Davtam
New member
So, here’s my foray into the Garage Journal world…
My wife & I recently purchased some property in partnership with my father in law. He is a recent widower & wants to move closer to our family, & we want to move out of the ‘burbs & have a bit of property.
Just like everything else here, land in California is expensive, unless it’s in the desert or BFE, and then it’s probably owned by the Govt.
However, after a few years of casually looking for something that would fit our needs, we found a 5 acre parcel of land just outside our current town in northern California, which seemed to have almost everything we were looking for. A couple small 10’x10’ storage sheds, a 16’x28’ barn full of spiders & bird poop & an old green 40’ x 80’ metal shop building in the back corner of the property. Same school district for our kids, still close to friends & family, etc. The property is only 3 miles from our current home.
Years ago, the previous owner had run a sandblasting / gravestone etching business out of the shop building, but more recently it was being rented by a guy who was restoring cars. Unfortunately, he took all of the old cars & both car lifts with him when he moved out, lol. However, the shop building has its own entrance & gate to a road that runs behind our property. Also has a good amount of paved parking area around the building, a small interior office & bathroom, 3-phase power, small loft storage area, etc.
Combining the shop, the barn, the sheds, and the 2-car garage attached to the house & I’ve got more covered storage & working space than stuff to put in it, which is a new concept for me, but I’m sure it will probably fill up faster than expected.
Over the next year, we will be concentrating on remodeling & expanding the current small house on the property to meet our needs + in-laws quarters for my wife’s dad, so unfortunately not many upgrades to the shop building in the near future. Probably some pallet racking for additional vertical storage & upgrading the relatively sparse lighting will be the only quick & dirty upgrades to the shop over the next year or so.
My FIL wants to wall-off a portion of the building for a wood shop area (he’s a retired carpenter), but the rest of the building will be used for storing his ’55 Olds & a few Model-A projects. I’m currently project-less & most of my projects in the immediate future will include improving the house/landscaping/irrigation/etc so the shop will mostly be a place to store building supplies for the house remodel & my tools for now until a project car/bike/etc falls into my lap that’s too good to pass up (kinda like this new property). I have a new-ish motorcycle, but it’s not really much of a project & it will be housed in the garage, not the shop.
And, we can’t start remodeling until our current home and father in law’s home sells to free up some cash. The plan is to sell my FIL’s house first, then he will move in to a portion of the house while we’re remodeling it. When the remodel is almost complete then we will sell our house & start moving in to the new house.
A lot of moving pieces going on at the same time, but with patience it should all work out nicely.
Many garages here on GJ are true showpieces, both inside & out, as well as the toys kept in them. I would love to do something like that someday, but for now function wins out over form & the big green box will be just fine.
Dave
My wife & I recently purchased some property in partnership with my father in law. He is a recent widower & wants to move closer to our family, & we want to move out of the ‘burbs & have a bit of property.
Just like everything else here, land in California is expensive, unless it’s in the desert or BFE, and then it’s probably owned by the Govt.
However, after a few years of casually looking for something that would fit our needs, we found a 5 acre parcel of land just outside our current town in northern California, which seemed to have almost everything we were looking for. A couple small 10’x10’ storage sheds, a 16’x28’ barn full of spiders & bird poop & an old green 40’ x 80’ metal shop building in the back corner of the property. Same school district for our kids, still close to friends & family, etc. The property is only 3 miles from our current home.
Years ago, the previous owner had run a sandblasting / gravestone etching business out of the shop building, but more recently it was being rented by a guy who was restoring cars. Unfortunately, he took all of the old cars & both car lifts with him when he moved out, lol. However, the shop building has its own entrance & gate to a road that runs behind our property. Also has a good amount of paved parking area around the building, a small interior office & bathroom, 3-phase power, small loft storage area, etc.
Combining the shop, the barn, the sheds, and the 2-car garage attached to the house & I’ve got more covered storage & working space than stuff to put in it, which is a new concept for me, but I’m sure it will probably fill up faster than expected.
Over the next year, we will be concentrating on remodeling & expanding the current small house on the property to meet our needs + in-laws quarters for my wife’s dad, so unfortunately not many upgrades to the shop building in the near future. Probably some pallet racking for additional vertical storage & upgrading the relatively sparse lighting will be the only quick & dirty upgrades to the shop over the next year or so.
My FIL wants to wall-off a portion of the building for a wood shop area (he’s a retired carpenter), but the rest of the building will be used for storing his ’55 Olds & a few Model-A projects. I’m currently project-less & most of my projects in the immediate future will include improving the house/landscaping/irrigation/etc so the shop will mostly be a place to store building supplies for the house remodel & my tools for now until a project car/bike/etc falls into my lap that’s too good to pass up (kinda like this new property). I have a new-ish motorcycle, but it’s not really much of a project & it will be housed in the garage, not the shop.
And, we can’t start remodeling until our current home and father in law’s home sells to free up some cash. The plan is to sell my FIL’s house first, then he will move in to a portion of the house while we’re remodeling it. When the remodel is almost complete then we will sell our house & start moving in to the new house.
A lot of moving pieces going on at the same time, but with patience it should all work out nicely.
Many garages here on GJ are true showpieces, both inside & out, as well as the toys kept in them. I would love to do something like that someday, but for now function wins out over form & the big green box will be just fine.
Dave
