"Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori)
08/15/2019 at 14:55 • Filed to: shop quest, tq hq
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"Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori)
08/15/2019 at 14:55 • Filed to: shop quest, tq hq | 1
| 15 |
For anyone who has read..... even a couple of my ongoing struggles to get a usable shop, you might have noticed a pattern of failure and despair. Err I mean it hasn’t gone well because my criteria are too tight and my budget too low.
This lead me to contacting the architect (everyone should have one or two of those) who helped out on the bathroom remodel and ask him what could be done with my current garage.
Background
My house is pretty old, having been built in 1918. We’re not sure when the garage was built but have little reason to believe it wasn’t around the same time. The garage is a two car garage with an attached 277 sq ft 1-bedroom apartment, which a friend of mine has been living in for a couple of years. (He loves it, which I literally do not understand. I have four rooms in my house that are larger than that apartment.) The garage bays are small but serviceable. The garage cannot be made larger as it is hemmed in on all sides.
The garage also has a “workshop” that was built onto the back of it at some point. The construction of the workshop is... weird. The floor of the workshop is 1ft lower than the garage, the ceiling is low, the roof is a different pitch and construction, the siding is crap and doesn’t make the house, and there was no electricity when I bought it. Oh and they saws-all’d through the exterior (load bearing) wall to make access. That said, everything that doesn’t suck is extremely overbuilt.
After it became apparent we were going to own more than the recommended number of cars, we removed the wall separating the workshop and the garage, carefully adding an actual header, and installed “platforms” for the cars to sit on. Essentially creating a poor man’s lift. This has served... fine... since 2015. not ideal, but fine.
The garage already has 240V (single phase) but only an 80A (60A?) service and no HVAC of any kind outside of the apartment. We have natural gas on-site, but not run to the garage.
The Plan B
Since the workshop is pretty jankity, we were speculating on the possibility of tearing it down, raising the roof line to match the garage, improving the pad to accommodate a lift, and.... sending it?
For a small sack of cash my architect drew up the plans and confirmed that, indeed, a lift would fit. By his WAG, he was thinking $20,000 to $25,000 to get it done, but admits that is, indeed, a wild-ass-guess based on the price of constructing a new garage.
So basically it’d be $25k to get a lift, improve the house a bit, and solve at least one of my two problems.
This does not, however, solve the problem of having additional car storage, though it does mitigate the need for said storage to be close. I could instead start considering “weekender” properties that are a little further out and have something to offer other than a place to store cars.
Still need to run the numbers to make sure this gives me enough height to run a decent lift. It should , but I doubt I’ll be able to stand under the car. Maybe just a sittin’ lift.
Are you going to do it?
Eventually, yes. I think it would add value to the house and make it super easy to sell. Having a lift might be a bit polarizing , but I think everyone secretly wishes they had one, even if just to change his own oil once and never again.
Pulling the trigger on either plan (Plan A being still to buy) would close the door on the other for a while. I can usually pull a rabbit out of my hat for the right property, but I’m really cautious about over-extending myself.
TSmith
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
08/15/2019 at 15:38 |
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Didn’t y’all just... like... buy two more cars ?
davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
08/15/2019 at 15:42 |
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Sorry, no other posts allowed until you tell us what you bought for for trip.
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Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
> TSmith
08/15/2019 at 15:46 |
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Chariotoflove
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
08/15/2019 at 15:57 |
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If you’re “ eventually” going to do it, it seems reasonable to stop looking for a new place and plan on doing it. You can always buy if the right place drops into your lap (from the way that’s been going, probably with the same likelihood of Zoidberg finding a running Land Cruiser he can afford in his CL surfing, but you never know).
As with all things of course, the heart and mind have to come to a detente to make a final decision.
TheRealBicycleBuck
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
08/15/2019 at 17:04 |
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“Eventually, yes. I think it would add value to the house and make it super easy to sell.”
Talk to a real estate agent about that. My wife keeps talking about making updates to our house, but the cost of the updates that would really increase the value of our house wouldn’t gain us any equity after we paid for the updates. :/
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Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
> TheRealBicycleBuck
08/15/2019 at 17:10 |
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Oh yeah for sure. I’d be lucky if the $25k spent increased my value $25k. Probably more like $15k. I do think it’d make it easier to sell. A lot of the places I’ve been looking at are total shitholes but because they have a shop they seem to sell fast. My goal on any improvement is if I’d break even on equity. Only way to actually net an increase in value is to do the work yourself.
Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
08/15/2019 at 18:33 |
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Instead of doing that, I propose a “Plan C” option... convert it to a Roman/Greek Temple... with green and gold coloured columns!!!
IT WOULD BE GLORIOUS!!!
MM54
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
08/15/2019 at 19:45 |
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This is neat, I like the idea but I understand the question of the cost vs benefit of it. I have a scheme which turns my 2 car into a 5 car (two existing for day
-to-day,
one bay with lift, one as fab space, one for storage)
but have a similar “is this really worth it?” to figure out.
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Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
> Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
08/16/2019 at 11:54 |
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Just five columns? What kind of shanty town do yo think I live in!?
shop-teacher
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
11/18/2019 at 20:31 |
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You won’t be able to lift up more than 2' with this plan. Maybe 3'. You don’t have the height here. If I remember, I will sketch an alternative plan at work tomorrow.
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Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
> shop-teacher
11/18/2019 at 22:43 |
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That’s upsetting. S eems like there’d be adequate room if the resulting structure was the same height as the existing garage. I’ll take another look tonight.
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shop-teacher
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
11/18/2019 at 22:47 |
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I'm just going by the scale of the sketch. What's the height of the wall you'd be matching it to?
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Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
> shop-teacher
11/18/2019 at 22:56 |
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Ok you worried me for a second so I went out and measured. If the ceiling height of the workshop ends up being the same as the garage, it’d be about 10' 8". Garage ceiling is 9' 8" but the workshop foundation is 12" lower for... reasons. (The workshop is a weird add on. Not sure anyone who understood construction was involved...)
I’d certainly like higher and might look into doing some magic with the roof to get me a couple extra feet, but right now that is my option.
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shop-teacher
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
11/18/2019 at 23:04 |
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Oh cool! That's way higher than it looks on the elevation. I have an idea for roof magic. Will sketch tomorrow.
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shop-teacher
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
11/19/2019 at 15:10 |
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Here’s what you could do the roof that will net you m ore height under the lift. It’s a weirder looking setup, but it’s still not visible from the street.
