarm or whatever, I'd like to be close by... peace of mind, less stress, more fun, more done, yadda yadda yadda.
hell my shop is 50 feet from my back door and it gets hard some days to get there.. i couldnt imagine 80 freaking miles..No way..nada
My brother lets me work and store all my stuff in his shop that is about 45 minutes from my house. It is an awesome setup and he refuses any $ for rent or utilities, but the ride is a killer. It really takes the fun out of it. I don't know how the commercial real estate market is in your area, but here in Michigan is totally sucks. You can have your pick of nice industrial buildings and they are going for less than 1/2 of what these guys wanted a couple years ago. I would keep looking for something closer. Good luck!
Don't take this the wrong way,, but you are getting older,,it's a matter of time and you won't be able to find the shop. I say keep it closer for all the above stated reasons.
I did that for about 2yrs. and I was only 15 miles away. It may seem good now to save the money, but the time sucks. Theres nothing like your shop being close. Think it through before you make a decision
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