Am I crazy?

[rollinlower]

I am looking at a house to purchase a house, and the first thing I'm going to do is start adding a real garage, bigger than the two bay already attached, while this is looking to be 75'x80 16' ceilings. turning part of one bay currently attached to the house into a master bath, the only thing iv never done fully by self is anything to do with the rafters and the concrete (which I will be farming out after the roof and walls are up). This will be for personal builds, electrical on restorations from my brothers shop as well as some reassembly, I am planning to add a lathe, mill and assorted grinders band saws and such lord have mercy this road I travel cant leave stuff alone.

 

[firebirdparts]

The hard part is finding a house where you can put a 75 x 80 x 16 building. The rest is easy. Just need some money and it'll happen.

 

[rollinlower]

Have my eye on the place, next to my brothers shop, Iv been a life long renter, preferring to work out of a three bay garage Iv rented for the last few years, but I know I can always keep the bays filled plus my projects, the garage as Iv priced it out in my mind will be about the same cost as the house with me and some friends help except the concrete bout four acres, in the country, only two downsides though I’m sure some wouldn’t agree is no cell signal and no high speed internet, back to satellite internet.

 

[tomtomgt356]

"Am I crazy?" Well, if you have to ask....

I don't have any advice on building it, but I would check your local county codes and requirements. I live out in the country, but my county limits accessory buildings to 1,000 SF per acre. Here you would need at least 6 acres to build a building that size.

 

[orangeblood]

yes...that is why you are a member of this forum.

 

[kd3pc]

you might double check with Zoning to make sure you are legal...if that matters.

It is always cheaper to buy the biggest, best shop you can - as compared to "building" one (or another one)

 

[txvwnut]

Nope your not crazy. The wife and I have been looking at new places and the main requisite is where is the shop going to be.

 

[buildingup]

As it was mentioned. Call the township or city building department to see what the restriction are for that parcel. You'll be able to tell quickly if you are able to do it or not. In my area I am able to put a total of 20% of my property under a roof with hardly any restrictions. Many places have restrictions stating that you can only have X amount of garage space compared to the house and so far away from the property lines along with height restrictions.

Good luck on the adventure

 

[larry_g]

It's threads like this that makes the OP's location important.

OP, your not crazy in wanting what you say. The crazy comes when your try to accomplish this and find out after purchase the local government will not let you. Include in your list of things to check out; Is there enough electrical power to the site to power up the machines you list.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[SGKent]

why not just buy a house with what you want already there? One thing for sure, I would not be going into debt if you are to add onto it before the primary mortgage is paid off. If you have money to pay cash for the home then by all means build your dream home. We are in an economic boom right now but like all booms, there will be slow downs. The Federal debt is unsustainable and when we cut back on spending things will slow. Don't be over extended financially. Lee Iacocca (think Ford Mustang and Chrysler) said once that his parents were quite rich before the depression. They owned over 100 rental properties and were making money hand over fist. There wasn't anything they couldn't buy. Except that they weren't smart enough to keep one property free and clear so when the slowdown came they lost every single one and had to live on the street. Think about it if you are taking on debt to build before you own that property free and clear. I learned a lot during 35 years in the mortgage industry, and left well before the meltdown - be a consumer debtor only out of necessity. Avoid debt at all costs. You need a place to sleep at night that is both secure physically and financially.

 

[firebirdparts]

why not just buy a house with what you want already there? .

I would definitely buy a house with a 75 by 80 shop. I've never seen one, but if I ever do, I'll rent them a moving van myself.

 

[u2slow]

Not crazy. (Or I'm just as crazy )

Agreed on building big. If that's not big enough, see if you can get by enclosing only a portion of it. Open, dry storage under the same roof is still a win. In my case, I built to approx 40x50, but was only allowed to have 754 sqft enclosed. Also built with high enough ceiling for mezzanine potential.

For funding... if there's real-estate fluctuations there's a potential to buy well below assessed value. Then you quickly secure a credit line against the equity surplus.

 

[matt_i]

75' wide is probably either a red iron building or going to need some support posts...you mentioned rafters...

But, you're not crazy. I have plenty of space and should never complain...however I
was thinking of building a 40x80 "some day"....

 

[rollinlower]

Location is northeast Tennessee, and I have built three with my brother and father and theirs no zoning once outside of city limits thank goodness, at the price I’m getting the property and house for the shop will be the same price and building it so farther down this rabbit hole we go

 

[PelicanPines]

Some level of crazy is fine... so yes you are crazy... but good crazy... not flapping arms singing nursery rhymes crazy.

Are you nuts... no. Do you want to play with nuts in the privacy of your own shop... yes. I do too.

 

[SGKent]

6000 sq ft. That is a lot of space. It could also be considered commercial space which can take a different zoning than AG or RES. You could park 8 or 9 semi-truck/trailers in there side by side.

 

[pmiranda]

First home? What's your life situation? If you're young you might think about what changes (getting married, kids, etc.) could lead you to care about stuff other than the shop space. That's not to say don't do it, just think about how much money you want to put into it if you end up moving away and selling it.

A couple years back I was thinking about putting a lift in my uncle's shop but didn't get around to it before he got divorced. Now his ex owns that shop and I need to make other plans.

 

[Ray-CA]

None of us are crazy......but we are carriers

Ray

 

[MushCreek]

I agree; that does seem rather large. When I had my business, I had a full machine shop with 5 employees, plus a number of 'toys'. The shop was 1800 square feet. If I had 6000 sq ft, I'd just fill it with projects I'd never get around to. My current space is about 900 sq ft, and I have a machine shop, woodworking, and a lot of projects I'll probably never get around to.

 

[rollinlower]

Right now I have three trucks in various stages of full builds that I try and spend some of what little free time I get between, selling paint and other products, working on restorations at my brothers shop and working on what ever junk dad drags around, plus what ever my sons think of tearing up.