Hello all, I hope everyone is having a good holiday season!
I’ve been waiting to post this update, as the last few months have been a rollercoaster of happenings and emotions.
This past summer my wife and I finally decided that it’s time to move. Ironically, we bought our current house as an investment property, and only intended to live here a short time (we’ve been here for 24 years). Suffice to say that wasn’t how it worked for us…lol.
The property once belonged to my wife’s grandmother. She suffered a debilitating stroke in 1998, and had to move to an assisted care facility for the rest of her life. At that time the home, barn, and a few other out buildings all sat on one 35ish acre lot (residential). My wife’s aunt had PoA, and decided to embark on a project to re-zone and subdivide the land. The entire lot was first re-zoned to Industrial. Then the lot was subdivided into 3 lots. The first 2 lots sold pretty quickly, but the last lot (one with the house, barn, outbuildings on it) did not. At that time the asking price for the lot with the house was $1.2M (obviously way outside my price range when I was a 22 year old just starting out in life). She decided to further subdivide, which parsed the house and barn onto one small lot, and brought the price well within my range, so we bought it.
The place needed love….i mean, it REALLY needed love. At the time, we just looked at it as a short-term investment. Hold onto it for a couple years, wait for the other lots to be developed/built, then go to market for a tidy profit. This was conveniently timed with the mortgage bubble pop, so our first go-round on trying to sell was a complete failure. We thought we’d be insulated from that issue with it being industrial properly, but it didn’t work out that way.
With things being that way they were, we decided we were going to keep it for a while. With that, we began an 8-year renovation project. sequentially gutting and rebuilding the house room-by-room. Gut/repair/new wiring/new plumbing/insulate. We also reconfigured the house into a 2-family (over/under), separating all utilities for each floor. The project was all-consuming, but we got it done. We probably could have gotten it done quicker, but I went t through a few “burn out” periods where I’d needed to walk away from it for a weeks/months to save my sanity. I’d eventually pick it back up again after a break. 8ish years later, I had it done.
After the house renovation I had a little break, but found idle hands was bad for me. Thats when I endeavored to build my shop, the subject of this build thread. Another major undertaking, but this one was a lot less stressful, as I didn’t have to “live” in a construction zone…lol. Though, I can safely say I still don’t consider the shop “done”. With a structure this old it is always in some state of change and/or repair.
In any event, we had been talking more and more about wanting a bigger lot, more outdoor space, maybe a bit of woods. We’ve rolled these thoughts around for the last several years, and earlier this year we finally decided it was time. I really do have mixed emotions about it. We’ve put so much into the property, along with it being in her family for nearly 100 years! Being a federal style post & beam, built in 1791, the home (and barn) have quite a story to tell. The sad reality is that with this sale the end of its time has come. I am deeply saddened by this, but I can no more stop the march of time than anyone else. If this home was on a nicer lot with some woods and land I’d stay and care for it until my end, but alas that is not the case.
I’m taking a few pieces of the place with me, a few mementos to display at our new home, honoring this one and what it has meant to me and my family.
With that being said, we are under agreement and are set to close sometime in early February. I absolutely hate that we are going to be moving in the dead middle of winter, but that’s just how the timing is working out.
The good news, we are super excited about our new home! It’s about 200 years newer. I am it sure how long it will take me to learn to live in a house with no curved floors, doorways out of square, old stone basement…lol. Best part, it already has a shop!
My new shop is nearly the same size as my current barn, only it’s a modern structure that is fully trussed. The entire 30’ x 50’ space is wide open, no posts inside at all!, all of it with 14’ tall ceilings. Already has a 2-post lift, natural gas heating system, and it’s plumbed with water (with a self draining spigot so I don’t have to keep it heated if I don’t want to). The new shop has TWO DOORS, both are 10’ wide, one is 10’ tall and the other is 11’ tall, both with power openers. With the space being wide open I can easily fit 4 vehicles inside! There are two davit style beam cranes (one at each end of the building), and lots of built-in storage (shelving and whatnot). It also as an attic storage space with full staircase access.
Safe to say that we are extremely excited for the new chapter in the new house. We have big plans for the new house, and I most definitely have big plans for the new shop! I will be starting a new thread for that when I’m ready to introduce you all to the new place.
In closing to this chapter, I want to say thank you to all of you who helped me with advice and guidance. I really did learn so much from all of you, a lot of people I have never met. Thank you for openly and freely sharing your knowledge with me!
Onward and upward!
