Open discussion topic

[428]

We've been thinnking about downsizing in the next few years, with the amount of stuff we have it would take that long anyway. But we don't want to give up much garage space as cars are our hobby, in fact once we downsize we'll probably aquire more classic cars.
Given that, we've kicked two different ideas around.

One would be a smaller house with std 2 car garage on undeveloped property, build a much bigger detached garage but much less landscaping.
Downside is the property will still require upkeep even if it's a fescue field and we do like a nice yard, just not a big yard anymore. The garage would now over power the house so further resale down the road may be a problem. Lot of plus's though with everything there.
Second is smaller house, little yard, std attached 2 car garage. Buy an old commercial building within 5 miles and turn it into the garage. Several plus and minus's there as well.

Been looking at this building for that. Presents itself as a saleable investment when the time comes to downsize again but would be a nice size shop at 2500 sq feet. Maybe not this one but a similar type structure.

 

[musgofasta]

Depends on how much you want to see the wife? If you're getting kinda tired of her, I'd go with option 2.

Jokes aside, I think it would depend more on how cheap you could get the commercial building/warehouse for. It's easier to sell two purpose built properties (typical single home and then the commercial building) than trying to sell a house attached to a huge garage. But maybe it would be a selling point in your area.

It's not you're the only guy who loves working on stuff right?

 

[jamm]

I have never liked the idea of keeping my vehicles\tools away from the home. Unless you are at a shop every day the likelyhood of theft increases greatly.

Why not build a house with a std. 2 car garage at grade level and use the basement as the shop. THe entrance to the basement could be on the back side of the house. I would even have basement space under the garage (use precast planks). In this way if you decide to sell it, the new owners could convert it to living space and you can get by with a smaller yard.

 

[wantedabiggergarage]

If you look into the acreage option, there are people who will rent your land, to grow hay, etc. on it.

Heck, maybe you could get the government, to give you some subsidies, to NOT grow things on it, that would pay for mowing, LOL.

 

[jay50]

Keep your shop next to the house; any other way is an invitation for thieves to have a field day with your hobby and tools....

 

[Mike of the North]

I don't understand having trouble selling a house with a large garage in the back yard, I ended up building my garage after we bought are house because we could not find a house with a big garage out back.

 

[dipper]

I would not like to be too far away from the garage either. Too much time and money invested to have thieves take it from you.

 

[bluesman2a]

I have actually had a separate shop/commercial space away from my home before. It *****. Separate utilities, separate insurance (if you can get it at all), and the drive to/from. Invariably, whatever tool you need today/now is at the OTHER place. Gone are the days of being able to pop into the shop for a quick thing, projects need to be planned, you need to think about what you need and where you need it, it's worse than going to work.

No, I would recommend keeping all your stuff in ONE location.

 

[428]

Trying to find a suitable 1500-2000 ft home on a small lot that I can build a 2500-3500 ft garage will not be easy. Wife wants in a subdivsion type neighborhood, not the sticks.

I can see this will be a tough deal to work out either way we try.

 

[KenBaker]

I agree with everyone that the security would be much better with a single site. You will got a lot more done if they are in the same location.

 

[ovilla]

How about finding a house with an empty lot next door? This way you could put a big garage next door, and set it far back enough so that someone could put a house in front of it later on. I bet you could even run your electricity over to it too. Finally, got to agree with everyone that having a seperate shop is just to much of a hassle, unless it is strictly used for storage.

 

[kwb210]

I have a home and typical 2 car garage in a development. No possible way to add to the garage; decided against moving and doing the large garage thing because of limited land that would be close to my work. So, i bought a storage condominium. Actually, the 1st one I bought was in 1997 and used mostly for corp record storage and a place for my truck and camper. Then I got into restoring cars/wrenching etc and found the unit to small. Sold it and more than doubled my money and bought a larger one. Both these units are in a gated premise, all fenced and remote control access to the gates, well lit at night plus steel doors and the new one is sprinklered. I've got a bit over 900 sq ft of work space plus a 600 sq ft loft where I store parts and have a small well lit work area for doing "clean" projects. It has taken me nearly a year of stoppng by after work to finish out the area, not quite done yet, lighting, bathroom, wash sink etc. The unit is about a mile and a halve from home, it is on the way home from work so I usually stop by to tinker before heading home. After having one of these units for over 10 years I really like not having my shop at home. I am NEVER interrupted by a honey-do list until I get home. The project has various owners in the units, guy next to me simply stores his 24' Grady White boat and has a small workbench in the corner, another guy stores his collectible Porsches, one guy rebuilds airplane engines as a hobby (probably one that pays!) some people have split the units up so that their business can rent a portion and the balance is for their motorhome or boat or just personal storage of their junk. One advantage for me is as my kids get older and, at least in theory, move out of the house, my wife and I will probably downsize, maybe once or maybe a couple of times. Each time we move I won't have to worry about my personal garage space being taken away. Eventually i hope to live in a condo and sell the lawn mower, but I'll still have my workshop space.
Anyone else have a storage condominium?

 

[sizzler90]

I agree with everyone that the security would be much better with a single site. You will got a lot more done if they are in the same location.

+1
As much as I love to work on my cars, I am not to keen on the idea of driving down the road to work on them. My wife on the other hand really misses the days when I drove across town to work in a buddy's shop.

 

[428]

KWB,
What you did is about what I'm thinking. Once we get down to just a 2 car house garage, tinkering at home is a moot point, no cars there to tinker with. I have a set of tools in the 2 car garage now for oil changes and minor stuff on the dailys. The 1000 sq ft shop has everything else in it. Yes, I do find myself going back and forth sometimes, but mainly for house hold honey-do tools as I keep ALL my major tools in the shop. Maybe with a new small house a storage shed might be all that's needed. (Famous last words, I hear you all laughing)

The hope was to find a building to use as a storage, restoration shop, old car work shop. Several older friends have asked for me to do routine maintainence on their old cars, amazing how many old guys don't want to do more than wash their old cars but I don't have the room nor the time at the moment for extra cars. And they keep telling me they can't find shops they trust to do it anymore.
The thought was to move all my cars and project cars to a building, once that's done then the house downsizing becomes easier. We could then aquire other future projects for retirement. Kinda leaning toward that as my full time hobby when that time comes. Being able to service older cars for extra cash is just part of the retirement hobby for me, but it's not the reason for doing this.

I also used to tournament waterski before getting injured and I'd go to the lake 2-3 days a week after work to train, meaning I wouldn't get home until around 8-9:00 pm. Same as I do now going out to the garage, I go out after work and don't come back in until 8-9:00, it wouldn't really be any different stopping on the way home than it was going to the lake time wise.
The major plus being home is on the weekend, nice being able to walk in for a break. I wouldn't want the new shop to feel like work where I have to pack a lunch on the weekends. But putting the top down on your classic car and cruising to your shop on the weekend has an appeal. It gives you a reason to get out and drive it somewhere. I find myself working on the cars more than driving them with them being in the back yard shop.

Security and insurance are about the only major concerns I can think of.

 

[jimvannoy]

I have a big house and several big shops, but they are not as big as the house. If I were looking for another house I would want the biggest shop possible

 

[russlaferrera]

I have one acre for the house and one acre for the garage. the garage is a two story building 30 X 50 with a 17-18 high ceiling. the advantage IMO is when I am done the building can be converted to a house. If I sell my home I can sell both or one and rent/sell the garage This was the option I had when we bought. My thoughts were we had to buy both because I could control what comes in/out of the garage.

 

[kwb210]

''Security and insurance are about the only major concerns I can think of.''

The security is addressed by a secured location, lighting, fences & gated entry. As far as insurance goes, most all homeowners policies cover or extend coverage to a location that is not occupied by the insured. If you own property that is not a habitational property then coverage extends. If you own a shop off your property and there are no rules as far as you living there then there is probably no coverage. Kind of like a summer home, coverage does not apply to an owned and occupied prmeise. In 99% of storage condominiums it is against the by-laws to inhabit the premise. You can't live there. So you get usually 10% of your contents covered.

 

[kbs2244]

You have a classic problem.
Unless your “subdivision” is 1 or 2 acre lots you are not going to have room to build a good sized shop.
You might even be prevented by “covenants” from doing so. I have seen “No detached buildings” written onto some deeds.
But, like everybody has said, a building any distance away is a real day to day pain.
The place in your PIC looks like a decent size with a high roof. And it is already built and ready to move in.
But, it is pretty close to the road and in what kind of neighborhood? Building that are known to be full of tools and not have anybody or any dogs in them are going to tempt someone sometime.
Unless you are a 3 min golf cart ride away, I cannot see it as a retirement type shop.
I don’t know your money situation, but there are 2,3 even 5 acre “subdivisions.” A lot of times with “horsy” people, and stables. I doubt any one would care if your stable didn’t have horses in it.

 

[boiler7904]

If you go the separate building route I'd be concerned about the zoning of the building and how you'd be taxed on it. You can always outfit the building with a kitchen / breakroom, office, and bathroom to make it feel less like a job.

 

[428]

I've done the large lot detached garage gig, that's what I'm trying to get away from. I just can't keep all this up, restore cars and run a race car.

Pics in this thread are a few years old, I now have a 3rd Firebird, road race car and the Coupe is about 3/4 way through restoration.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5133

This pic is fairly current, taken in the early Spring.

 

[hidalgo]

I am in the same situation right now. We currently have a condo with car garage that I love( no yard to keep up, graet location) but a need a four car garage. The size of house we would want just does not go with a garage that size. I have looked at purchasing a seperate building but if you add up all the expenses it is cheaper to build a house plus my wife says she would never see me( she is about half-right). I love the idea of a "storage condo", wish there was something like that available here.

 

[Kevin54]

The garage would now over power the house so further resale down the road may be a problem.

Another vote for the garage close to or attached to the house. If you build a smaller house with a larger garage, have it designed so that any future buyer could have the possibility of adding on if they would want to. By this I mean where an addition could either be added on to the back, side, or up and bring the garage and house more into proportions with each other. I don't know what you call a small yard, but in my area, a small yard is a quarter acre. In Texas a small yard might be 10 acres. There are houses down from me that are on about 1 1/4 acres, with approx a 1600 sq.ft. house, 2 car attached, and a 2 car detached. The houses are closer to the road with the majority of landscaping up front and just riding mower material out back. Enough to take care of but nothing that can't be done in a couple of hours. I'm not a big advocate of having to drive any distance to get to a shop. I've seen my cousin lose quite a few thousand dollars that way. If one person finds out there is equipment, cars, tools, etc, it stands a real good chance of getting broke into. Moreso today than a few years ago.

 

[twostory]

I would never want a shop that is not next to my house.

I have so little time lately, I would never go to the shop if it was a mile away. Those 10 minute drive add up to many hours of the course of a year.

Also, I still walk between my garages often to get a tool or part that is in the other garage (22 ft apart).

As for resale, only 10% of the buyers out there will pay extra money for a big detached garage. But those 10% never find many homes with a big extra garage. They will seek you out and buy your house. The problem is they may take 6 to 12 months to find you. Not a big deal to me, I realize that when I move, my current house maybe on the market for a while.

After building my garage, I know I would much rather just find a house with a big garage next to it.