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My new place! The Mopar Mill!

RacerRick

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 6, 2007
Messages
185
Location
Durham Region, Ontario, Canada
As promised, here is the new place I recently purchased. It is a partially renovated feed mill, with a pretty nice one bedroom apartment above the main floor retail space. But I really bought it for the shop, and the fact that I could sell my place in the city, stop renting small shop I share now, and most importantly, have no mortgage!



That's my winter beater Olds out front.

The shop itself is approx. 40'x40' with what looks like 16ft clear height. The heat is one of those natural gas fired tube heaters. It seems to easily heat the shop up. There is also an old oil furnace, but it doesn't work, the tank is empty, and I am removing it. The floor seems to measure up at over 5" thick and the shop is all block construction. Its also all clear span, with a couple of 2ft web I-beams holding up the 2x12's for the floor above. I guess they used to carry some weight on the second floor.

Above the shop is another full floor, that currently is unheated and partially insulated. It needs the floor to be redone to cover the big holes in it left by the removal of the feed chutes. It will just be storage for now, but one day I would like to get it fully insulated and heated. There is a small third floor that housed equipment at one time. It needs its floors redone also - big holes left in it from the removal of whatever equipment was there in its previous life.

The offer I accepted on my old house has a closing date in January, so i have a full month to move. The apartment is a nice one bedroom, but the kitchen needs finishing. I can live in it now, but the well has been fallow for over a year and needs to be shocked and retested. The septic seems to work ok so far, and I am trying to find the cleanout so I can get the honey truck out here and give it a pump out. The nice part is that the front part of the building is fully insulated, but I currently do not know the R rating.

I have paid the rent on my current 20x40 shared shop until May, so I have plenty of time to move all my tools and equipment, cars, and plumb the pvc air lines in the new shop (kidding!)

The plan right now is to get the heating systems checked and cleaned, upgrade the heat in the living space since I want to add central air, and just move in. Eventually I will get my shop moved in, resheath the floors so nobody can fall through the holes, and generally just fix the place up.
 
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classicJackets

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Joined
Sep 26, 2014
Messages
448
Location
SE Michigan
What a perfect place! That's exactly the kind of place I would like to live. You now have freedom to open it up/ play with all the space however you would like and get to see your improvements everyday.

Can't wait to see what you do with the place! Any more pictures of it?
 

sean Buick 76

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Joined
May 7, 2013
Messages
3,221
Location
Edmonton Alberta
I am subscribing to this thread, it will be REALLY cool seeing this come together!!!

I am guessing you are planning a lift based on mentioning the thickness of the floor.... What kind of projects are you working on? Lots of car/truck guys on here!

I think this is a really smart move! Mortgage free! AWESOME!!!
 
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RacerRick

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 6, 2007
Messages
185
Location
Durham Region, Ontario, Canada
Going into the shop are my 69' Dart, 67' Belvedere, 59' Apache, a Jeep J10, and the winter beater Olds.

The shop is located near Uxbridge, Ontario.

It was one hell of a fight to get the place. Bridge financing was a nightmare because the zoning. The zoning is great, commercial/automotive/residential. but unless its only residential, the banks don't want to touch it.

If the sale goes through on the old place (keeping fingers crossed) I will be basically just breaking even - paying everything off, but no extra cash to do big renovations right away. But I think owning my place outright is doing pretty good for a guy in his thirties, especially a place that is only 45 minutes from downtown Toronto if the traffic cooperates.

I will be putting in a hoist or two. I want to get a rotary forward asymetrical 2 post, and a four post alignment rack. Maybe an older Bear or similar. I see a lot of them cheap since they only go to 17" rims. I can easily fit 6 cars in there right now and work on them.

I like the idea of putting a deck at the second floor, but that would be a couple years off. The plan for this year is get the place all sealed up, upgrade the heating and add central air in the living area, and get it on municipal water. Plus getting my shop setup, of course.

It only has a 100 amp service, but I want to upgrade to 200 amps and put 100 into the shop. I don't know if three phase is available, but I bet it is not. This would be something that can wait a bit. Between the air compressor, welders, and hoist, there will be a lot of power required.

I think the drain in the shop is a dry well, so I am not sure what to do with that yet either.

I have pics of the shop but they all came out blurry. Didn't think you guys would be interested.
 

daveroy

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 4, 2009
Messages
735
Location
Omaha NE
on the honey truck pump out issue... call around to the local pump guys and see if you can find the one that previously serviced it. They will know exactly where teh access is. Come spring time it wont be hard to find the leach field, and guess/investigate from there if you have to!
 

Garage Dog

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Joined
Dec 28, 2012
Messages
633
Location
Minnesota
Very Cool!

Looks like you will be a busy guy for a while, hope you have time document and let us follow along!

Best of Luck on you endeavor!

GD
 

yaidunno

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Joined
Feb 10, 2011
Messages
1,336
Location
WI
Very cool! Looking forward to some more pictures and updates along the way!
 
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RacerRick

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 6, 2007
Messages
185
Location
Durham Region, Ontario, Canada
Its just for my enjoyment right now. I rent another shop as a hobby shop and build and sell a car or two a year on the side. Actually I build them for myself, and someone offers be too much money for me to keep them....horrible problem to have.

The sale on my house fell through, so it will be a bit until the expensive stuff gets done at the mill, like getting connected to city water, and upgrading the HVAC in the front.
 

my58

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Joined
Apr 12, 2005
Messages
238
Location
Ventura County California
The sale on my house fell through, so it will be a bit until the expensive stuff gets done at the mill, like getting connected to city water, and upgrading the HVAC in the front.

No worries, eventually it will all get done. So if I may, let me offer a bit of un-requested advice.

When I was young like you I seemed to be in a bit of a hurry to finish whatever project I was working on. that always added a bit of stress to myself because of it. Now that I am up there in age I have learned to enjoy things at a slower pace, I care less about completion dates and more about enjoying the moment. It has made things I always loved and enjoyed doing even better than before. So just take your time and follow your plan.

There is nothing wrong going a bit slower, what I used to do all night, now takes me all night to do, and my wife says its just as good. LOL

Your project is awesome. Keep us posted on your progress and get us more pictures!
 

Joe13

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Joined
Nov 27, 2012
Messages
60
Location
York, ME
Subscribed. I would love to see some pictures of the cars that will make call this place home!
 

sublime68charger

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Joined
Sep 9, 2014
Messages
5,415
Location
SW Wisconsin
any Pics of the cars you have redone?

Im gonna guess they are Mopars?

good luck with your house sale hopefully you can get that worked out.
 

-->

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Joined
Dec 19, 2010
Messages
1,501
Location
NY outer borrough.
Id like to see where this goes too. Good luck with the home sale ! ( Im dreaming of the same thing myself... ) Why not, subscribed !
 
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RacerRick

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 6, 2007
Messages
185
Location
Durham Region, Ontario, Canada
No worries, eventually it will all get done. So if I may, let me offer a bit of un-requested advice.

When I was young like you I seemed to be in a bit of a hurry to finish whatever project I was working on. that always added a bit of stress to myself because of it. Now that I am up there in age I have learned to enjoy things at a slower pace, I care less about completion dates and more about enjoying the moment. It has made things I always loved and enjoyed doing even better than before. So just take your time and follow your plan.

There is nothing wrong going a bit slower, what I used to do all night, now takes me all night to do, and my wife says its just as good. LOL

Your project is awesome. Keep us posted on your progress and get us more pictures!

I just want to get the heat and water done to make the place comfortable to live in. The well is showing bacterial contamination from being fallow, and the current heat in the living area is marginal at best. We will see how the water is after the well has been shocked, and if the heat cam keep up with winter.


any Pics of the cars you have redone?

Im gonna guess they are Mopars?

good luck with your house sale hopefully you can get that worked out.

Not all mopars, but I certainly have always had them. Last four were a 67' Camaro, 55' Chev Handyman, a 57' Plymouth, and a 57 Pontiac. The only one I completely finished was the 57`Pontiac (I had three or four of them at the time). The rest were still in primer when I sold them.

I don`t seem to take pictures of them when they are done. Mostly when I just get them. I have some in photobucket.

http://s219.photobucket.com/user/RacerRickxx/library/?sort=3&page=1
 

nicksL98

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 5, 2014
Messages
126
This is what I wanted but bought a house instead. 3 years later we buy out an industrial supply house and they offer the building for $375k all block, 10k sf, 1500sf offices and a full kitchen and presidents office with a huge full bathroom. Wish I could have afforded it :(
 
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RacerRick

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 6, 2007
Messages
185
Location
Durham Region, Ontario, Canada
I spent the weekend sealing up the place - the previous owner did a lot of work, but all of it was 80% done. I put up a bunch of exterior sheathing over a hole in the third floor wall to a greenhouse, since the greenhouse is not long for this world. The wind is ripping up the plastic its made from and its on the flat roof on the top, so this should at least keep the weather out until thee spring when I can side it properly.

I also ended up sealing around most of the windows and there are a few that still require the flashing to be installed. That will be next weekend.

I also started moving all the car and bike parts from my basement. There is at least two more van loads of that stuff, and I still haven't touched my shop.

I also took some more pics for the insurance agent, and here is a nice one:
 
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